Vegetables are defined as non-woody, herbaceous plants with edible vegetative parts. There are different types of vegetable gardens including kitchen gardens for home use, market gardens for local sales, and processing gardens that grow crops for canning or freezing factories. India is the second largest producer of vegetables globally, though per capita availability is still below recommended levels. Growing vegetables intensively in various types of gardens can improve food security and farmer incomes.

1. Vegetables and Vegetable
gardens
Anshul Phaugat

2. Topics covered :
• What is vegetable?
• Difference between fruit and vegetables.
• Importance in economy
• Vegetable Gardens
• Types of vegetable gardens

3. What is Vegetable?
• Latin origin: “vegetabilis” meaning- growing, flourishing.
• The definition varies from reference to reference.
• Most widely accepted definition “the non-woody,
herbaceous plant which has edible vegetative parts such as
leaves, stem, roots etc”.
• Botanically, the plants with only fruits and seeds as edible
part are not considered vegetables.

4. Difference between fruit and vegetables

5. FRUIT
• The edible part is the fruit
or seeds.
• The nature is always acidic.
• Woody and taller plant
VEGETABLE
• The edible parts are the vegetative
parts.
• The nature is either neutral or
alkaline.
• Non woody and shorter plant

6. Importance in economy
• India is the world’s second largest producer of vegetables next only to China.
• Vegetable crops in India occupy only 2.8% of the total cultivated land producing
87.5 million tonnes of vegetables annually including potato from an area of 5.8
million ha.
• India shares 12% of world production of vegetables with a productivity of about 15
tonnes per ha which is quite low as compared to many countries.
• The present production is not sufficient to meet the requirement of 285g of
vegetables, on an average, per capita per day. At present our per capita availability is
around 145g per day.
• Vegetable crops give higher yield per unit area as compared to other crops.

7. • Most of the vegetables, if properly grown, can give six to ten times more yield than
any cereal crop. Presently, yield per unit area of most of the vegetables in India is
very low.
• There exists lot of scope for increasing yield in most of the vegetables by growing
high yielding varieties/hybrids and adopting improved production technologies.
• This will ensure a balanced diet to the common man and a higher income 'to the
farmers. This will also generate additional farm employment.
• Cultivation of vegetable crops being more labour intensive than cereal crops will be
helpful for seasonally under-employed farm workers in increasing their income.
• Most vegetable crops are of short-duration. With proper planning, three or more
crops can be grown in the same plot in one year

8. Vegetable Gardens
• classification was suggested by Thompson and Kelly.
• basis of production and utilization of the products.

9. Types of vegetable gardens
1. Kitchen garden
2. Market garden
3. Truck garden
4. Vegetable garden for processing
5. Vegetable garden for seed production
6. Vegetable forcing
7. Floating vegetable garden

10. Kitchen Garden
• Defined as growing of vegetable crops in the residential houses or in
their vicinity to meet vegetable requirements of the family through
out the year.
• Most ancient type of vegetable garden.
• The extensiveness vary from place to place i.e. rural areas have more
extensive practices than the city areas.
• Roof or verandah gardens are developed in the cities.
• Vertical gardens are becoming popular in the recent times.

12. Important points:
• Land should preferably be selected in the backyard of the house.
Rectangular shape is preferred to the square one.
• The lay out should allow access to all parts of the garden.
• Quick growing fruit trees e.g. papaya, kagzi lime etc. should be located
on north side of the garden so that they do not shade other crops.
• Climbers e.g. cucumber, pea etc. can be trained on the fence.
• Several sowings or succession of sowings of one particular crop e.g.
fenugreek, radish, okra, cauliflower, etc., at short intervals should be
done to ensure a steady supply of vegetables for a longer period.

13. • Ridges which separate the beds should be utilized for growing root
vegetables e.g. radish, turnip etc.
• Inter-space of slow growing crops e.g. cauliflower, cabbage, eggplant
etc. should be used for quick growing crops like turnip, radish, leaf
beet etc.

14. Selection of the crops:
• Selection of crops for kitchen garden depends on two factors i.e. size
of the garden and choice of the family.
• Only those vegetables are grown which are suited to the region and
produce satisfactory yield.
• The cultivars should be selected according to the suitability for the
region and season.
• Preference is given to those crops where freshness is important from
the edibility and food value point of view.

15. Name of vegetable Spacing (cm) Name of vegetable Spacing (cm)
Bottle gourd 80 x 45 Mint 15 x 15
Onion 15 x 7.5 Cabbage 45 x 30
Radish 45 x 7.5 Long melon 80 x 30
Garlic 15 x 7.5 Sweet potato 60 x 30
Lettuce 45 x 30 Cauliflower 45 x 30
Coriander 15 x 10 Pea 30 x 7.5
Brinjal 45 x 30 Okra 45 x 15
Turnip 45 x 7.5 Arvi 45 x 20
Chili 60 x 45 Broccoli 45 x 30
Methi 15 x 10 Carrot 45 x 7.5
Amaranthus 45 x 30 Cucumber 80 x 30
Palak 15 x 5 Tomato 80 x 30
Cowpea 30 x 15 capsicum 60 x 30
Sponge gourd 80 x 45

16. Market Gardens

17. Market Gardens
• Farms those produce vegetables for supply to consumers in the local
market is called a market garden.
• The ultimate aim of vegetable production in market gardens is their
quick disposal in nearby market.
• Market gardens were located at a distance of 10-15 km from the cities
• The farmers adopt intensive cultivation to earn maximum profit from
small to medium land holdings.
• It will grow early maturing varieties to catch the early market.
• To fetch remunerative price in the market, farmers adopt cultivation of
early/ off-season vegetables.
• The grower also needs to develop good marketing skills as no middleman
is involved in disposal of the produce

18. Trunk Gardens

19. Trunk Gardens
• The word truck has been derived from French word ‘troquer’ meaning
‘to barter’.
• Such farms are located far away from the center of consumption
preferably by the side of rail route or metallic roads.
• Price of land and labour is comparatively lower.
• Only few crops of semi perishable nature are grown on large area. E.g.
Onion, Green chilies.
• Cost of transportation is high.
• Mechanization is followed partly or wholly.
• The cost of cultivation is less.

20. Vegetable forcing

21. Vegetable forcing:
• It is the method of growing the vegetables out of their normal season
in net houses, green houses, glass houses and under other artificial
growing conditions.
• Most common forcing structures are glass-houses and glass-frames.
• In Indian condition vegetable forcing is not possible because the
consumers cannot afford the prices of such vegetables.

22. Characteristics of vegetable forcing:
• Cost of production is higher than other method of vegetable
production.
• Various structures viz., green house, cold frames etc are required
for forcing vegetables.
• The cultivation is most intensive.
• It requires special technical knowledge.
• Environment is controlled artificially.
• It is a sort of specialized demand oriented programme.
• Few vegetable crops such as tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, asparagus etc
are grown in this type of farming.

23. Vegetable garden for processing

24. Vegetable garden for processing
• The main objective of this type of gardening is to produce the
vegetables for supply to processing factories.
• These gardens are situated around the factories and grow the kind
of varieties required by the factories.
• This type of gardens in India are very limited due to lack of processing
factories. But, the prospects of future development are quite bright as
the processing industries are growing up fast.

25. Characteristics of Vegetable garden for
processing
• Cultivation is less intensive with low cost of production
• Market is assured.
• Vegetables are grown on contract basis.
• Specific kinds of varieties of vegetables are cultivated.
• Heavier soils are preferred over lighter soils.

26. Suitable crops for various methods of
preservation
Canning Tomatoes, Peas, Beans, Okra, Pointed gourd, Sweet
corn, Asparagus
Freezing Peas, Sweet corn, Lima beans, Asparagus, Cauliflower,
Spinach.
Dehydrated Onion, Potato, Cauliflower, Peas, Cauliflower, etc.,
Pickling and
fermentation
Turnip, Cucumbers, Cabbage, Cauliflower,
Carrot, Chili, and Radish.

27. Vegetable seed production garden

28. Vegetable seed production garden
• The main objective to produce quality seeds on large scale under the
inspection of an organization.
• Climate, soil, diseases free conditions are factors influencing the
location of seed growing areas.
• The owner of garden should have thorough knowledge of the crop, its
growth habit, mode of pollination, isolation distance required and
time of rouging etc.
• The knowledge about curing, threshing, cleaning, grading, packing
and storage is also essential.
• This is an expanding industry in India and also profitable to the
growers.

29. Characteristics of Vegetable garden for seed
production
• Vegetables are produced mainly for seeds under strict supervision of
specialists.
• Vegetables are produced on contract basis in suitable climatic
conditions.
• The practices such as isolation, frequent rouging of off types is
essential to maintain the purity of the seed.
• Highly skilled labour is employed.
• High investment for control of pests and diseases.

30. Floating Vegetable Garden

31. Floating Vegetable Garden
• The vegetables are grown in water on a floating base like boat.
• These floating gardens can be seen in Dal lake of Kashmir valley. In
such areas where land is submerged in water, this type of gardening
can be followed.
• A floating base is made from the roots of typha grass or any other
similar type of material.
• The floating base is kept in the water and seedlings are transplanted
on leaf compost made out of the local vegetation growing in the area.
• According to the need of the crop, inter cultural operations can be
done by sitting in boats. Most of the summer season vegetables are
supplied from Dal Lake to Srinagar.