A Series of Lectures By Mr. Allah Dad Khan Former DG Agriculture Extension KPK , Provincial Project Director CMP II MINFAl Islamabad and Visiting Professor the University of Agriculture Peshawar Pakistan

2. Planning A Kitchen Garden Planning
A Series of Lectures
By
Mr. Allah Dad Khan
Former DG Agriculture Extension KPK ,
Provincial Project Director CMP II
MINFAl Islamabad and Visiting
Professor the University of Agriculture
Peshawar Pakistan

5. Planning a Vegetable Garden
Planning is the first and most basic step in home
vegetable gardening. Planning not only saves
time when you’re ready to plant but also gives
you an idea of the types and quantities of seeds
or plants you’ll need. Most importantly,
planning helps assure that the home garden will
satisfy your needs and desires.

6. Raise your beds
Once you've imagined the exterior shape possibilities of your
space, consider the dual concepts of "raised" and "multiple"
bedding plans as the interior design ideal. Early gardeners, from
the Aztecs at Tenochtitlan to the ancient Egyptians to 9th-
century Swiss monks, recognized that a bed raised even a scant
6 inches above path level provided infinitely better drainage
than a bed built flush with the soil. Gardeners today also find
that raised beds heat up faster in spring, adding days (or even
weeks) to your growing season. Raised beds allow for far easier
soil amendment, too. Build up a bed 12 or 18 inches above path
grade, and you can fill it with the ideal mix of topsoil and other
amendments. And when the soil is at shin
level, weeding and harvesting are less of a strain on your back.

7. The four square garden is based on a very simple layout.
The garden is usually divided into four square or rectangular garden
beds with two perpendicular paths (like a plus sign +) running
between them. These paths could be composed of paving stones,
packed earth, gravel, wood shavings or even lawn. At the intersection
of the two paths, there could be a focal point such as a statue or a
pond. In 12th century England, this garden was generally in the front
yard, with the entrance to the garden being a white picket gate,
although it could be an arbor or trellis covered with a flowering vine.
Typically the garden was surrounded by a protective enclosure such
as a rock wall, fence or hedge. Of course, you must be careful to avoid
shading your vegetables growing inside though

8. The four square garden is based on a very simple
layout.
 The traditional vegetable garden layout is to plant the vegetables in rows,
each row growing a different type of vegetable. Each row usually runs from
north to south to take full advantage of the morning and afternoon sun. The
seeds are sown in single rows using string and stakes to keep the rows straight.
Enough space needs to be left between the rows to allow room to walk and to
comfortably gather your produce. If your ground is not level, and you want to
plant in rows, the rows should run across the slope rather than up and down, to
prevent the soil from being washed away when the garden is watered.

9. Raised Bed Layout
Although it is not strictly a particular vegetable garden layout,
the raised garden bed (an example of which issquare
foot gardening) is included here because it is often planted
in blocks rather than rows. Vegetables are normally planted
closer together than in the row vegetable garden layout
making this is an ideal choice if you only have space for a
small vegetable garden.

10. Formal Asymmetrical Garden Layout
 A formal assymetrical garden layout is ideal if you don't want to be too
rigid but you do prefer a sense of order. You can do this by experimenting with
different geometric shapes (for the paths or the garden beds) next to each other
or overlapping, strong lines or repetition of elements to get the desired effect.
Using curving lines, modern materails or casual furniture will make this style
seem less rigid.
Adding a formal clipped hedge as the border of the garden, pond, or individual
beds will add to the structured feel of the garden. Or you could grow your own
topiary using a potted boxwood or bay tree and trimming it to fit a frame

12. The plants
1. Maximise your kitchen garden space and plant a fast-growing ‘cash
crop’, such lettuce, in between a slower-growing main crop, such as
sweet corn or broccoli: the lettuce is ready to harvest before the main
crop matures, so does not disturb it.
2. Place taller plants at the back of your vegetable garden so they won’t
steal all the sunshine, then you can squeeze a row of a low-growing
crop such as rocket, spring onion or radish between taller crops in the
kitchen garden.
3. Endive, radicchio or spinach are useful additions to a kitchen garden
bed as they can cope even in partial shade.
4. The higher a plant climbs, the more important it is to tie in the main
steams with expandable kitchen garden ties.
5. If the soil of your vegetable garden is supporting lots of tall growth, it
will need additional water and nutrients and should be mulched well
and fed regularly.


13. Step-By-Step Planning
 With these general principles in mind here are my recommendations for placing plants in
a new vegetable garden:
 Tender Plants: Plants such as tomatoes, peppers, aubergine (eggplant), basil etc are the
most fussy. Unless your climate is extremely warm you’ll want to reserve the best sunny
spots in your garden for these high-value crops so add them to your plan first. South
facing walls can be particularly good for providing the heat that these plants like in order
to produce an abundant harvest.
 Roaming Plants: Next place plants that like to send out vines that roam around the
garden – melon, squash etc. These need to be situated at the edge of your vegetable beds
so the broad leaves attached to the vines don’t cover your other plants. Placing them at
the edge lets them spread out across paths or grass.
 Vertically Climbing Plants: Anything that grows up supports – peas, beans and some
squash such as cucumbers, will need to be located where they won’t shade other
vegetables. The one exception is areas with very hot summers where some cool-season
crops such as lettuce and spinach can benefit from shade in the heat of the day.
 Irrigation: Some plants perform badly in dry conditions – celery, onions, strawberries
Areas of your garden that are slightly lower will retain more moisture or you may need to
plan to provide irrigation to get consistent growth.

14. The vegetables
1. Vegetables include asparagus which, once established in
the kitchen garden, looks after itself, yielding tasty spears
in late spring, followed by fern-like fronds that add foliage
among flowers.
2. Red orach is another beautiful favourite, its young leaves
delicious in salads, while the mature leaves taste like
spinach when cooked.
3. A cold frame is invaluable for bringing on crinkly red
lettuces, leeks or sweetcorn to fill any gaps.
4. Grow in your vegetable garden seedlings in ‘pots’ crafted
from newspaper, filled with soil and tied with jute string.
Plant into beds and the paper rots down.
5. Easy access is essential so lay reclaimed terracotta tiles
through the beds to avoid damaging plants.

16. Pollination:
1. Certain plants need to be near others in order to pollinate well and ‘set
fruit’ (ie produce the edible portion). The main one you need to consider
is sweet corn which should be grown in blocks to ensure that it produces
full cobs – see our article on sweetcorn for details.
2. Accessibility: What plants do you want to be able to regularly harvest?
Herbs, salad, tomatoes etc..? These should all be placed as near to your
kitchen as possible. Not only will you then be more likely to use them but
it will help you to keep on top of the weeds and remove slugs regularly.
3. Succession Planting: If you are short of space or want a crop
throughout the season, consider using succession planting and
intercropping – see my article ongetting more crops from an
area and our video on using the Garden Planner to
organise Succession Planting.
4. Don't Overcrowd: Finally, tempting though it is, be very careful not to
overcrowd plants as you add in the remaining ones to your plan. This is
the number 1 mistake made by new gardeners and it’s easy to see why –
plants look so small as seedlings and we all hate pulling up the result of
our hard

17. An Art or a Science?
1. Gardening is both an art and a science and it’s that tension
that is at the root of the confusion for many new gardeners.
There are scientific principles that need to be followed –
overcrowding plants or growing in poor-quality soil will set
you up for failure. In subsequent years the principles of
crop rotation will add more constraints. However, that
still allows for a lot of different possibilities and the art is in
placing plants in a way that makes best use of your space
without breaking any of the rules.
2. I hope the step-by-step method above will help with
avoiding many potential problems but it’s worth
remembering that these aren’t a hard and fast set of rules.
The art is in using these guiding principles to design
something that’s uniquely your garden and, with experience,
that becomes a very satisfying and enjoyable process.

18.  Make a Plan
 Sketch out your proposed garden area(s) and decide
how many plants will fit in each space. Keep these
plans, even after you've planted your crops. It's best
if you rotate crops each year, so you'll want to keep
track of what you're doing now to help you in years
to come. The layout for a small vegetable garden can
be as simple or as complex as you'd like to make it.
The important thing is spending some time planning
at the beginning and then keeping track of what you
decide.

20. Plan your Vegetable Garden Layout
1. Planning a vegetable garden layout before you start
working the soil, buying seeds or plants is an important
step. This will save you time, energy and money later
on. In this step you will draw your vegetable garden
plan to scale on a piece of paper. This is something I do
during the long winter months.
2. If you do not have the time to plan your own garden
check out myvegetable garden plans ebooks . Here
you will find easy to follow diagrams on where and
when to plant a vegetable garden for raised beds, row
gardening and square foot gardens.

21. How are you going to grow?
Are you going to grow in raised beds, in containers, in level
rows, in a greenhouse? Your choice will depend on where
yourgarden site is located. If you can, make your vegetable
rows face north to south for best distribution of light.
 Mark your pathways.
Make sure you leave room to walk between rows to make it
easier to water, weed and observe the plant without crushing
it. 12-16 inches is needed for a pathway, a little more if you
plan to bring a wheelbarrow or cart through. I suggest making
wider pathways at the end of the rows so you can maximize
your growing area.
 What vegetables do you want to grow?
If you need help with this there are questions you can answer
at planting a vegetable garden.

22. Vegetable crops should be rotated
Each year because plants require different amounts of nutrients
and attract particular pests and disease. By using crop rotation
you are promoting healthier plants and soil in your vegetable
garden layout. A simple way to start learning about vegetable
gardening crop rotation is to divide your vegetables into three
basic groups:
 Root crops - beets, carrots, potatoes
 Brassicas - broccoli, cabbage, Brussel
sprouts, cauliflower,radish, turnip, rutabaga, kale
 Everything else - lettuce, onion, peas, spinach, swiss
chard,beans, corn, peppers, squash, tomatoes
 You will then plant each group in a different area each year.

23. What does each vegetable require for best growth?
1. What kind of spacing does it need?
2. Is it a cool or heat loving plant?
3. Does it mature quickly or need a long growing season?
4. Does it need lots of heat to grow well? Is indoor growing possible?
5. Do you have a shady area? Which plants will grow best?
6. Do you have dry or wet areas? Which ones like more moisture?
7. Will the plant need some kind of support or trellising?

24. Placement of your vegetables.
1. Divide the site into three sections (4 if you are planting
perennial vegetables). Label them A,B,C,D. Each year plant
a different vegetable group (listed above) in each section.
Perennials remain in the same section each year.
2. Within each section organize the vegetables by how much
space they need.
3. Place the ones that mature earlier in one area so you can
plant something else later in the season in that same spot.
4. Place any perennial type vegetables (i.e. asparagus, herbs)
on the outside area of the garden so they will not be
disturbed when you till the other three sections of the
garden.

25. Benefits of raised bed vegetable gardening:
1. improves drainage
2. soil warms up faster in the spring which can give you an earlier harvest
3. soil is less compacted as you usually do not walk on it
4. less bending as you plant, weed and water your garden
5. can be a better use of space in your garden
6. gives your garden a clean and tidy look
7. enhances your garden by adding structure
8. can be of any height to suit your needs
9. easy to trellis
Disadvantages for raised bed vegetable gardening:
1. takes time and effort to build
2. some cost involved unless you can recycle materials in your garden
3. beds may need more watering in hot weather
Making your raised bed:
1. When making a raised vegetable bed you can use a variety of materials to build it. A raised
bed can be free standing in the sense of mounding your existing soil. This works well if you
already have good soil and you just want it to warm up quicker in the spring. Built raised
beds can be placed almost anywhere in your garden layout.

26. Choosing the Site
Vegetables grow best in an open, level area where the
soil is loose, rich, and well drained. If the quality of
the soil is poor, mix in 2-3 inches of topsoil, peat
moss, strawy manure, compost, or leaves plus
fertilizer. The more organic matter or topsoil you
add, the more you’ll improve your soil. Avoid heavy
clays, sandy soils, and shady spots

27. Clearance with Trees and Shrubs
Vegetables grow best in an open, level area where the soil is
loose, rich, and well drained. If the quality of the soil is poor,
mix in 2-3 inches of topsoil, peat moss, straw manure,
compost, or leaves plus fertilizer.
Sunlight: Most vegetable garden plants need full sun to thrive
and produce their best. (Full sun means at least 6 hours of
direct sun during the day.) Realistically, you may not have this
ideal spot. So if you’ll be tilling a new garden, what’s most
important? Number one is sunlight. You can improve soil and
build windbreaks, but you can’t move the sun! So choose the
sunniest spot you garden.

28. Start with Design

Do you want to create a kitchen garden that's as beautiful to look at
as it is productive? Start by banishing the idea of a single, vast patch
of upturned earth with regiment after regiment of linearly disposed
vegetables marching across it. Instead embrace the idea of growing
vegetables in a decorative, multiple-parterre planting within a
fenced or walled space. You have now opened the door to a far more
pleasurable experience on every level. More soothing to be in. Far
easier to work.
 The first step on this journey is to eliminate the prototypical
rectangle from your vocabulary and let your mind wander freely
over all the other geometric possibilities. Picture an octagonal
garden. Or a square one with semicircular island beds, or one
further divided into pie-wedged beds, or even a quartet of rooms.
How about an enfilade of smaller plots linked by fruit trees trained
into arbor form, chaining across a lawn or encircling a central water
feature?

29. Soil
Choose the spot in your yard that has the best
soil. You may be able to distinguish the quality
of your soil by looking at your lawn. If it looks
lush and healthy, then the soil supporting it is
probably good for a garden. Don't pick the spot
where the lawn is the worst, and figure you can get
out of reseeding by locating your garden there. And
avoid low spots that stay wet in the spring.

30. Protection from wind:
Strong winds dry out plants and soil, and can topple
tall plants like corn and sunflowers. Wind is a little
harder to plan for, but if you have the choice, choose
a spot that is protected from your area’s prevailing
winds. If your worst winds come from the north,
then a garden on the south edge of a row of trees will
receive some protection. Just be sure your windbreak
doesn’t shade your garden! You can set up a snow
fence or plant some low shrubs to help break the
wind without sacrificing sunlight.

31. Water:
Locate your garden near a water source, or have
hoses that will reach it. (Underground soaker hoses
save water and time, so consider installing them
before you plant.)

32. Choosing Varieties
How do you choose among all those luscious-
sounding tomato varieties! (Especially if you are
looking at photos on a cold January day!) Though
there’s nothing wrong with choosing a variety
because you like how it looks, you may
want to consider some other characteristics that can
make your job as gardener a little easier.

33. Disease Resistance
1. There are cultivars (cultivated varieties) of many
garden plants that have shown resistance to certain
pests. If you
2. know a pest is common in your region, by all means
choose a resistant variety! If you don’t know what
pests you
3. might encounter, you might want to plant a few
disease-resistant plants

34. Short or Long Season
If you like to have the first ripe tomatoes on the
block, or you live in a region with relatively short
summers, choose varieties that mature the fastest.
Some tomato varieties, for example, ripen 60 days
after transplanting, while others need 85 days or
more to maturity.

35. Growing Habit
Bush beans, as the name implies, grow as small,
freestanding plants, while pole beans need
something to climb.
Some types of squash grow in compact form,
while others need lots of space for their vines to
run

36. Hybrid or Open-Pollinated
Hybrid plants often are more productive and
disease-resistant than open-pollinated (non-hybrid)
varieties. However, there’s a drawback. If you like to
save seed at the end of the season for planting the
following year, avoid hybrids. Their seed doesn’t
come true -- that is, the resulting offspring plants
may not have all the positive characteristics of the
parent plant.

37. Seeds or Transplants?
 Which seeds should you sow directly in the garden, and which do better if
you plant them as seedlings (either purchasing transplants or starting the
seeds indoors yourself)?
 Many garden plants do just fine when you sow the seed directly in the
garden. These plants usually mature relatively fast; so direct sowing works
well. Plants with taproots, such as carrots, generally don’t transplant well,
so it’s best to start them from seed right in the garden too.
 Other plants have long growing seasons, or must be planted outdoors in
early spring so they mature before the hot weather arrives. These do best
when set in the garden as transplants.
 Direct sow: Beans, beets, carrots, corn, lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard,
peas, radish, potato
 Plant transplants:
 Broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, cabbage, peppers, tomatoes, okra,
asparagus, rhubarb You can go either way with these: Cucumbers, squash,
muskmelon, watermelon, pumpkins, gourds

38. Size of Kitchen Garden
If you are new to gardening, you may wish to start with a relatively small
garden, say 10 foot x 20 foot.
Enthusiastic novices often till up a huge garden area, and then abandon it
to the weeds by July. A small, well-tended garden will produce more than
more than a large, neglected one
Single rows or wide-row beds?
If space is at a premium, creating 3- to 4-foot-wide beds will allow you to
grow more plants than if you plant in long single rows because less space
is wasted on paths. Plants in wide rows are spaced closer together, making
it easier to weed, feed, and water them.
Wide-row plantings do not have to be raised-bed plantings, but like raised
beds, the width of the row should be such that you can easily reach the
center of the bed from each side (3 to 4 feet)

39. Square Foot Gardening
Square-foot gardening is a form of intensive
gardening where you block off squares of space for
crops rather than planting them in rows. The name
comes from partitioning blocks of gardens space
that are 1 ft by 1 ft. Each square holds a different
vegetable, flower, or herb. These small 1-foot
squares are grouped together into blocks
Measuring 4 ft by 4 ft square.