Incorporating an edible kitchen garden onto your property is a wonderful way to have farm-to-table convenience and grow your favorite foods. The fresh fruits and vegetables will not only be delicious but add texture and color to your garden. You just need to find the perfect spot on your property to grow a garden, with plenty of sunshine. If you wish to have year-round crops, consider a greenhouse.
Your edible kitchen gardens can be planted in raised containers of wood boxes, pallets, and troughs or planted in the ground with edging. Landscape edging is very useful because it keeps the stones in place on the path and stops soil from washing away from the vegetable beds when it rains. Also, the edging prevents the plants from growing into the path.
If you are looking to save time on garden chores, landscape edging can help because it is a physical barrier that stops weeds from encroaching on vegetable or flower beds. A vegetable garden can be decorative as well as functional with the thoughtful use of texture, color, and shape. Continue below to see some fantastic ideas on how to create your own edible kitchen garden.
Tell Us: Do you enjoy growing fruits, veggies, and herbs? Which one of these edible kitchen garden ideas do you find most inspiring? Let us know in the Comments!
1. Farmhouse Style Garden. This farm produces over fifty varieties of vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers; most of which are rare and hard to source locally. There is also a variety of fruits including plums, pluots, nectarines, apricots, apples, figs, peaches, guavas, avocados, olives, pomegranates, persimmons, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and ten different types of citrus.
The remaining areas consist of drought-tolerant sweeps of rosemary, lavender, rockrose, and sage all of which attract butterflies and hummingbirds. See the rest of this home here: New England stone farmhouse offers an entertaining oasis in Brentwood. (via Ward Jewell Architect)
2. Urban Food Forest. A Classic Portland bungalow was transformed into an urban food forest. These raised natural cedar beds are filled with a mix of edible plants. Crushed rock pathways surround the beds. (via Renee Wilkinson Landscapes)
3. Raised Planters With Corrugated Metal. These raised containers are filled with vegetables and herbs, conveniently located in the backyard just off the dining patio. There is also an outdoor sink and potting bench. (via Stone Bridge Homes)
4. Large Galvanized Troughs. The troughs are filled with planted veggies in the side yard. Gravel surrounds the troughs for pathways, while several mature oak trees and a stunning Golden Locust tree transform this outdoor space into a welcoming retreat. (via Dig Your Garden Landscape Design)
5. Fenced Garden. A classic fenced vegetable garden integrated into an existing landscape serves as a focal point. The fencing helps to prevent animals from eating your crops and an attractive design can add visual interest to your property. (via Land Design)
6. Raised Veggie Beds. A sunny backyard garden next to the swimming pool of a Northern California home features raised beds filled with a variety of vegetables. Be sure to add vegetable garden markers so you know what you have planted. (via Shades Of Green Landscape Architecture)
7. Raised Ceder Garden. Custom multi-level raised cedar beds are planted with a variety of vegetables. The soil in a pallet collar for growing vegetables needs to be nutritious, mulchy, and well-drained regardless of location. Make optimal use of the surface in the pallet collar, by combining things that climb, such as tomatoes, cucumbers, sugar snap peas, and beans in the upper pallet. In the bottom pallets, combine veggies with leaves or stems such as lettuce, spinach, cabbage, and chard. (via Aloe Designs)
8. Farmhouse Garden Oasis. The planter boxes are comprised of galvanized siding, concrete corners, and bluestone caps. The material is called galvanized pan sheeting and is most often used for large building construction for forming concrete floors and forms. Gravel is used for the pathways around the garden. (via Michael Tebb Design)
9. Raised Beds Landscape. A country retreat in Maryland features beautiful edible gardens in front of a barn-style potting shed. Plant veggies and herbs in these raised garden boxes. A flagstone pathway traverses through the garden that is protected from animals with fencing. Lighting helps to illuminate this space at night. (via Rill Architects)
10. Billowing Vegetable Gardens. This beautiful garden in Littleton, Colorado has low-lying beds comprised of treated timber, an arbor, pathways, and festive lighting. Vegetables include cucumber and zucchini in the front right planter bed and yellow squash and onion in the back right.
There is roughly a 4″ difference between the top cap and soil level in the boxes. The pavers are 16″ x 24″ and about 2″ thick. The pathways consist of a 3/8″ minus crushed granite with dimensional cut Watermark buff flagstone. There is a 4″ galvanized green roll-top steel edger that holds the gravel in. (via Watermark Landscape & Design)
11. Bocce Ball Court Garden. These custom fabricated 1/4″ Cor-ten steel planter boxes are positioned right next to a bocce ball court of a home in Venice, California. The size of the boxes is 3’x3′ x 16″. Paint the interior with Rubberizit non-toxic rubber compound. This keeps any metal from leaching into the soil. The gravel pathway is a 3/8″ crushed rock. The bocce ball court is about 45′ long by 10′ wide. (via Huettl Landscape Architecture)
12. Ornamental Blues. This attractive garden features cabbages, kale, and other leafy greens. The plant that is edging the bed is a variety of basil which is a culinary herb. There is a variety of basil called ‘Boxwood’ (Ocimum basilicum ‘Boxwood’) that has small leaves and a compact, rounded shape. There are three elements to this attractive design – the plants, the path with the white stones, and the landscape edging that separate the path and the vegetable beds.
13. Farm To Table. Working with the grading of the land, raised beds were cut into the landscape. Two of these cedar-raised beds are 18′ long giving this homeowner a large canvas for growing veggies. Growing in this outdoor garden oasis are berry bushes, and fruit trees, alongside tomatoes, beans, peppers, and more. (via EARL’s Kitchen Gardens)
14. The Veggie Patch. A beautiful Mediterranean-style garden in Santa Barbara features lush landscaping surrounding an edible kitchen garden. The garden perimeter stone is 4″ x 12″ tumbled Cherokee. (via Jonathan Raith & Company)
15. Cottage-Style Garden. A flourishing vegetable garden is surrounded by an orchard and blossoming display gardens. There is also an outdoor kitchen near the garden for convenient farm-to-table. To grow your vegetables you will need rich soil with plenty of nutrients such as Miracle Grow soil for in-ground use. (via Mariani Landscape)
16. Wine Country Edible. Fruits, vegetables, and herbs grow in this mixed garden of raised wooden planters and fence climbers. The fence helps to protect this garden from invading critters. A bubbling fountain creates a soothing element in this garden oasis, while a bench offers a relaxing spot to sit and enjoy the fruits of your labor. (via Christian Douglas Design)
17. Raised Garden Beds. This contemporary farmhouse in Napa Valley features a kitchen farm-to-table garden. The garden beds are a lower grade of cedar. The pathway ground material is a coarse decomposed granite with 4 inches covering a substrate of gravel.
18. Raised Cedar Box Vegetable Garden. Raised planter boxes arranged to maximize light and microclimate conditions. A greenhouse is at the center of the grow zone, while a potting shed is at the bottom. The ground cover is Autumn crushed gravel. (via Metamorphic Design)