Roger Doiron has made it his life’s mission to encourage and support those who like to grow food, even if it means ruffling the feathers of city and town officials who think food gardens belong out of sight. Roger’s plan is a great stepping-off point for those would-be gardeners who are unsure of how and where to start. Though just 10 by 10 feet, this small garden provides enough space to make a dent in the weekly grocery bill and introduce some basic gardening concepts.
Roger’s basic design is small enough for all but the tiniest properties. Roger says that it’s best to start with a small garden, so that you can gain an understanding of growing vegetables without being overwhelmed. One of the biggest mistakes a novice gardener can make is going too big too fast. A kitchen garden should be a place of enjoyment. Tending your plants is good for both the body and the soul, and once you are comfortable with the yearly rhythm of growing a garden, you can always expand your current plot.
Roger’s garden has six beds, each measuring just 21/2 by 41/2 feet. An easy way to build up beds is to shovel the soil from the pathways on top of the growing areas and add compost or aged manure to enrich the native soil. One-foot pathways separate the beds and allow ease of seeding, tending, and harvesting. To keep the paths clean and mud-free, mulch them with several inches of straw, shredded leaves, or bark mulch. Alternatively, you can pave the paths with stepping stones or bricks.
What to grow? When trying to decide what to grow, Roger encourages gardeners to think about what they and their families like to eat. You may also want to grow vegetables that are expensive to buy if grown organically — such as leeks, heirloom tomatoes, and eggplant — or those that are hard to find. Roger has included a selection of traditional favorites in his design, but feel free to substitute other crops that pique your interest.
Try interplanting. To get more out of your space — and more bang for your buck — use interplanting, a common technique that allows you to grow more than one crop in the same space. Simply sow seeds of fast-maturing crops like salad greens between slower-growing vegetables such as peppers, broccoli, and cabbage. You can plant successive crops of salad plants like lettuce, arugula, spinach, and Asian greens — sowing fresh seed in beds that have just been harvested.
To supply fresh herbs to the kitchen, Roger’s plan also includes common but indispensible flavorings such as dill, thyme, parsley, spearmint, and basil. The mint, which has an extremely aggressive growth habit, should be grown in a pot beside the garden so it doesn’t take over the entire plot. The herbs also increase the productivity of the vegetable crops because if allowed to flower they, along with the edible nasturtiums, attract beneficial and pollinating insects.
Make it enjoyable. No matter what you choose to grow in your kitchen garden, remember Roger’s most important words of advice: “Have fun!” He recalls a conversation he had with a gardening friend who pointed out that, unlike our ancestors, gardening for us is a choice, not a necessity in order to ensure survival. “For us, there’s a Plan B — the grocery store — if all of our best-laid garden plans go up in flames (or to the deer),” he says. “Knowing that should allow us to approach each season with lightness and a ‘what will be, will be’ attitude.”
“When we encourage people to grow some of their own food, we’re encouraging them to take power into their hands: power over their diet, power over their health, and power over their pocketbooks.”
—Roger Doiron, from his TED talk “A Subversive Plot: How to Grow a Revolution in Your Own Backyard”
Growing some of your own vegetables and herbs can save money, but it will also introduce you to the incredible flavors of outstanding heirloom and hybrid varieties like the ones listed below.
1. Tomatoes
2. Peppers
3. Basil
4. Cucumbers
5. Zucchini
6. Carrots
7. Beets
8. Radishes
9. Lettuce mix
10. Spinach
11. Dill
12. Thyme
13. Spearmint (potted)
14. Parsley
15. Nasturtiums
16. Leeks
17. Onions
18. Garlic
19. Kale
20. Swiss chard
21. Pole beans on teepees
22. Eggplants