Kitchen garden

Kitchen garden is a type of garden where herbs, vegetables, and fruits are grown for household use. It is a feature of many traditional residential gardens.

Michelle Obama harvests vegetables with students in the White House Kitchen Garden, 2013

History

The concept of kitchen garden has its roots in the self-sufficiency of rural life where every home would have a plot of land for growing vegetables and fruits. This tradition continues in many cultures to this day.

Types of Kitchen Gardens

There are several types of kitchen gardens, including potager, a French style of kitchen garden, and the Victorian kitchen garden that was popular in England during the Victorian era.

Potager

A potager is a French term for an ornamental vegetable or kitchen garden. The historical design precedent is from the Gardens of the French Renaissance and Baroque Garden à la française eras. Often flowers (edible and non-edible) and herbs are planted with the vegetables to enhance the garden's beauty. The goal is to make the function of providing food aesthetically pleasing.

Victorian Kitchen Garden

In the 19th century, the Victorian kitchen garden was the source of herbs, vegetables and fruits for the household. This was made possible by the development of new glass-making technologies that allowed the construction of large greenhouses and the trend towards a more scientific approach to gardening.

Benefits

Kitchen gardens have many benefits. They provide fresh produce that is free from pesticides and other chemicals, they can save money on grocery bills, and they can be a source of physical exercise and mental relaxation.

See Also

• Victorian decorative arts
• French formal garden
• English landscape garden
• History of gardening
• Herb garden
• Orchard
• Vineyard