Growing vegetable garden

While growing up we always had a kitchen garden. We were never the in charge of the garden but nevertheless were made to water them, weed the garden etc. I had the privilege to watch them grow. In my adult life, until recently I never had opportunity to grow a kitchen garden. Now when I have, I am at complete loss as to how to utilize the resource correctly. Now that the whole responsibility of choosing seeds, checking soil fertility, growing them watering them lies on my shoulder, I feel little bit overwhelmed. This is our first year of growing a vegetable garden and I have done a number of mistakes. Hopefully next year this will not be repeated.

During March/April, I started sowing all the seeds(bhendi, Turai, cucmber, pumpkin, amaranthus, fenugreek, mustard, french beans, beans, tomatoes, poi, karela, egg plant, coriander, pepper mint, mint, chilli pepper, cauliflower, spinach, raddish ) all in a state of frenzy. Although some of them germinated some did not. So, from my experience I would suggest the kitchen gardners to go in the following order:

In March/April:

Sow cucumber, bhendi, Turai, pumpkin, poi and plant them in early May. They are tropical crops and they will start fruiting during June/July/August. depending on your weather condition.

In June/July:

Start sowing tomatoes, egg plant, Karela, french beans, beans, mints, chilli pepper, coriander . These crops take around a week to germinate. Then transfer the plants to their desirable location. Fruits will start coming during early September thorugh October, November.

Late August

Start planting methi, mustard, amaranthus, cauliflower, spinach . Generally they take only about a week time to germinate and most leafy vegetables are available in about 3-4 weeks time.

Applying Fertilizer:
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Its necessary to supplement the soil with the depleted nutrients after each crop cycle. You can start having a compost in one corner of your garden. The dead plants and vegetable peels form the best compost. Try avoiding synthetic manures.

Crop rotation:

Crop rotation has been practiced since time immemorial. The usual crop rotation cycle is to grow a non-leguminous crop followed by a leguminous crop. Legumes are the bean family plants that does nitrogen fixation with the help of a bacteria called Rhizobium. They form root nodules and enrich the soil with Nitrogen.

If you are wondering in your garden how you should rotate then here is a clue. First grown your summer crops(That grows through May/June/July). Follow it by methi, beans etc.

Size of Kitchen garden:

Now you must be wondering how big should be your kitchen garden for a family of 4? For all the climbers/creepers, put them separately near a wall or support. rest of the crops can be grown in an area of 10 X 20 ft. This will be good enough to produce anough for your family. You should have 10 Bhendi plants, 5-6 tomato plants, 10 egg plants, 2 each from Turai ,Karela ,pumpkin,cucumber plants. Grow methi and amaranthus, mustard in an area of 5X7 ft each. You can have 3-4 chilli pepper plants, 1 sq ft. of coriander, 1 sq. ft of mint, 3-4 poi plants, 3X10 ft of cauliflower etc. This will be enough to feed your family for 6 months.