The Top Nine Vegetables to Grow Close To Your Kitchen
When it comes to planning out a garden, you want to maximize the space available. That often means using a kitchen garden to grow the varieties that have the most versatility for use at home.
A kitchen garden is designed to give you easy access to an abundance of fresh produce so that you can make incredible meals while barely stepping out of your home.
Not all plants are suitable for a kitchen garden. Your goal needs to be choosing varieties that you will reach for often to ensure you’re making the best use of the space available. Likewise, kitchen gardens work best when they require minimal maintenance, as you want to spend more of your time creating delicious food, rather than weeding and planting.
These nine vegetables are a great start for any kitchen garden. Simple to grow, fun to eat, and versatile enough for a variety of recipes, they ensure you’ll maximize your space.
Carrot (Daucus carota subsp. sativus) is the domestic version of its wild relative. This ubiquitous vegetable is closely related to parsley, fennel, and dill. The orange root can be eaten cooked or raw. The Carrot is self-fertile and is pollinated by flies and beetles, who use its flowers as a food source.
Cucumber (Cucumis sativus) is a creeping vine native to South Asia. It has a long history of cultivation – mentions of its use are found in various ancient scripts, including the Bible, Epic of Gilgamesh and Pliny the Elder’s “Natural History“. Today, Cucumber is one of the most widely cultivated vegetable species in the world.
Radish (Raphanus sativus) is a plant species that represents a food staple in many cultures around the world. The Radish has a wide range of variations, including variants that grow in the spring, summer and winter. The root is generally eaten raw and can be used in salads or as a garnish.
The Peppers is a plant that produces bright red pepper vegetables. This chili pepper is commonly used for cooking in places such as the Southern U.S. and Central America. Most are moderately spicy, though because there are so many variants, the spice level can vary dramatically. Cayenne powder is also a popular seasoning product made from Peppers plants.
Lettuce (Lactuca sativa var. ramosa) is a leafy green vegetable that is often cultivated worldwide for commercial and personal gardens. The whole plant can be used for salads, soups, wraps, or sandwiches. Human cultivation of Lettuce dates back to the 5th century in China, and there are now many different cultivars grown globally.
The Beet (Beta vulgaris) provides a variety of uses for food products and garden growth. The roots are commonly consumed as nutrient-rich vegetables, the body of the sugar beet is used to make table sugar, and the leaves are harvested as a separate vegetable: chard. In 18th-Century Silesia, an area that is now part of Poland, the first-ever beet sugar extraction plant was created by a royal decree from the king.
Common bean is one of the most widely produced cash crops in the world, with 23.6 million tons grown in 2016. China is the largest producer of the Common bean, accounting for 79% of the market share. While the Common bean is known as a staple food source, the leaves can be used to trap bedbugs and the beans are widely used in a type of fortune-telling called “favomancy”.
Field pumpkin are most commonly seen as decorations throughout the autumn and during the Halloween holiday, when they are carved and used as traditional jack-o’-lanterns. While the taste of Field pumpkin flesh may not be ideal, eating the seeds after toasting them with a bit of salt can be a delicious treat!
Tomato is an annual or perennial herbaceous vine native to Central and South America that produces a large, juicy, edible fruit known as Tomato. Today there are over 10000 cultivated varieties. Although tomato is the world’s most popular vegetable, botanically it is a fruit.