The Vegetable Bed Becomes the Kitchen Garden

Last spring I eagerly built a 4' x 4' raised bed for vegetables, convinced I would get a bountiful harvest. I know a lot about gardening, but I lacked experience with vegetables. I carefully followed the instructions in the All New Square Foot Gardening book, and my garden looked beautiful and organized most of the summer. I learned a lot, but I can't say I produced a lot of vegetables. I think my biggest mistake was underestimating how much sun I got in the spot where I located my bed. I also had a few watering issues--forgetting to water on a couple of hot days and, later on, getting too much rain for the tomatoes.

Last year's vegetable bed, as you can see, is covered in
shade in the middle of the afternoon. The mint and parsley
don't seem to mind, though.

This year, I've expanded quite a bit. The biggest change came when I decided to start a fresh cut herb business. My single small raised bed has now become seven raised beds that cover a total of 144 square feet. They contain a mix of mostly herbs, some vegetables, and a few flowers. Why flowers? Well, in addition to being great for cutting, they also will attract beneficial insects to my little organic garden.

My planting plan is loosely based on square foot gardening in order to make the most out of my space. With some of the perennial herbs, though, I had to give them a little extra space (especially mint and oregano), so they don't fit neatly in little squares. You'll see some gaps in my garden right now, mostly because plants are expensive! I'll take cuttings of some of my perennial herbs and fill in most of the holes this fall.

To save some money, I learned a lot about starting plants from seed this year. Starting from seed also allows me to experiment with varieties that are more disease resistant or tolerant of our Southern heat. I had success with growing tomatoes, peppers, parsley, and basil from seed indoors. (The chives were a flop.) I also planted squash, bean, sunflower, zinnia, and cilantro seeds directly into the garden.

If you look closely, you can see my little tiny tomato seedlings
in the upper left hand corner.

My focus on vegetables was on things I wanted to eat and weren't too hard to grow. Roma tomatoes are so versatile and perfect for salads, salsa, and homemade spaghetti sauce. Pole beans just seem like a staple of summer. We found this unusual white patty pan squash with some friends at a farmers market last summer, so I hunted down some seeds and planted it this year. My husband likes to grow and cook with some unusual peppers, so I planted these just for him.

That squash plant will fill up that bed and
then some by the end of the summer. I
don't think the beans will mind.

Everything else is herbs: basil, chives, cilantro, mint, oregano, parsley, rosemary, sage, and thyme. The tall grassy thing in the pictures is garlic--not really an herb, but an important culinary seasoning. I chose the herbs I thought people most commonly cooked with to start out with. So far they've produced enough to satisfy the demand at my local farmers market and then some. If you live in Macon, you can find me and my herbs at the Mulberry Street Market on Wednesday afternoons.

My little basil plants got a slow start this year.

If you're curious, here's my complete planting list:

Vegetables
Tomato 'Granadero (F1)'
Pepper 'Capperino (F1)'
Squash 'White Bush Scallop'
Pole beans 'Garden of Eden'

Herbs
Onion chives
Spearmint
Greek oregano
Common sage
French thyme
Rosemary 'Tuscan blue'
Basil 'Aroma 2 (F1)'
Basil 'Nufar (F1)'
Cilantro 'Slow Bolt'
Italian parsley

Flowers
Sunflower 'Summer Cutting Mix'
Zinnia 'All Summer Cutting Mix'

What are you growing in your kitchen garden?