Kitchen garden design ideas.   The kitchen garden is often associated with large country estates, where formal beds are arranged around a central feature all enclosed by a brick garden wall.  Although true, the kitchen garden is also a must for anyone who has a garden, however small and enjoys growing.  The fact that plant groups have different nutrient requirements gave way to the practice of crop rotation.  Without crop rotation the soil would soon become diseased and of poor nutrient quality.   The four basic plant groups for growers are Salads, Root crops, Onions and Potato (includes tomato and peppers).  Although the potato family can remain in the same area, it is still good practice to rotate.  Visit RHS site for more detail.  With the need to rotate crops, the growing garden area was divided into separate beds and the kitchen garden was formed.  Here are 5 kitchen garden design ideas to consider:

  1. Traditional formal design- layout four beds of equal size and shape centered around a central feature.  Position in a sunny part of the garden near the house if possible;
  2. Edging for beds- there is a wide choice of edging materials, take a look at Victorian edging, sandstone setts and terracotta bricks;
  3. Pathway materials- consider your overall design and choose between brick pathways, gravel or paving;
  4. Central feature ideas- the central feature could be a physical feature such as a millstone or a herb garden planter;
  5. Enclosure ideas- of course a brick wall would be perfect, but for most this is not practical and too expensive, so consider creating a single feature wall with espalier trained fruit trees.