LibGuides: Mini-Farming: Kitchen Gardens

Kitchen Gardens

Kitchen gardens comes in a variety of sizes and styles, but they all have the same purpose: to provide fresh greens, vegetables, herbs, and fruit for the household.

Kitchen gardens were once common in both rural and urban life. Whether for economic, environmental, or health reasons, many people are now seeking their return. The term "Victory Garden" was applied to kitchen gardens in World Wars I and II, and that name is seeing a renaissance.

Container gardening is often a feature of the modern kitchen garden. Containers allow flexibility in garden design and may be placed upon patios or along walkways or driveways; smaller containers may even be brought indoors over the winter to provide greens and herbs.

Kitchen gardens now often reflect the garden design known as edible landscaping -- decorative garden layouts that also provide food.

The kitchen garden may be just a few plants providing herbs for cooking or all the way up to a "mini-farm" that produces significant amounts of produce for the household, quantities sufficient for sharing and canning.

Kitchen Gardens - Handbooks

Kitchen Garden Handbooks

Southwest Kitchen Garden by Kim Nelson; Cynthia Miller (Illustrator)
Call Number: 635.0979 Nelson
"A kitchen garden is vegetables and fruits, herbs and flowers, paths, structures, and decor. It's the farmland of the backyard and the heart of family homes around the globe. Alternatively called a potager, a dooryard garden, or a vegetable bed, "kitchen garden" evokes powerful images."
"The greatest difference between Southwest kitchen gardens and those in other parts of the country is the planting schedule. Because ours is a climate of extremes, we often put things in the ground at different times of year to take advantage of, or avoid, extreme temperatures. Like other regions, the Southwest is made up of several 'sub-regions' that are determined by elevation and local geography." - pg.13
The Container Kitchen Garden by Antony Atha
Call Number: 635.968 Atha
An overview of container gardening of vegetables and herbs, with pros and cons of different types of containers, overwintering, and "growbags" (planting directly into bags of potting soil.) Specific recommendations for container growing of a range of crops, including potatoes and chile peppers.
The Four Season Farm Gardener's Cookbook by Barbara Damrosch; Eliot Coleman
Call Number: 635 Damrosch
The Four Season Farm Gardener's Cookbook is two books in one. It's a complete four-season cookbook with 120 recipes from Barbara, a master cook as well as master gardener, who shows how to maximize the fruits -and vegetables - of your labors, from Stuffed Squash Blossom Fritters to Red Thai Curry with Fall Vegetables to Hazelnut Torte with Summer Berries. And it's a step-by-step garden guide that works no matter how big or small your plot, with easy-to-follow instructions and plans for different gardens. It covers size of the garden, nourishing the soil, planning ahead, and the importance of rotating crops-yes, even in your backyard. And, at the core, individual instructions on the crops, from the hardy and healthful cabbage family to fourteen essential culinary herbs.
The Edible Container Garden by Michael Guerra
Call Number: 635 Guerra
No space is too small to grow delicious and healthy food. Enjoying tasty and fresh produce no longer requires a trip to the local farm stand or gourmet grocery. With The Edible Container Garden as your guide, everything from salad greens and savory herbs to luscious fruits and vegetables can be as close as your patio, balcony, or rooftop. The Edible Container Garden explains how to plant, grow, and harvest vegetables, edible flowers, fruits, and herbs, even when time and space are limited.
The Postage Stamp Vegetable Garden by Karen Newcomb
Call Number: 635 Newcomb
To accommodate today's lifestyles, a garden needs to fit easily into a very small plot, take as little time as possible to maintain, require a minimum amount of water, and still produce prolifically. That's exactly what a postage stamp garden does. Postage stamp gardens are as little as 4 by 4 feet, and, after the initial soil preparation, they require very little extra work to produce a tremendous amount of vegetables--for instance, a 5-by-5-foot bed will produce a minimum of 200 pounds of vegetables. When first published 40 years ago, the postage stamp techniques, including closely planted beds rather than rows, vines and trailing plants grown vertically to free up space, and intercropping, were groundbreaking. Now, in an ever busier world, the postage stamp intensive gardening method continues to be invaluable for gardeners who wish to weed, water, and work a whole lot less yet produce so much more.
Edible Landscaping by Rosalind Creasy (Photographer)
Call Number: 712 Creasy
Since Rosalind Creasy popularized the concept of landscaping with edibles a quarter-century ago, interest in eating healthy, fresh, locally grown foods has swept across the nation. More and more Americans are looking to grow clean, delicious produce at home, saving money and natural resources at the same time. And food plants have been freed from the backyard, gracing the finest landscapes -- even the White House grounds!
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Small Space Gardening by Chris McLaughlin
Call Number: 635.986 McLaughlin
Creative strategies for gardens on balconies, ledges, fire escapes, planting beautiful borders and walkways, kids gardens, and much more
Taylor's Weekend Kitchen gardens : how to create a beautiful and functional culinary gardenGardening Guide to Kitchen Gardens by Cathy Wilkinson Barash
Call Number: 635 Barash
For beauty and practicality, nothing can equal the popular kitchen garden, with its combination of ornamental and edible plants.
The Patio Kitchen Garden by Daphne Ledward
Call Number: 635.9671 Ledward
Use a balcony, patio, or even just a sunny window to grow good food! Covers window boxes, "growing bags" (planting directly into bags of potting mix), hanging baskets, edible borders, salad gardens, herb pots, windowsill herbs, edible flowers, strawberries in containers, and compost-making on the patio.
Fruit Trees in Small Spaces by Colby Eierman; Daniel E. Moerman
Call Number: 634 Eierman
Luscious peaches, crisp apples, and sweet plums right off the tree are hard to beat. For gardeners yearning for the pleasures of home-grown fruit plucked straight from the tree, this deliciously encouraging guide cuts the subject down to size. Colby Eierman, garden designer and fruit expert, shows how trees can easily be tucked into the tiniest spots and still yield a bumper crop of gorgeous fruit. Fruit Trees in Small Spaces covers everything a gardener needs to know about choosing and nurturing the most delicious small-space varieties, including selection, pruning, training, irrigation, and disease prevention. With inspiring ideas for spaces of all shapes and sizes and creative recipes for your incredible harvest, you'll want to plant a mini-orchard in every intimate corner. For the gardener with space limitations, bountiful fruit trees are now within arm's reach.
McGee & Stuckey's the bountiful container : a container garden of vegetables, herbs, fruits and edible flowers by Rose Marie Nichols McGee and Maggie Stuckey ; illustrations by Michael A. Hill
Call Number: 635.986 McGee
Discover a world far beyond the expected cherry tomato in a flowerpot. A world with virtually no weeds, no soilborne diseases, and no overplanting, where you can fine-tune sun and shade and bring perennials indoors for the winter.
With few exceptions, everything edible that's grown in the traditional garden can be successfully raised in a container. Which means that even if you have just one pot on the balcony or patio, delicious fresh produce can be yours for the harvesting. - from the book cover
Grow Cook Eat [eBook] by Willi Galloway; Jim Henkens (Photographer)
From sinking a seed into the soil through to sitting down to enjoy a meal made with vegetables and fruits harvested right outside your back door, this gorgeous kitchen gardening book is filled with practical, useful information for both novices and seasoned gardeners alike. Grow Cook Eat will inspire people who already buy fresh, seasonal, local, organic food to grow the food they love to eat. For those who already have experience getting their hands dirty in the garden, this handbook will help them refine their gardening skills and cultivate gourmet quality food. The book also fills in the blanks that exist between growing food in the garden and using it in the kitchen with guides to 50 of the best-loved, tastiest vegetables, herbs, and small fruits. The guides give readers easy-to-follow planting and growing information, specific instructions for harvesting all the edible parts of the plant, advice on storing food in a way that maximizes flavor, basic preparation techniques, and recipes. The recipes at the end of each guide help readers explore the foods they grow and demonstrate how to use unusual foods, like radish greens, garlic scapes, and green coriander seeds.
The Kitchen Garden by Andi Clevely
Call Number: 635 Clevely
Imagine heading out to your garden to pick succulent tomatoes, flavorful herbs, crisp beans, and sweet strawberries bursting witt juice, instead of having to trek to the market. Even novice gardeners can enjoy the rewards of growing their own produce with the help of this stunning, authoritative sourcebook. Learn to grow a wide range of the most popular vegetables, legumes, fruits, and herbs, including broccoli, carrots, onions, garlic, spinach, tomatoes, peppers, squash, apples, peaches, berries, parsley, mint, basil, and much more. Find out how to assess and enhance soil, rotate crops, prepare the ground, water and feed, mulch, weed, deal with pests and diseases, sow outdoors and under glass, prune, train, and perform other necessary tasks. A season-by-season guide explains how to keep a kitchen garden in peak condition throughout the year.