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What is a

Farmers fromMulsam inJajarkot,

Nepal, displayvegetablesfrom their

kitchengardens

A kitchen garden is where herbs and vegetables aregrown around the house for household use. Since early timesa small plot near to the house has been used for growing avariety of vegetables according to the season. Local varietiessuch as radish, broad leaf mustard, chilli, beans, pumpkinsetc. are all grown in the kitchen garden.

In this chapter we provide information on how to estab-lish and manage kitchen gardens with minimum input formaximum output, and show how to produce varied and nutri-tious crops of herbs and vegetables for use in the kitchen.

Kitchen Garden ?Kitchen Garden ?

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 2 - Kitchen Garden

WhyWhy HowHow

3

make aKitchen Garden ?

to make aKitchen Garden ?

For people to stay healthy it's very important to have ahealthy diet. A healthy diet means a balanced mix of rice,bread, pulses, vegetables, herbs, fruit etc. Vegetables are avery important part of a good diet as they contain variousnutrients for many body functions. For growing, energy andprotection against disease, vegetables play an essential role.Vegetables are especially important for the young, and forpregnant and nursing women.

• to grow healthy, fresh vegetables yourself;• to save the cost of buying vegetables and herbs;• waste resources such as sweepings, kitchen scraps and

dirty water can be recycled onto the garden;• wasteland around the house can be made productive.

Because there's often no tradition of kitchen gardens,many people can't grow the vegetables they need for a gooddiet. Or they spend lots of money on vegetables, or theirhealth suffers from lack of vegetables.

It may be that you haven't been able to make a kitchengarden. There are several rea-sons why it may be difficult tomake a kitchen garden, or if youhave made one, it is not success-ful. For example:

• pests, diseases or livestock

have destroyed the crop;

• no good seed or seedlings;

• lack of space;

• lack of water;

• lack of fertility;

• no spare time;

• lack of the right skills.

These vegetableshave wilted be-cause of lack of

water

In this chapter easy meth-ods are described to solve these sorts of problems, and so helpthe family to be able to grow good produce from their kitchengarden.

Benefits of the Kitchen Garden

This Booklet's Author :Chris Evans, advisor,Himalayan Permaculture Group, Nepalwww.designedvisions.com

2

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 2 - Kitchen Garden4 5

Beneficial Connections in the Kitchen Garden

collecting waste water

home nursery (hotbed, fruit nursery, etc.)

living fence

vegetable beds

livestock stall

sweepings pit

air nursery

fence (not living)

liquid manure

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domestic waste watercollection

ash, water, hair, etc.composting re-sources from thehouse to the land

How to make the work easierin the Kitchen Garden

seeds from the garden tohouse and from house togarden sweepings from the

house and courtyard

waste water used for irriga-tion in the kitchen garden

use of compost

liquid manure also used tocontrol pests and disease

fodder from the landand live fence, andcompost returned tothe land

mulch material from thelive fence and edges

vegetables etc. fromthe kitchen gardento the house

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Working rela-tionships in theKitchen Garden

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The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 2 - Kitchen Garden6 7

Things to pay attention to

To make and manage a kitchen garden easily, and to givebest production, the following things are important :-

Good management of the garden needs knowledge of allthese. Then we can make our kitchen garden more successful.

1. Site selection

3. Water management

5. Seed & seedlings

2. Protection

4. Fertility

6. Design of the garden

1. Site selection

If you already have a kitchen garden you may not needto choose a new site, it's enough to improve the old site. Ifyou are making a new garden, there are many factors to con-sider. For example :-

• how to protect from livestock ?• how can you bring water to the site and distribute

it ?• how is the soil ? How can the fertility needs be

managed ?• where is the sunlight coming from ?• how can the area be accessed easily from the house ?

When these issues are considered, the best site can bechosen and the work of making the garden will be easier.

Things to pay attention to

1. Site selection

2. Protection

• The kitchen garden area needs protec-tion from the very start. It should not bepossible for livestock to enter the area. Apermanent fence should be made. Thornyplants can be cut and used to make afence, but the best method is to plant a

living fence to protect the garden.

• Then, the crops within the garden will also need protectionfrom damage by many types of pest and disease. There aremany ways to do this. Mixed cropping, rotations, liquid ma-nure, etc. are all ways of protecting crops. There is more infor-mation about crop protection in the chapter Integrated PestManagement.

2. Protection

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 2 - Kitchen Garden8 9

3. Water Mangement

It is important to provide enough moisture for thekitchen garden. There are many ways of conserving and in-creasing the moisture available. For example :-

• Provide shade : in the hot season trees can provide shadeto the kitchen garden. A few small trees, such as Lucaena,mulberry, Moringa (drum-stick), Persian lilac, or evenfruit trees in the fence or withinthe garden can be used for this.As well as giving shade, thesetrees can also provide otherbenefits, such as firewood,fodder or mulch material.

• Mist collection : mist collects on theleaves of trees around and within thekitchen garden, and drips onto the soilto provide extra moisture.

wind

3. Water Mangement

• Windbreak : wind will dryout the soil, so stopping thewind helps to conserve soilmoisture;

• Green Manures : also cover the soil, and so help inconserving water;

Guidelines for IrrigationBy only putting a little water over a wide area, only the

surface will be kept moist. This can cause roots to stay nearthe soil surface and in strong sun they can dry out very easily.So it's much better to irrigate less area with more water, so themoisture goes deeper in the soil. Then this area will not needwatering again for a long time. In the hot season, irrigate inthe evening or at night, and not in the daytime.

• Irrigation : if there is no irrigationfor main food crops, it is likelythat there is also not enough waterto irrigate the kitchen garden. Butif the above methods are used,then more water is conserved andso less is needed. Collecting andusing waste water from the kitchencan be enough to water the garden. Also, direct water fromcommunal tapstands can be used on kitchen gardens.

Deep wateringis better for

deep rooting,and irrigationis needed less

often.

Shallow watering meansroots stay at the surfaceand will soon dry out.

• Mulching : prevents the wind and sun drying the bare soil;

sunshine

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 2 - Kitchen Garden10 11

Let's See How to make aKitchen Garden

Kitchen garden pro-tected inside a woven

bamboo fence.

Even chickens can'tget through thisfence made from

wormwood stalks.

Near thehouse manytypes of foodplants can begrown in thesame place.

chillicoriander

passion fruit

chilli broad beanbroad beancoriander

Plantingmixed vegeta-bles helps toprotect themfrom pests anddiseases.

Edge plants pro-vide useful mulchclose to the garden

beds where theyare needed.

In mixed veg-etable planting,no space iswasted and thesoil is alwayscovered.

passion fruit

Let's See How to make aKitchen Garden

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 2 - Kitchen Garden12 13

4. Fertility4. Fertility

All farmers know that without fertility in the soil, cropswon't grow. But fertility can be as limited as water. If thereisn't enough compost for the field crops, it can't be taken andused for the kitchen garden. So our kitchen garden needs tobe self reliant for fertility. Suggestions for sources of fertilityare given below :-

• Sweepings pit :- by collecting every-day sweepings from the house and yardin one place, you can make enoughcompost for the kitchen garden.

• Green manures :- sowing seeds ofgreen manure helps to protect the soiland gives extra fertility for more produc-tion

• Mulching :- putting a thick layer ofbiomass mixed with compost on thesoil helps to increase fertility.

• Liquid manure :- liquid manuremade in a pit or a drum gives nutri-ents to the plants as well as protect-ing them from pests and diseases.

• Legumes :- planting legumes such aspeas, beans, Sesbania, sun hemp, etc.,provides extra nitrogen to the soilwhich is good for other crops

• Other sources :- ash, oil seed cake,hair etc. are all resources which canbe added to the soil to increase fertil-ity, as well as helping to prevent pestsand disease.

5. Seeds and Seedlings

A kitchen garden can provide very good food from local,traditional vegetables, and it's important not to lose theselocal varieties. However, sometimes farm-ers are also interested to try new varie-ties. So it's very important to save andprotect any good seed - this is the farm-er's responsibility. Information aboutseed saving is given in the Seed Savingchapter. From good seed, it is importantto be able to raise good, healthy seed-lings for transplanting into the kitchen garden.Nursery techniques are described in the Home Nursery, Airnursery, Hot bed and Leaf Pots chapters.

5. Seeds and Seedlings

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 2 - Kitchen Garden14 15

6. Garden Design

broad beanpeascauliflowercarrot

tomatoSwiss chardgarlicmarigold

onioncorianderbeetrootcomfrey

new seedlings - see "succession" on the next page

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• More production in a small place

Planting lots of varietiescan give good production

in a small area

6. Garden Design

Species not shown, but also possible to plantVegetables :- cabbage, kale, radish, turnip, kohl rabi, chilli,broad leaf mustard, spinach, lettuce, aubergine, beans, etc.

Vegetable or herb companion plants :- fennel, dill, basil, tansy, etc.

If seeds and seedlings are planted too wide apart, muchof the space in between goes to waste, where weeds willgrow. Weeds use precious water and compost, and cause extrawork to keep clear. You also have to work harder to replacethe water and compost which are lost to the weeds. This iswhy it's best to plant vegetables densely. But if only one typeof vegetable is planted densely, it will compete with itself forspace above and below ground, and so not be a good crop. Soit's better to plant a mix of small and large types, to makedifferent layers of crops on the same bed. These will alsohave different layers of roots in the soil.

This means many plants can be grown in a small space,but there is no competition between crops for space, waterand nutrients.

• Succession

As smaller vegetables are harvested for food, thismakes space for the longer lasting vegetables, while inbetween new seedlings can be planted.

Succession

Newly plantedcauliflowerseedlings

Previously plantedbroad leaf

mustard seedlings

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 2 - Kitchen Garden16 17

It's not only the making of the kitchen garden, we must alsobe able to maintain it easily. It can be fun to create and plant agarden, but having to work every day to maintain it may soonbecome difficult, and so the garden gets neglected. Edge plant-ing helps to make maintenance work easy in the kitchen garden.

"Edge planting" means the growing of support crops, orcompanion plants, in the edges around the garden and itsbeds. These plants help support the garden by providingmulch, protection from weeds, windbreaks, repelling pests,and producing other useful resources. Plants such as worm-wood, Adhatoda vasica, marigold, comfrey, lemon grass,nettles, Lucaena, mulberry, basil, tansy, and many others aregood for edge planting.

Edge Planting

Benefits of Edge PlantingEdge planting helps with protecting the garden and also

producing fodder, fuel, nectar for bees, herbs for medicines, soilconservation (terrace stabilisation), habitat for pest predators, etc.

Edge plantstake nutrientsfrom deep inthe soil and

cycle them tothe surface,where theyare used asmulch, and

then returnedto the soil.

Beneficialpredator insectstake nectar from

the flowers.

Then theyattack pest

insects.

The smell of marigoldflowers and leaves helpto repel many types ofpest insect. They alsoproduce a substancefrom their roots whichrepels damaging soilnematodes.

Where to plant ?• in fences • in agro-forestry• on terrace edges • on the edges of vegetable beds• on path edges • around the edge of the courtyard• on the edge of the

compost heap, waste water pit, sweepings pit, path, etc.

The Farmers' Handbook, "Near The House - 2" Chapter 2 - Kitchen Garden18 19

Read On !Read On !

Subjects Related to Kitchen GardenThis book provides enough information to be able to

make and manage your own kitchen garden. However, thisinformation is also linked to other methods. For extra benefitslet's read, learn and practice from these related chapters.

SeedSavingchapter

Compostchapter

LiquidManurechapter

Nutritionchapter

LivingFence

chapterKitchen Garden

chapter

SweepingsChapter

WasteWater chapter

Mixed VegetableGardening chapter

Mulchingchapter

Integrated PestManagement

chapterGreen Manures

chapter

Home Nurserychapteræ

Æ

Farmers'ExperienceFarmers'Experience

Mr Shyam Shrestha ownsSunrise Farm in Sita Paila-4, Kathmandu, Nepal. Hehas experience makingkitchen gardens, so let'shear his story.

Mr Shyam Shrestha

Shyam Shrestha

At first I used to farm thetraditional way but doing this,one type of vegetable wasgrown all together so therewere more pest problems, andmore maintenance was neededas well. I've been collecting waste water from the kitchen forirrigation. For compost, I collect the rubbish around the houseand cow shed into a sweepings pit. When I plant varioustypes of vegetables mixed together, there are less pest prob-lems. There's less weeding too, because they're planted soclosely, and I mulch where I can. When I harvest, I clearwhatever weeds there are and mulch them back on the beds -that's more compost. I collect seed from the best plants ofeverything. With this method, I plant once and then need verylittle work or maintenance - just harvesting, and eating.Nowadays, others are starting to learn these meth-ods here for vegetable gardening themselves.

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Seed Saving chapter :- information on methodsto produce and store various quality seeds at home.

Nutrition chapter :- information about needs andsources of a healthy diet for all the family.

Living Fence chapter :- how to plant not just a fence butalso produce fodder, fuelwood, mulch and other benefits

Liquid Manure chapter :- how to use local plants tomake a liquid for fertilizer and pest control

Compost chapter :- information on how to make goodcompost quickly is given in this chapter

Waste Water chapter :- how to get irrigation for thegarden from domestic waste water.

Sweepings chapter :- how to make good compostfrom sweeping the house and yard.

Mixed Vegetable Gardening :- how to grow lots ofvegetables easily by planting many varieties at one time

Mulching chapter :- how to grow more crops with lesswork while keeping the soil covered

Integrated Pest Management chapter :- how to uselocal resources and knowledge in many different methods ofcontrolling pests and diseases

Green Manures chapter :- sow a green manure seedsto add fertility to the soil and produce more crops

Home Nursery chapter :- make nurseries from localresources to grow many types of plants at home