Planting plan for the kitchen garden

If you want to grow your vegetables as organically as possible in your own garden, you should think about a concept in advance of how the project can be implemented over many years. If you only plan a very small vegetable patch, there is no space for the different types of vegetables to be placed over and over again. This also means that the soil does not have time to regenerate itself on a regular basis. Precise planning is therefore necessary in these cases so that large quantities of fertilizer and pesticides are not required after a short period of time.

Site and soil conditions

Salads, vegetables and herbs need a sunny to partially shaded location in the garden. Some species can tolerate the blazing midday sun, but most prefer a few hours of sun in the morning and late afternoon. On average, around six hours of sunlight per day is optimal.
Soil preparation
Normal garden soil that is well drained and humus is best for growing. In the case of high sand or clay contents, the soil must be prepared accordingly. It is beneficial to analyze the garden soil as early as autumn of the previous year and, if necessary, to revalue it. So it is optimally prepared for planting in spring.

Tip: Never put manure on the garden soil shortly before planting. The ingredients must first be converted into humus and nutrients and burn the young plants when they are fresh.

Mixed culture

Not only the location and soil conditions have an influence on the growth of the vegetable plants. The neighborhood relationships also have to be right. There are not only neutral plants that can be easily combined with others, but also those that encourage each other to grow or others that hinder each other. That fits together:

• Cauliflower: French beans, peas, celery
• Chinese cabbage: beans, peas, spinach, lettuce
• Strawberries: garlic, lettuce, leek, radishes, spinach
• Potatoes: French beans, kohlrabi, corn, caraway seeds, horseradish
• Cucumbers: beans, peas, fennel, cabbage, lettuce, beetroot, celery, onions
• Carrots: peas, garlic, Swiss chard, radishes, salsify, tomatoes, onions
• Zucchini: basil, runner beans, onions

Planting plan: three-year crop rotation

Crop rotation plays a decisive role in the kitchen garden. By observing a few important rules of the game, the nutrients in the garden soil can be optimally utilized by the individual plants. Years of cultivation of the same plant on a bed not only lead to the depletion of certain nutrients, but also the susceptibility to diseases increases significantly. Therefore, it makes sense to grow plants in a certain order.

1. Year: Now the soil contains an optimal amount of nutrients. The first crops to be used are strongly consuming vegetable plants.
2. Year: This year it is the turn of medium-consuming plants.
3. Year: In the fourth year there are only low nutrient levels in the soil. It is now beneficial to grow plants that are weakly draining.

Before starting again with the heavily draining plants, it is best to fertilize with ripe compost from your own garden in autumn or early spring. So that a varied harvest is also possible every year, it is best to divide the area into three individual beds, which are then planted alternately according to the three-year crop rotation.

Planting plan: four-field farming - four-year crop rotation

If you don't just want to create a small salad bed, but want to restructure a larger part of the garden as a usable area, a four-field economy is recommended. A crop rotation model is set up every four years and should always be adhered to. This method is particularly suitable for soils that are not quite as optimal.

• 1. Year: First there is a green manure. This optimizes the growth conditions for the later cultivated plants, protects against soil erosion and suppresses weeds. At the same time, it makes sense to create a compost heap if it has not yet been created in the garden.
• 2.-4. Year: as with the three-year crop rotation

While one field is left fallow and can regenerate, the second is where heavily consuming vegetables are grown, while the third is where medium consuming and weakly consuming vegetables are being grown on the fourth. The change to less consuming varieties takes place on an annual basis.

Classification of vegetables according to nutrient consumption

Salad and vegetables consume different nutrients in different amounts depending on the type.
1. Heavy Eater

• aubergine
• Strawberries
• Types of cabbage
• potatoes
• Carrots
• Beetroot
• spinach

2. Central Eater

• Soft fruit
• Beans and peas
• fennel
• Cucumber
• Kohlrabi
• Swiss chard
• paprika
• leek
• Radish and radishes
• tomatoes
• Salsify
• Onions

3. Weak eaters

• Garden cress
• Herbs
• parsley
• some types of lettuce

Exceptions to crop rotation

There is another factor that makes planning a little more difficult: Plants belonging to the same family may not be grown in the following year! This rule applies particularly to the following plant families:

• Cruciferous vegetables (Brassicaceae): all types of cabbage, horseradish, radish, oil radish, mustard, turnip, turnip
• Goosefoot family (Chenopodiaceae): Swiss chard, beetroot, spinach

The plants are plagued by some stubborn pests (such as clubwort). The only reasonable way to prevent an infestation is wide crop rotations. In these cases, crop rotation in four-field farming is preferable to nutrient consumption as a criterion.
Long-term use possible with:

• Strawberries: up to three years, then the plants are exchanged for new ones
• Rhubarb: can stand in the same location for many years
• Tomatoes: as long as there is no disease, they can be in the same location for several years
• Asparagus (green asparagus): eight to ten years in a field are problem-free

Appropriate pre- and post-crops

Most plants do not use the entire growing season to mature. Therefore, it is possible to cultivate different types of vegetables one after the other in one field within a year.

• Cauliflower: pre-culture spinach, post-culture lamb's lettuce
• Bush beans: pre-culture lettuce, radishes, post-culture lamb's lettuce or kale
• Cucumbers: pre-culture broad beans, post-culture spinach
• Potatoes: Post-culture kale or Brussels sprouts
• Cabbage: preculture peas, radishes, spinach
• Carrots: Post-crop late French beans or endive
• Tomatoes: pre-culture spinach, post-culture mustard
• Onions: post-culture endives

Example of a three-year planting

It turns out to be advantageous to keep leaving areas fallow and converting them into a meadow for beneficial insects for a year. This not only helps the soil to regenerate, but also attracts insects, which are essential for pollinating the fruit trees

are.
1. Year in the vegetable patch

• Bed 1: zucchini
• Bed 2: leek
• Bed 3: celery and tomatoes
• Bed 4: carrots and onions
• Bed 5: pickles for pickling
• Bed 6: lettuce and peas
• Bed 7: cauliflower and broccoli
• Bed 8: Kohlrabi and savoy cabbage

2. Year in the vegetable patch

• Bed 1: radishes and leeks
• Bed 2: cucumber and dill
• Bed 3: zucchini
• Bed 4: radishes, peas and radish
• Bed 5: peas and carrots
• Bed 6: lettuce and carrots
• Bed 7: strawberries
• Bed 8: Chinese cabbage and endive

3. Year in the vegetable patch

• Bed 1: lettuce
• Bed 2: radishes
• Bed 3: peas
• Bed 4: Beneficial meadow or green manure
• Bed 5: celery
• Bed 6: cucumbers
• Bed 7: strawberries
• Bed 8: annual herbs

Healthy fruit from your own garden

Another part of the kitchen garden is the area where fruit is grown. It should be placed in as sunny a place as possible so that the fruits develop sufficient sweetness. When it comes to fruit, a distinction must be made between varieties such as apples, pears and plums, which grow on trees, and the bushes from which currants or raspberries, for example, are harvested. The first fruit can often only be picked from trees after a few years, so long-term planning is necessary with them. In the case of the bushes, however, the first harvest often takes place in the year after planting. Column fruit is used to grow many different types of fruit even in a relatively small garden with its slender growth, and the espalier fruit that is grown on a trellis or on the wall of the house will. Both get by with a relatively small footprint.

Culinary and medicinal herbs

A herb garden should not be missing in any kitchen garden. Herbs such as parsley, chives and Mediterranean herbs such as thyme, rosemary and oregano are grown there. Most herbs are certainly mainly used in the kitchen to refine dishes. In addition, many herbs are also grown for medicinal purposes in order to use them for a tea infusion, a bath or a poultice in the event of illness. In this regard, for example, chamomile, peppermint and sage are very popular. A herb bed is best placed close to the kitchen so that you can quickly harvest a few leaves or twigs there at any time. Almost all herbs can also be cultivated very well in pots. In this case, the pots can be placed on the terrace or a canopy so that you can still harvest from them even in bad weather. Another variant is the raised bed, where harvesting is also very easy.

Conclusion
Managing a kitchen garden properly is not that easy. In order to achieve good yields over the long term, crop rotation is very important. It is best to divide the available space into individual beds and then grow the vegetables alternately in a strict sequence on the plots. This ensures that the soil is not leached out on one side and that diseases do not stand a chance. After the harvest, green manure can also revaluate the soil.