What is a Kitchen Garden

 In episode 16, I make a distinction between a kitchen garden and a vegetable garden, highlighting the importance of aesthetics and upkeep in a kitchen garden. Listeners will learn the benefits of a kitchen garden, such as supporting a lifestyle, educating ourselves and our children, and encouraging pollinators, as well as the differences between a kitchen garden and a vegetable garden in terms of size, location, and purpose. 

Join me on the Plants Grow Us Podcast to unearth and nurture the places in your life that can only be fulfilled by gardening.

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If You're Ready for a Beautiful Harvest Come Grow with Us.

Transcript

 Welcome to the Plants Grow Us Podcast. I'm your host and Gardner Sherry Arlene. This is where I share my gardening experiences to educate, empower, and inspire beginner gardeners to. Nurture and harvest in kitchen gardens, those beautiful spaces created outside, front and center of our yards where we grow fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers to share the joy with family, friends, and community.

Along our journey, we discover and celebrate the ways gardening gracefully serves and grows tiny gems in those spaces inside our heart, mind, body and soul. I invite you to unearth and nurture the places in your life that can only be fulfilled by gardening. If you are ready for a beautiful harvest, come grow with us.

In episode 16 of Plants Grow Us. I shared some tips on how to water our plants. Remember? Consistency is key. In this episode, I make a distinction between a kitchen garden and a vegetable garden. Some use the terms vegetable garden and kitchen garden interchangeably. However, though we grow vegetables in both a kitchen garden and a vegetable garden are not the same.

In fact, they're quite different. A kitchen garden is made to be beautiful, gorgeous. Think about the time you were flipping through the pages of a magazine and were mesmerized by the stunning beauty of the gardens there. Cherry tomatoes and cucumbers growing skyward on beautifully engraved steel trellises.

Stunning varieties of peppers in different stages of maturation. In colors of yellow, red, green, and deep purple. The delicately contoured shapes of garlic scapes growing tall among crisp. Kelly Green lettuce leaves.  Now step into those gardens and imagine the aroma of forest green basil and English lavender, surrounded by Marygolds and the sighting of a friendly bumblebee on delicate, twinkling blue borage.

This is a kitchen garden. . in all its essence.  It is pristine and well maintained. Its upkeep is paramount, a priority. The kitchen garden is a focal point, front and center of our landscape for all to see and admire.  It's a conversation piece, a connection between those who appreciate nature, beauty, a kitchen garden in its essence.

In contrast, aesthetics are not one of the guiding principles of a vegetable garden. In fact, there may be no flowers at all. 

A kitchen garden supports our lifestyle. We create beautiful spaces for several reasons. In addition to harvesting fresh food for our families, we cherish the experience of planting a seed, watching and witnessing that sea germinate and nurturing it to yield a beautiful fruit, vegetable, or herb.

We create beautiful gardens to educate ourselves and our children on how things grow, self-sufficiency, and how to be ecologically aware and conscientious to understand where our food actually comes from and to enjoy the good life, outside. We grow to encourage pollinators such as butterflies, birds, and bees, to our gardens and our yards.

After all, pollinators are most important to our survival on earth. We create kitchen gardens to be outside in the sunshine for the sheer beauty peace.  joy and fun of it all. Our reasons for creating kitchen gardens change along with our lifestyle. This year, I am focused on growing my family's favorites, tomatoes, cucmbers, peppers, and corn.

But I'm most excited about spending time in the garden with my precious, precious grandson, Hunter. As he explores and experiences the magic and beauty of nature and God's miraculous creation, he observes and soaks in everything, he is at home outside a natural. And he's teaching me to slow down and smell the roses.

However, the main focus of a vegetable garden is production, large quantities of a specific crop. 

A kitchen garden is located near our home.  so that it supports regular consistent harvesting, whether once a day or a few times a week. So we may go out to harvest, nutritious, delicious food to eat right away.  Spinach, kale, a touch of sage for a breakfast smoothie, or crisp lettuce, swiss chard, cucumbers and tomatoes for a salad at lunch,or perhaps fresh basil, sage, oregano, and jalapeno peppers for our favorite spaghetti sauce recipe. We love to invite family and friends together around for conversation and a taste of homegrown.

Nothing compares to the taste of homegrown food. 

Now, vegetable gardens are generally located far away in a field and often in a different location, and it's harvesting occurs once a year in masses. 

A kitchen garden is smaller than your typical vegetable garden. It's usually between 25 to 200 square feet.

Kitchen gardens are usually housed in beautiful cedar raised beds. This gives the garden a feel of distinction, elegance, and membership in our family and our landscape.  We may choose to plant several varieties of one or two vegetables. For example, this year in one raised bed, I planted four varieties of peppers to make pepper sauce.

Or we may choose to plant a hodgepodge of vegetables, for example, in a different set of raised beds. I planted tomato, cucumber, okra, and herbs such as basil, sage, oregano, lavender, and rosemary, with chamomile , nastutium, and a sunflower or two. Imagine looking out of your kitchen window and experiencing this beauty.

Now, vegetable gardens are often planted in row upon row, and they occupy acres and acres of land.

A kitchen garden is perfect for you if you want to create the most beautiful yard space to connect with family and friends. Give your children the gift and passion of growing for a lifetime in so many ways.  and harvesting nutritious, delicious food for your family. Of course, imagine the taste and aroma of a fresh, really fresh green smoothie from the garden.

Food from the kitchen garden is the original fast food. Reflect on this. If you are ready for a beautiful harvest, come grow with me. Thank you for joining me. Please go ahead and follow or subscribe so that you are here for the next episode of Plants Grow Us.