The kitchen garden is where all the lessons so far come together: in Zone 1, right outside the door, in the sun, on living soil, watered by the rain you've caught. It's the part of the homestead your family will touch every single day.
The French call it a potager: a kitchen garden designed to be beautiful as well as useful, with vegetables, herbs and flowers growing together in tidy beds. That's the goal here. Not a muddy row crop at the back of the property, but a lovely, productive room you step into from the kitchen.
- 1Lay out beds and paths that are easy to reach and easy to tend.
- 2Work out how much space your family needs.
- 3Time plantings around your frost dates for harvests from spring to fall.
- 4Plant companions and rotate crops to keep the garden healthy.
- 5Water wisely and start saving your own seed.
Layout: beds, paths and sun
- Beds no wider than you can reach. Three to 4 ft wide lets you reach the middle from either side, so you never step on the soil and pack it down.
- Paths you can actually use. At least 18–24 inches between beds, and one main path about 3 ft wide for a wheelbarrow.
- Tall plants on the north side. Trellises, corn and staked tomatoes go at the north end so they don't shade the short crops (in the Southern Hemisphere, the south end).
- Six to eight hours of sun. Most vegetables need at least that. Use the shadow calculator from Lesson 1 to check winter and summer shade.
- Water and compost close by. A spigot or rain barrel and the compost bins should be steps away, not across the yard.
Keyhole bed
A round bed with a notch to stand in and a compost basket at the center. Kitchen scraps go in the middle and feed the whole bed.
Herb spiral
A spiral of stone or brick rising to the center. Drought-loving herbs like rosemary and thyme go at the dry top; mint and parsley at the moist bottom.
How much to grow
Most first gardens are too big. A small garden that's well tended will feed you better than a large one that gets away from you in July. Start with what your family likes to eat, and size the garden to fit.
How much garden do you need?
| Crop | Plants per person | Plants per sq ft | Sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tomatoes | 1 | ||
| Peppers | 1 | ||
| Lettuce (each planting) | 4 | ||
| Carrots | 16 | ||
| Bush beans | 9 | ||
| Peas | 8 | ||
| Onions | 9 | ||
| Garlic | 9 | ||
| Kale | 1 | ||
| Zucchini | 1 per 4 sq ft | ||
| Cucumbers | 2 | ||
| Basil | 4 |
Spacing follows the common square-foot method. Plants per person are starting points drawn from garden planning guides; adjust to what your family really eats.
For a family of four, a first garden of about three 4 × 8 ft beds is plenty to start. Add a bed each year as your skills and soil grow.
Through the seasons
Vegetables fall into two families: cool-season crops that like spring and fall, and warm-season crops that need summer heat and die at the first frost. Your average last spring frost and first fall frost dates set the calendar.
Spring and fall
Peas, lettuce, spinach, kale, radishes, carrots, beets, onions, potatoes. Many handle a light frost.
After the last frost
Tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers, beans, corn, basil. Frost kills them, and cold soil stalls them.
Succession planting
Sow small amounts every 2–3 weeks, and replant each bed as soon as one crop finishes.
Plants that help each other
Nature rarely grows one plant alone. Mixing plants confuses pests, draws in helpful insects and makes better use of space.
The Three Sisters
Long before European settlers arrived, the Haudenosaunee and many other Native nations grew corn, beans and squash together. The corn gives the beans a pole to climb. The beans, like all legumes, partner with soil bacteria to add nitrogen. The squash's big leaves shade the soil, hold moisture and discourage weeds. Planted together, they also make a balanced diet.
Flowers and herbs in the beds
| Plant | Why it's there |
|---|---|
| Calendula, cosmos, sunflowers | Bring in bees, hoverflies and other helpful insects |
| Borage | A bee favorite with edible flowers |
| Nasturtiums | Edible leaves and flowers; aphids often go to them first |
| Dill, cilantro, parsley (in flower) | Tiny flowers feed the small wasps and flies that eat pests |
| Marigolds | Bright edging that many gardeners use to deter some pests |
Rotate the families
Plants in the same family share pests and diseases. Move each family to a new bed each year, on a three- or four-year cycle.
Tomato family
Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, potatoes
Legumes
Peas and beans, which add nitrogen
Leaves and cabbages
Kale, cabbage, broccoli, lettuce
Roots and onions
Carrots, beets, onions, garlic
Watering and saving seed
- Most gardens need about 1 inch of water a week, from rain plus watering
- Water the soil, not the leaves, in the morning
- Drip lines or soaker hoses under mulch waste the least
- Push a finger 2 inches down: if it's dry, water
Choose open-pollinated or heirloom varieties, which grow true from saved seed (most hybrids, labeled F1, don't). Beans, peas, lettuce and tomatoes are the easiest place to start. Save from your best plants, dry the seed well, and store it cool, dark and labeled.
Saved seed adapts to your land a little more each year. In a few seasons, your family can be growing its own beans and tomatoes, chosen and shared from your own garden, and handed on to the next generation.
Plan and plant one bed
Start with one 4 × 8 ft bed. Plan it square by square on paper, build it with the sheet-mulch method from Lesson 3, and plant it together.
You'll need
- Graph paper and colored pencils
- Cardboard, compost and mulch (Lesson 3)
- String and eight small stakes to mark the one-foot grid
- Seeds or starts your family chose
- Plant labels
- Your average frost dates
Do it together
- Choose the crops. Each person picks two things they love to eat that are in season now.
- Plan it on paper. Draw a grid of 32 squares and fill each one using the plants-per-square numbers. Tall plants on the north end.
- Build the bed with cardboard, compost and mulch, in full sun and close to water.
- String the grid into one-foot squares so everyone can see the plan.
- Plant and label each square, then water it in deeply.
- Keep a garden log of planting dates, first sprouts and first harvests.
Little gardeners
- Poke holes with a finger and drop in big seeds like peas and beans
- Make and decorate the labels
- Check daily for sprouts and draw them
Older gardeners
- Plan the full square-foot grid and count the plants
- Work out planting dates from your frost dates
- Weigh and record each harvest through the season
Add the bed to your base map, and save your garden log. Next year's rotation starts from it.
A table set from the garden
There's a particular joy in sending a child out the kitchen door with a basket and having them come back with dinner: a handful of beans, a few tomatoes still warm from the sun, a bunch of herbs. It teaches more than any book about where food comes from, and about the patient work of tending something living.
Next, we add animals to the system: bees, chickens and small livestock that work alongside the garden.
Your Lesson 5 worksheet
Work through these together. Your answers save on this device as you type, and print cleanly for your records.
Progress record
What this lesson practices:
- MathArea, multiplication and division with real measurements (Common Core 3.MD.C.7, 4.MD.A.3); rates (6.RP.A.3).
- SciencePlant needs, life cycles and interdependence; pollinators and seed dispersal (NGSS 2-LS2-1, 2-LS2-2, 3-LS1-1).
- HistoryNative American agriculture and the Three Sisters.
- Life skillsPlanning a season, keeping records and growing food for the family.
Standards mapping is a draft. If you use charter or ESA funds, confirm it with your education specialist.