Kitchen garden has become an essential part of every household irrespective of the space available. Maintaining a kitchen garden can help in growing essential vegetables for daily use. So go for fresh and healthy choices grown in your backyard or terrace.
Having your own vegetable garden can give you the assurance of healthy greens without the fear of dangerous pesticides everyday. When beginning with an effort to have your own big or small kitchen garden, keep in mind to take care of the following
Right Veggies:
Grow those vegetables that you buy the most from shops. It is wiser to grow the vegetables that your family would prefer than going for a very general range of plants. To avoid wastage, its always better to grow the amount you would use. The best vegetables that can be grown in your kitchen garden are lady's finger, brinjal, spinach, beans, chillies, varieties of cucumber, carrot, cabbage, cauliflower and so on.
Good seeds and right space:
Depending on availability of sunlight, you could choose to use either your backyard or terrace for gardening. Even a single cent of land would be sufficient to grow 15-18 plants. For good yielding and healthy vegetables, use of good seeds is important. You can either buy seeds from good distributors or even use seeds from your previous yield.
During rains
During rains, its wiser to avoid growing different varieties of cucumbers. Vegetables like spinach, brinjal, beans, chilies and tomatoes can be grown anytime during the year. Its important to provide rain shade for your plants to avoid rain water from pouring forcefully on them. Green houses are also effective in preventing destruction of plants due to infestation and plant diseases. During rains, there occurs the problem of water clogging at the roots of plants, make sure this doesn't happen. To ensure proper growth of plants, mix up the top soil and add some manure to it.
Use Grow Bags
Vegetables can be grown directly in the soil or you can use grow bags and pots for this purpose. Grow bags are durable and needs to be changed only once in two or three years. Any containers that can hold soil can be used to grow vegetables too. (Refer to Container Gardening for more details)
In summer
During summer, its very important to water the plants twice a day. Its always advisable to water when the sun is not too warm. So the best time for watering would be early morning and late evenings. Spinach, lady's finger, tomatoes requires more direct sunlight however chilies, brinjal etc requires lesser sunlight. So its appropriate to provide 50 to 75% shade for plants during summer.
