Spring Kitchen Garden Tour

A tour of my Spring Kitchen Garden where I grow my own fresh organic vegetables to use in recipes that I share here on my food blog!

Do you have a kitchen garden? A few years ago, my amazing mother in law sent me some San Marzano tomato seeds after a recent conversation we had had regarding how eager I was to vegetable garden for the first time. I started out good: the plants actually sprouted on my kitchen windowsill!

And then we went on vacation.

You tell where this is going! We came back to dead, dried out plants. I always thought I had a black thumb, and here was the confirmation.

Fortunately, that’s not the end of my gardening adventure! After trial and error I realized I do MUCH better taking care of plants when they are actually IN THE GROUND, rather than in pots. They need much less watering and babysitting once they’ve taken off and I get to enjoy all the garden goodness with not much effort on my part!

What is a kitchen garden?

A kitchen garden is a garden that you keep growing as close to your back door/kitchen area as possible. You can pop out while you’re preparing dinner, harvest just what you need, and have fresh vegetables and herbs available to you at a moment’s notice.

How many raised beds do you have?

I have six 4 ft by 4 ft raised garden beds along the length of my yard. You can get started with just one 4 x 4 bed very easily!

What’s growing in my Spring Kitchen Garden this year:

Connected beds 1 and 2:

• Tomato plants
• Bell pepper and jalapeno pepper plants
• Spinach
• Red romaine
• Leaf lettuces
• Tiny baby carrot seedlings

Raised bed 3:

• Sugar snap peas
• Another tomato plant
• Dill
• …and empty space! (Empty space is good to succession plant your favorite veggies for a continual harvest all summer long!)

Raised beds 4, 5, and 6:

• More sugar snap peas
• More leaf lettuces
• Garlic
• Onions
• Red skin and fingerling potatoes
• One lone broccoli plant that could! ?

Here’s a close up of the broccoli seedling. Out of two plant starts, this one made it and the other didn’t. I’m hoping to harvest a head soon!

I know I said I do much better when the plants are in the ground, but my potted pepper plants are the exception! My husband LOVES super spicy Facing Heaven peppers and they are gorgeous plants that stay compact and do well in pots – even when I sometimes forget to water. I love planting some trailing Petunias and Creeping Jenny in the pot along with them!

What I’m harvesting in May:

Spinach and lettuces galore! Which is a good thing because my two oldest kiddos love salads, I honestly don’t think there can be enough squares of lettuce in my yard!

• Spinach recipes on Mostly Homemade Mom
• Lettuce recipes on Mostly Homemade Mom

Do you have a kitchen garden?

I’d LOVE to chat with you about your kitchen garden in the comment section below! What are you growing? What are you harvesting right now? I love talking about gardening!

Kitchen garden questions:

Leave any questions about home veggie gardening or about starting your own kitchen garden below in the comment section. We’d love to help you get started growing your own food – it’s so much fun!