The Kitchen’s Gardens are Many.
The Kitchen’s Garden is really FIVE gardens.
But first the trees are blooming.
The Spring Garden
I was working in the Spring Garden yesterday. This has the raised anti-duck beds (which may or may not work). They have full sun for most of the day. Raised beds warm up fast so this garden is great for fast spring food.
And a kitchens garden is all about the food.
Yesterday I sowed peas, beets, a big patch of assorted greens and set a hundred onion sets into the ground to grow over the summer.
I dug up a whole lot of wild garlic from an old garden that is now grass.The garlic has adapted beautifully to our environment coming back up every summer. So I have brought it into the Spring garden for extra care and propagation. I double dug this patch so they have room to grow downwards and I will collect the seed.
These garlic are not for eating yet. (Though I am sure there will be tasting). I want to accumulate a good number for next years planting. (There are a few tough old green onions interspersed in this shot. They returned after the winter. I am growing those for seed and bulbs, too)
Growing plants that do well in your ecosystem develops resilience in your garden.
When I plant the onion sets I plant them very close together and thin them into the kitchen. This uses less space. After a while I will stop pulling them for greens and have rows of well spaced onions for storing over winter. (Did that make sense?)
I cannot get enough onions or garlic. Either green or mature.
After the heat of the summer is past the Spring Garden will have a green cover crop for a month or so then become the Late Summer Garden.
The Mid Summer Garden
The rhubarb garden is the mid summer garden. At the moment there is only rhubarb. This garden was left to rest last summer while I was away and will come back a bit smaller. This was my first Kitchens Garden so the weeds are well in control even after last summers wild growing.
As the weather warms I will be rotating zucchini and peppers and aubergine through here.
The Mad Kings Garden
Then there is John’s walled garden which has descended into madness. Like the basement, this is his domain and I (thank god) have nothing to do with it. I think he has potatoes in there so far.
He was in there with a flame thrower the other day. I suggested goats but that did not go down well.
We are not allowed to visit.
The Field Garden
After the cold is properly over we will start the field garden. This years field garden is down the back.
This will have the sweetcorn and tomatoes and pumpkins and whatever else gets planted in there. With a lot of cover crop in between.
The cows have been in there all winter so some areas will have very few weeds after months of stomping. We will till it back into order (sometimes we do have to till and rake the soil flat and plantable) and I will put in a few row crops where the cows have prepared the soil for me. Tilling is unavoidable sometimes but I only till a garden right at the beginning – if properly managed the following years the gardens can be hand dug exactly where one is planting. .
We are feeding four households (plus the extras) this year so there is plenty to do.
Asparagus Fields
The asparagus is a field garden too but much reduced since the old days. Asparagus does better without weeds. So without the help of my interns in the past, I am keeping things within my ability. I will be using a lot of straw to keep the weeds down however it is wheat straw so there will be wheat growing too! Ah well.
I will put on another 6 bales of straw today.
The abandoned asparagus beds will join the WildLands.
For the foragers of the future. I will be sowing wild garlic and onions out here too for the future foragers!
Now, out into the garden for me. I am dying to get outside today!
After today the weather turns nasty and cold so this afternoon I will begin to heave all the frost tender plants back inside.
I have to keep in mind that I will be away all of July and a little of August. So these gardens will have to grow on without me then. And my harvest dates need to be August and September into November.
I will have to organize a rotation of gardeners or I will come back to weed city!!
Have a great day
Celi
39 Comments on “The Kitchen’s Gardens are Many.”
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thekitchensgarden 
WOW! Your world is lush! We are still just starting to green up
It has felt like forever but yesterday was The Day!!!
So beautiful, and so much green! Happy spring planting!
I love planting and watering – I think I love watering more.
I love spring planting so beautiful and green vegetation. Nice to meet you my friend, enjoy the blossom, wind mantra work
Hi Larry! Welcome to the Lounge of Comments. It is so green here so suddenly – it almost hurts the eyes!!
Do you have a garden?
Your asparagus looks fantastic and thos eggs look huge!
I just bought some herb plants and cycled up the mountain with 40 litres compost.
Herbs and compost!! My two favorite things! Today. That bike of yours is heavy duty!!
It was a bit miraculous today!
Tail wind?
No, but there have been gales lately and I just beat the April showers by a few minutes.
Lovely gardens. My asparagus has just begun, looking forward to weeks of delicious stalks. Cinderblocks are good raised bed borders for flower gardens, but shouldn’t be used for food gardens as they leach fly ash which contains toxins even when they are old and well used.
https://gambrick.com/are-concrete-blocks-toxic/#:~:text=Garden%20beds%20built%20with%20cinder,and%20then%20into%20the%20food.
Oh dear! We have been using them around the beds for years! I have sunflowers in there too – so they are half flower beds!
Oh course you can’t use most timbers either because of the cyanide.
Just shows us how lovely good old earth is!
Thank you for this, I have some around a bed!
The antique cinder blocks are the ones you should not grow food too close to. The more modern ones are cement and quite fine. So unless you collected yours from an old house or an old shed you should be fine. There is plenty enough to worry about!
I don’t think mine are antique. Looks like concrete to me.
That’s great! One less thing to worry about!
It is actually the post WWII blocks, the ones made now that contain fly ash.
Yes. Those ones were a worry!!
Yes… we plant and nurture, and then we have to go away for a bit and they’re left to their own devices. Sometimes it works, and sometimes not. So much sky- and calendar-watching is needed!
So very fun to read about all your work prepping and planting! John’s garden sound hilarious! I’ll be curious what sprouts and is harvested!
Have fun! xoxo
We agree on very little so it is best to garden separately.
I inherited a rather large bag of very old birdseed from my daughter who is moving soon. Using some of it as a trial by fire cover crop (if it germinates before the birds get to it) in my dirt beds. My hope is that any green in there is better than nothing and will just add to the organic matter and compost I’ve been tossing in. If nothing else I enjoyed a bit of hoeing, tossing seed, tossing some topsoil and watering at 8AM- even though the sun has disappeared again.
That sounds like such a sweet idea! Often bird seed has thistle in it so let’s hope this is not one of those bags! A ton of sunflowers would be fab!
No thistle is listed on the bag just a few types of millet and yes- sunflowers. Although I just looked outside a few minutes ago and the squirrels were in there seeking out those very seeds. They just looked at me and smartly twitched their tails in dismissal. If I shoo them away they will be right back, but I’m willing to share. I have a LOT more free seed and my feeders are already stocked 🙂
We are in the midst of nasty and cold ! Snow yesterday and 40 ‘s today. A firm reminder it’s still early! Lots of garden cleaning to do. The perennial garden stays messy til it’s warmer to protect and serve….🥳
Damn, I so want to enter the domain of the Mad King. Sigh. Also–what are the tall buildings you can see in the distance of the mid summer garden pic? Happy weekend!
A farm house far away and grain bins. I think you might be looking at the shiny tin grain bins.
Why have one garden when you can have five… works for us, we have a bigger caged garden with raised beds, and half a dozen inground or container garden spots around our slightly smaller than quarter acre house block. I pop pumpkin seeds here and there as well, so the plants pop up and run along the fence & up into the trees and also among the roses in the front garden… I’ve just planted an avocado tree in the front yard… it was the best (only) place for it. The G.O. has a veggie plot at the neighbours…
How fantastic to get your avocado planted!! That’s all I really wanted you know – a lemon and avocado orchard! And here I am with neither!
Oh that old door on the Mad King’s garden is hilarious! I’m suprised he doesn’t have a Keep Out sign on it. 🙂 He obviously has a sense of humor and makes good use of old things….probably more than you’d like him to. Hah!
Your gardens look fabulous! I’m almost giddy with happiness that the growing season is finally here! I have many separate gardens around here too that are just so fun to visit and take care of…like visiting several different friends with several different personalities.
Right now I am watching a pair of Ravens that return every year to nest in our woods (the forest garden) in the back of our house. I see them come and go but have never seen their nest.
Having a separate garden is all for the good, but very funny that you are not allowed in and don’t know what he is doing with it. I hope he shares for meals. It’s a bit like having separate closets (I never open the door of his). When we built the bedroom addition the contractor thought it was strange that I insisted on two closets. After over 30 years of marriage, we know what makes marital harmony.
Separate closets makes so much sense to me. What an excellent idea/
Our snow and ice just melted so my little plot is still brown and yucky. The sun is out today drying it up so I’ll have to get out today and clean it up a little. The squirrels and rabbits destroy everything so I’ll have to figure out how to best protect the plants before I put them in. Thank god for chicken wire! If anyone has any suggestions please let me know!
I collect old dishwasher trays- I find these really good! Those squirrels are pretty wily creatures.
😂 I read somewhere to bury plastic forks so only the little spikes are just below the surface and when they dig it will feel stabbing and they will stop. I tried it in my pots on the patio. I went out in the morning to the dirt all dig up, little broken plants and forks thrown all over the patio. They still destroyed. Now I plant basil and cherry tomatoes in my pots and encase in chicken wire. Not pretty on my patio but al least it saves my plants.
That is too funny!!
My mother in law has little chicken wire hats on all her pots too. We don’t have any squirrels out at the farm.
If you had so done handy you could build a big walk in room lined with chicken wire on the porch. Maybe we should design something and make millions!!
Like a catio! 🙂
Wawo