Grow Your Own: Create a Kitchen Garden

No carrot will ever taste as sweet as the one you grow from seed, pull from the ground, wash under the garden tap and bite into. A well-tended kitchen garden will provide you with vegetables and herbs all year round round – and it’s far more eco-friendly than buying food that has travelled hundreds of miles to your local supermarket. If you fancy having a go at growing your own this year, here’s our guide.

Herbs

Herbs are a great addition to a garden. They smell beautiful and whenever a recipe calls for some fresh herbs you can nip out to the garden with a pair of scissors. Most are easy to grow; Rosemary and Sage grow so well in the English climate that if you don’t confine them to pots they might start to take over. There are many varieties of Thyme that will live happily outdoors all year round. More delicate herbs like Basil survive better indoors.  If you are thinking about planting a tree, consider the native Bay with its fragrant leaves.  

Vegetables

If you have the space, why not create a small vegetable plot. Spring salad vegetables like lettuce, rocket and spring onions can be grown from seed. Water them regularly and take action to prevent an attack by slugs and snails. Underground vegetables such as carrot, parsnip and turnip will give you a good crop. The key to success with these is to plant a lot of seeds and then thin out the weaker shoots giving the stronger ones room to expand.

Chickens

Once you start a kitchen garden, it is tempting to go the full Good Life and start considering self-sufficiency. Walking your goat to graze on the common might be a step too far for most people, but chickens take up relatively little space and will provide you with fresh nutritious eggs every morning. Chicken feed is proverbially inexpensive.

There is so much you can do with your garden, but perhaps it needs a bit of an overhaul? At Knight’s Paving and Landscaping, we provide a full landscaping service. We can give you the garden you have always dreamed of. Give us a call on 01603 360548 for more information.