Kitchen Garden

Most owners of villas who have open area behind the villa (house) would like to utilize it for his requirements of fresh vegetables, herbs and some fruits. Nothing tastes better than home grown vegetables and fresh fruits.

The site of the kitchen garden should be near to the house. The place should be sunny, the water freely available and the soil should not be water-logged.

The kitchen garden should be secluded from ornamental garden. The plot can be divided into larger rectangular areas and each may be subdivided further. Narrow paths are always left between the rectangles for movement. Rich, fairly loamy soils are suitable for growing vegetables. If root-tuber crops are to be taken, then the soil should be sandy loam. It is advisable not to grow the same crop again and again on the same soil, instead rotate the crops. The following scheme proves useful. Suppose the plot is divided into 3 sub-groups, then -

In first season
Plot 1         :      Cabbage,, Cauliflower, Turnip etc.
Plot 2         :      Beans, Peas and other leguminosae.
Plot 3         :      Potato, Carrot, Onion, Beet, Sweet potato.

In second season
Plot 1         :      Potato, Carrot, Onion, Beet etc.
Plot 2         :      Cabbage, Cauliflower etc.
Plot 3         :      Beans, Peas, Leguminosae.

In third season
Plot 1         :      Beans, Peas, Leguminosae.
Plot 2         :      Potato, Carrot, Onion etc.
Plot 3         :      Cabbage, Cauliflower etc.

Due to continuous cropping, the soil is drained off. .The plot is kept vacant for some time and thus exposed to sun-light. This helps in eradication of undesirable organisms. Cattle manure, horse manure, oil cakes etc. are used as fertilizers.

The seeds of leafy vegetable are sown by broad-cast and covered with thin layer of soil. Carrot, radish are sown by drilling while some like French beans are pressed into the soils. Different operations are needed for different types of plants like earthing (drawing the soil towards the base of the plants), blanching (covering the young shoot with leaves), thinning (removal of plants and leaves at regular intervals, and weeding (removing the weeds). Vegetables can be divided into two groups (a) Temperate and sub-tropical vegetables and (b) Tropical vegetables. Temperate vegetables thrive best in cool and moist climate. In India such climate exist in hilly areas, and the vegetables are grown as cold season vegetable. The tropical vegetables are best grown in plains and are called summer vegetables.

Near the fence in backyard are grown some fruiting plants like Papaya, Jack fruit, Custard apple, Guava, Plum (Jamun) and Drum stick plant, Neem etc.

Some cold season vegetables are: Beans, Spinachs, Turnip, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Celery, Onion, Peas, Potato, Carrot, Pumpkin, Tomato, etc.

Tropical vegetables are: Lady Finger, Brinjal, Cucurbitaceous fruits like Luffa sps. (Shirali, Ghosali)i bitter gourd, snake gourd, parval etc., sweet potato, flat beans (Dolichos), Yam, Chillies etc.

Along with these, often Corriander, Mint etc. are also grown.