Last year, a major food trends report commissioned by Sainsbury’s, predicted that in 2030, British families will spend less time eating out and more time at home cooking an increasing amount of garden grown vegetables. The report, produced by The Future Laboratory, forecasts that the trend of grow-your-own, which took off during the recession, will continue with far more than the current 15 million people likely to be planting vegetables and fruit on windowsills and gardens in the future.
And with the general public gaining inspiration from top chefs around the UK who have started their own kitchen gardens in order to secure the freshest possible produce the concept of a kitchen garden is destined to snowball.
However, the over-riding attraction of, and practical argument for, creating a dedicated kitchen garden within the outdoor room does not necessarily need to be at the expense of a visually pleasing, beautifully styled outside space. With a bit of careful planning, aesthetic appeal and designer good looks can happily sit alongside the undisputed functional benefits that a kitchen garden offers.
If you are thinking of introducing a touch of the Good Life to your outdoor room, here are a few suggestions to consider:
- sounds obvious but make sure that you site this part of the garden fairly close to the house to make access to the produce quickly and easy. This will also ensure the glorious scents associated with some of the plants will permeate into your indoor living accommodation
- don’t be under the impression that you need to have acres of space to create a kitchen garden. Even the smallest patio and window can house pots to grow herbs (purple sage offers a dramatic display of colour), edible flowers (eg nasturtiums, lavender and rose) and ornamental onions and garlic
- if time is in short supply, consider investing in the creation of some bespoke raised beds. Not only do they look great, their raised height makes light work of weeding and also negates the possibility of domestic pets straying into the family’s outdoor larder!
- if your garden contains a wall, fence or trellis, espalier trained fruit trees will create a dramatic design statement, whilst also delivering bountiful supplies of delicious fruit. In England, espalier training is usually done with apple and pear trees
- if you have areas of the garden which are uneven or where natural mounds occur forget about trying to level them out, instead look at creating a herb tump. These are raised graveled mounds (hoggins) which featured in 18th century garden design. They represent a beneficial way to grow sun-loving plants from the Mediterranean, providing good drainage. Rosemary, fennel, lavender, chives and wild strawberries do particularly well in this type of environment
- the grow your own revolution can also be extended to rearing your own livestock. Whilst we don’t all necessarily want to entertain the idea of living with pigs and chickens, soaring numbers of people are taking up bee keeping as a hobby amidst concern over the decline of the honeybee. The British Bee Keepers Association has reported a 3.5 million jars of honey were produced by their members this summer and since 2007, the number of hives registered in Britain has doubled, to 80,000
Why not contact Lime Orchard for more advice on how to create the perfect kitchen garden?
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