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In this module we explore the most initimate zone of production within a permaculture system, zone 1 - the kitchen garden.
In the design of a kitchen garden, the aim to grow a diversity of edible plants, most likely based around annuals to provide the basis of cooking with fresh, nutrient-dense and organic produce to invigorate your life and optimise your performance.
There are a variety of suitable permaculture techniques that can be applied that include: sheet mulching, making compost, using plant guilds, growing in covered spaces or under glasshouse.
In the design of a kitchen garden, the aim to grow a diversity of edible plants, most likely based around annuals to provide the basis of cooking with fresh, nutrient-dense and organic produce to invigorate your life and optimise your performance.
There are a variety of suitable permaculture techniques that can be applied that include: sheet mulching, making compost, using plant guilds, growing in covered spaces or under glasshouse.
EBook
| kitchen_garden.pdf |
Online Resources
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Planning Your Garden
The kitchen garden represents zone 1, an intense area of production which is an area of production that most strongly represents the unique character of the owner. On a broader landscape the patterns adopted within designs must harmonise with those adopted by natural systems within similar conditions in order to be most efficient, diverse and productive. But within the kitchen garden there is more opportunity to adopt a wider variety of patterns which may have little relevance to the patterns seen within similar natural systems, but more reflect the unique character of the designer.
Often the guiding principles adopted are those of efficiency of space, maximum area in garden bed, minimum area in path and to inter-connect comparative systems to allows for easier exchange of resource between them and to save time in regular management tasks.
The main points of reference in designing a kitchen garden are access points and boundaries to different systems.
The access points are often from the house 'kitchen' and into the garden from the main pathway to the house and from other systems such as neighboring orchards. These access points represent a flow of energy and resources into the kitchen garden, from which elements are patterned to maximum beneficial connectivity to provide resilience to that garden system and economy of energy and resources use to maintain those systems.
To make the best use of this flow of resources elements that require more frequent maintenance should be located along these pathways, which is commonly herb beds, vegetable gardens and worm bins. Further away from the main paths you could place edible tree species and along boundary lines, shelter and privacy trees. In these spaces chickens can also be incorporated for eating kitchen scraps, collection of eggs and meat. They are also beneficial in breaking pest cycles on fallen fruit and turning over mulch around fruit trees along with helpful addition of phosphorous rich manure.
If this system connects to a bigger system it would also be beneficial to connect to an orchard from the area housing chickens, so that they can free range through that area and add their beneficial function to it.
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The sketch opposite illustrates some of the design considerations in creation of a kitchen garden.
Starting from the driveway access to the property and the border of the house work outwards to locate elements that require more frequent attention closer to the house and within easy picking access. With this in mind pick again herbs line the driveway for people to access easily and a path leads off the driveways leading to mounded garden beds for vegetables. With the intensive use of the property this has been patterned off a fern to give extra visual appeal Also prominent in the design is a feature herb spiral that can be seen by people walking down the pathway. Such herb spirals allow a wide variety of different herbs to be grown in the same area that require quite different growing conditions as far as moisture, soil type and sun exposure by locating them at different positions on the spiral. |
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Curves within the garden can embrace circular spaces that maximise garden bed area and can take the edge off angular areas.
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