The kitchen garden
Map a kitchen garden before buying seeds
A small, workable growing space begins with sunlight, water access and room for the tasks between planting and harvest.
9 field guides
The kitchen garden.
Thoughtful planning for beds, seeds, soil, water and harvests. Adapt the approach to your climate, soil and the crops you actually want to eat.
The kitchen garden
Take a soil sample that represents the bed you want to improve
Good decisions depend on a meaningful sample and an interpretation suited to the intended crop.
The kitchen garden
Turn seed packets into a manageable sowing plan
Use the information on the packet to plan a small number of useful sowings rather than one crowded afternoon.
The kitchen garden
A crop-rotation notebook for a small vegetable plot
Record plant families and bed history without expecting a simple rotation to solve every soil or pest problem.
The kitchen garden
Build a watering round around plants, soil and weather
Checking the root zone is more useful than giving every bed the same amount of water on the same day.
The kitchen garden
Choose mulch for a job, not just a tidy-looking bed
Match the material, the crop and the site before covering the soil.
The kitchen garden
Keep a harvest log that improves next season’s choices
You do not need to weigh every leaf to learn which crops earn their space.
The kitchen garden
Make one new growing bed a complete project
Finish the access, soil questions and maintenance plan before expanding into the next patch.
The kitchen garden
Use a garden notebook to separate observation from guesswork
A clear description and a few repeatable photographs make a better starting point than a confident label for an unknown problem.