Having a backyard kitchen is as convenient as it gets. Instead of shopping at your local grocery store for produce to use in different recipes, you’ll have access to everything you need in the backyard. Before you can begin growing tomatoes, peppers, and other tasty plants that will turn into fruits and vegetables for the kitchen, you’ll need to know how to get started.
Which Plants Are Best to Grow in a Backyard Kitchen Garden?
Some plants are naturally better to grow in the backyard kitchen gardens than others. If you’d like to have a prosperous backyard kitchen garden, with fresh vegetables and herbs, try planting some or all of the following plants to get started.
Beefsteak Tomatoes
These tomatoes are one of the most popular types of plants grown in backyard kitchens. Not only are they easy to grow, but they also taste delicious. You can slice them down, add them to your sandwiches, chop them, put them in salads, and even use them to prepare your own sauces. Beefsteak tomatoes are known to grow fast and efficiently. You’ll see these tomatoes reaching their full potential in no time.
Varieties to Consider:
Red Beefsteak Tomato
Yellow Beefsteak Tomato
The Mortgage Lifter Tomato
Sweet Peppers
Sweet peppers are an excellent addition to a backyard garden. However, it’s a good idea to start growing them inside the home and then transferring them to your backyard garden. If you do this correctly, you can see these peppers grow at a faster pace. Once you have sweet peppers growing in your yard, you can do so much with them. You might want to serve them with Italian sausage or add them to your sandwiches. These are a fantastic plant to grow in your backyard kitchen gardens.
Varieties to Consider:
Yolo Wonder Bell Pepper
The Purple Beauty
Sun Bright Yellow Pepper
Cucumbers
As long as you can make sure sunlight and high-quality soil surround the seedlings, you can expect to see your cucumbers grow. Cucumbers are the perfect vegetable for novice gardeners who are still trying to get the hang of things. If you can grow cucumbers, you can even end up making your own pickles.
Varieties to Consider:
The Space Master
The Marketer Cucumber
The Straight 8
Rosemary
Although it’s not a vegetable, rosemary is an herb you should start growing in your backyard kitchen garden. You can use it on chicken and other meats when seasoning them to give them more flavor. It’s one of the easiest herbs to grow.
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Other herbs to consider for your backyard kitchen garden – basil, oregano and thyme.
Lettuce
Don’t forget about the lettuce! If you’re growing tomatoes and cucumbers, plant some lettuce seeds and start growing heads of lettuce. You’ll be glad you did. Lettuce doesn’t take long to grow big, and it’ll come in handy when you want to prepare fresh, flavorful salads right at home.
How to Grow Lettuce in Your Backyard
Varieties to Consider:
White Boston Butterhead
Classic Romaine Lettuce
Buttercrunch Lettuce
While these are some of the things you can plant in the backyard kitchen garden, there are dozens of other fruits, vegetables, and herbs worth planting. Some of the other fruits and vegetables to grow include strawberries, cantaloupe, watermelon, and even bananas. Of course, you’ll need to plant the seeds at the right time of the year to ensure that your plants thrive.
How to Start the Backyard Kitchen Garden
You’ll need to take a few essential steps to get your backyard kitchen garden started. If you take the proper steps, you’re increasing your chances of success.
Choose the Ideal Spot for the Plants
Before you begin planting anything, choose the ideal spot for your plants. This does require monitoring your backyard for several days to watch where the sunlight lands at different times of the day. Keep track of this valuable information to help you decide where you should start planting some of your seeds.
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Get Your Soil Ready
Check the soil before getting started. There is a good chance that you’ll need to use a soil amendment. Be sure to do your research before using an amendment. You’ll need to determine if you need to make your soil more acidic or less acidic to get specific plants to thrive.
Not sure which amendment to use on the soil? If you need to make it less acidic, add limes to your soil. You can squeeze the juice over the soil or even leave lime slices inside the soil. If you’d like to make the soil more acidic, you can use sulfur. You can also check out other soil amendment options that may work perfectly for your backyard kitchen garden.
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Biochar as a Soil Amendment
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Plant Viable Seeds
Be sure you’re checking your seeds before you start placing them in the soil. It would help if you used viable seeds that are ready to get planted. If they’re not yet viable, you’ll need to wait or purchase seeds that you can plant immediately; otherwise, you’re going to have a hard time getting your plants to thrive.
Once you plant the seeds, be sure to add a layer of soil over them. The amount of soil needed to cover the seeds will depend on what you’re planting because some seeds need more protection than others.
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Follow a Watering Schedule
Create a watering schedule that works best for your backyard kitchen garden. Some areas of the garden may need watering more often than other areas, but it all depends on what you’ve planted. For example, if you’re growing lettuce plants, you’ll need to water them each day.
You might need to water these plants twice daily on days when the temperature is incredibly high. On the other hand, you’ll only need to supply your tomatoes with about an inch of water per week. Determine how often each plant needs watering, and then set specific times throughout the day to head outside and give your plants the hydration needed to survive and grow to their fullest potential.
9 Ways to Conserve Water in Your Vegetable Garden
Benefits of Having a Backyard Kitchen Garden
When you start a backyard kitchen garden, you’re giving yourself something fun and interesting to do. There is something so special about growing your own vegetables, herbs and fruits.
However, there is much more to this gardening process than having fun. You’ll save tons of money each year by growing some of your favorite vegetables, herbs, and spices in the backyard instead of buying them at the store.
Once you start growing produce of your own, you’ll notice how fresh it tastes compared to what you’re used to buying at the store. If you’re ready to save money and eat fresh produce with each meal, follow these tips to get your backyard kitchen garden started!
What are some backyard kitchen gardens that you’d love to have?
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