Choosing Plants for Your Kitchen Garden and Lawn: Gardener's Choice of Vegetables, Fruits, and Flowers
Planning your kitchen garden
When planning a garden, two important aspects come to mind. One is aesthetics while other is utility. For most, space is not something you come by easily. A review of gardens both public and home gardens show that this is most important player. First, let us examine the types of plants you could find in a garden. Broadly, these are classified into ornamental plants and flowering plants and fruit and vegetable plants. Then there are lawns that cover vast expanses or short stretches in all patterns ranging from simple rectangles to elaborate circles and triangles too. Mostly vegetables are grown in home gardens and range from cucumbers, radish, carrots, beets, tomatoes and potatoes to string beans, cauliflower, peas and greens. Fruits like banana, papaya, pomegranate, guava, jackfruit and pineapple grown in most climates and garden soils and need little care.
Choose the correct grass for your lawns
Lawns and grasses
However, if you need a lawn you must know your grasses. There are hardy varieties with fine leaves while others need lot of care. Choice of grass depends on climate and soil present in your locality. Here are some of the more popular varieties.
a) Bermuda
b) Kentucky bluegrass
c) Buffalograss
d) Rough bluegrass
Whatever be garden space availability, one can utilize it effectively with a little planning. Bermuda grass is chosen over others because it is tough and is a survivor. You can use it where there is lot of traffic. It also stands heat and drought very well. In this respect, they are like Buffalograss. However, Buffalograss does not grow well in sandy soil. It also needs plenty of morning sunlight but it makes up in one respect. It grows very fast but is non-invasive.
Gardening expertise
Do you engage in gardening at home?
Gardeners choose type of garden depending on space
Many types of gardens exist. One must surely have seen at least one or two of these at some time in your lifetime.
a) Roof top gardens
b) Extending gardens
c) Public gardens
d) Kitchen gardens
e) Home gardens
f) Hanging gardens
While the predominant criterion for determining what type of garden you will be growing demands on space, sometimes when you have the luxury of space, you might need to consider things like aesthetics, soil conditions and water availability.
For public gardens, choice of plants will incline towards ornamental plants and hardy flowers. Ferns and flowers like tulips and roses dominate. Jasmine, peonies and forget-me-nots are preferred flowers for kitchen and home gardens. Hanging gardens are used in places where space is insufficient. The garden is raised up to the walls and ceilings. Hanging pots and vessels make space for the flowers to grow. You could also use vertical supports or nails if you are growing creepers.
Kitchen garden special plants
Popular kitchen plants
Vegetables
| Fruits
| Flowers
|
|---|---|---|
Cucumbers, cabbage, tomatoes,
| Bananas, papaya, pomegranate,
| peonies, zinnias, roses,
|
beans, peas, carrot, radish
| Guava, mango, jackfruit
| jasmine, forget-me-nots,
|
peas. greens
| pineapple, custard apple
| astors.
|
Choose your kitchen garden plants
Gardens are great with flowers
Watch over your garden
These things must be done in time.
- Water
- Weed
- Apply fertilizer
- Plan the next crop
- Prepare the nursery
Keeping soil fertile always
Maintaining fertility and preventing weeds from entering the garden are two main worries for all gardeners whether they are growing a kitchen garden or maintaining a public garden. To tackle this situation, they use various techniques such as:
1) Use of borders
2) Crop rotation
3) Use of nitrogen fixers
4) Combination planting
Borders are useful because they will discourage grass shoots from growing over the prescribed line. Use this prescription or border to keep the edges of your lawn from spreading. It also gives a nice appearance to your lawn. Second worry is depletion of nutrition from soil. Nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus are depleted very fast from soil. To make up this one has to resort to fertilizers. You can buy bag loads of this and they will have the ratio of these nutrients printed on them like this 40 – 30 – 30. Nitrogen is always in demand since it helps growth of leaves. One can use crop rotation or combination cropping to keep nitrogen content replenished. You can use commonly used nitrogen fixers like legumes along side tomatoes.
Green plants and grass
Flowers in your garden
Source of joy always
Whether you want lawn or plenty of fruits in your kitchen garden, you must keep the garden soil replenished with nutrients. Watering should be regular and make an effort to keep the weeds off through timely weeding. Flowers attract birds and bees, which pollinate them. When the garden is taken care of properly, it will be a source of constant happiness to the owner and his friends and family. If you have wide-open spaces, you can plan your lawns too. It will keep your kitchen garden homogeneous. Your garden will be a place where vegetables, fruits, flowers and grass exist in harmony.
