What is a Vegetable Garden and Why Would You Want One?

Vegetable garden, vegetable plot, vegetable patch. Which is the correct term? Does it matter? Will you be thought pretentious if you call your vegetable plot a potager or kitchen garden? Is there a difference between a vegetable garden and a kitchen garden?

Sometimes it seems that deciding to grow your own vegetables is fraught with difficulties before you even put spade to earth to dig!

So, before we get onto some good reasons why having your own vegetable garden or vegetable patch could be a good idea lets have a look at what it is. Some of these definitions are accepted across the gardening fraternity, some are more fluid in their description.

Personally, I see the terms vegetable garden, vegetable plot and vegetable patch as describing the same basic type of garden but in decreasing size. Synonyms for the growing of vegetables, if you like! These are all places in which you grow vegetables for predominantly domestic use.

Vegetable Garden

A vegetable garden may be large enough to supply an extended household of family and staff, or a small restaurant. It may be a small commercial venture, although this is more likely to be termed a market garden. However, the term could also be used to describe a good-sized area for growing vegetables within a large garden of, say, 3 acres.

Some people would allow certain fruit, salads and herbs to also be grown in a vegetable garden. (see Kitchen garden below). However, whilst salad vegetables would come under the heading of vegetables, and there are a few herbs which could also be included, the majority of fruit is, um, fruit. And by this definition, should be grown in a fruit garden, orchard or kitchen garden.

Ok, I see the hand waving at the back. Yes, tomatoes and sweet peppers are called and grown as salad vegetables but are actually fruit. I will allow them into the vegetable garden because of their common usage as salad vegetables.

What was that? What about rhubarb, you say? Well, it is a vegetable and we eat it as fruit. So, I think it could be included in the vegetable garden if that was the best spot for it.

Vegetable Plot

A vegetable plot suggests that it is an area within a garden which is primarily given over to lawn and ornamental flower borders. The garden may be urban, suburban or rural and vary in size. What the term vegetable plot suggests is that there are a number of beds used for growing vegetables both perennial and annual.

Vegetable Patch

A vegetable patch does suggest the smallest space of the three. The area for growing vegetables may be restricted –

due to the overall size of the garden
because the gardener is short on time
it is a new gardening skill so the gardener is taking it slowly

If you garden in containers, or on a balcony, then your vegetable garden probably comes under the vegetable patch category.

So those are vegetable garden definitions. And there can be some issues with being precise as about only growing plants which are vegetables. Which is why perhaps it is too strict a term for many people. But what about the other places for growing your own vegetables? What are they?

Kitchen Garden

In a kitchen garden you would most likely grow vegetables and fruit, possibly herbs. If you’re really lucky you may have a walled kitchen garden. However, the walled kitchen gardens measured in acres that were and are attached to stately homes are not the only type of kitchen garden.

There are those who would use kitchen garden as an interchangeable description of vegetable garden. You’ve guessed it, I’m not one of them. To me the inclusion of fruit growing changes it into a kitchen garden.

This area might be completely separate from the rest of the garden, either walled or fenced off. In past times, even the kitchen gardens belonging to the lower classes were likely to be surrounded a fence or hedge. Not least to protect the produce from rabbits, deer or the neighbours’ dog.

It might be that all of the garden is a kitchen garden. Although vegetables and fruit predominate, there would be flowers too. For companion planting, in a cutting garden, and to encourage bees and pollinating insects. Herbs might be included, especially if the rest of the gardens are not large enough for a separate herb garden.

A kitchen garden may be utilitarian or decorative. When it is decorative, it is generally known by the French name of potager.

Potager

A potager is an ornamental kitchen garden or vegetable garden. It is generally considered to be formal in style. Think of low hedges of box, lavender or rosemary surrounding regular beds filled with different vegetables.

There is more to a potager these days, but historically they are based on the formal gardens of the French late Renaissance and Baroque eras. If you have seen pictures of Louis XIV palace and gardens at Versailles, you get the idea. Although needless to say, the potager, however decorative, was not in constant view of the monarchy and nobility!

Ornamental Edible Gardens

This term is often used to describe a potager. However, there is another definition, another type of garden. An ornamental edible garden is one where flowers, fruit, vegetables, herbs, shrubs, bulbs, trees all share the same garden space.

This garden may be formal or informal in style. But it is characterised by the usefulness of all the plants in one way or another. The ornamental plants are likely to provide year-round floral displays both in the garden and in the house. Sweet peas and mange tout might scramble up the same trellis frame. Fruit trees provide blossom in spring and food in autumn and have spring flowering bulbs and low growing herbs around their base.

Reasons for Growing Your Own Vegetables

There are many reasons for growing you own vegetables. A post-apocalyptic scenario where you need to survive may be one of them, but there are more cheerful reasons…

Freshness and Taste
Heirloom varieties /Choice of vegetables to grow
Local – food metres rather than food miles
Organic
Learning a new skill
Exercise and fresh air
If children help to grow the food, then they’re more likely to eat it
Cost – it can be cheaper growing certain types of vegetable yourself

What should you grow in your Vegetable Garden?

If you want strawberries, don’t plant turnips. Or to put it another way:

Grow what you like to eat which is expensive to buy and / or is best eaten really fresh.

Other things to consider which may affect your choice –

The type of soil you have – clay, sand, silt, loam. And whether you have a good layer of top soil or a mere scraping over rock. You may need to improve your soil with organic matter, grow vegetables in containers or raised beds.

Where is the shady or sunny area in your garden? Generally speaking, annual vegetables prefer a sunny spot as they have a lot of growth to put on in a season. This could put pressure on that lawn that your teenagers like to sunbathe on. There are ways around this.

Related to that, is the aspect – north, south, east or west. Also, where in the UK you live, as this will give you different amounts of rainfall, snow, etc. And of course, whether you’re in the country or the town as this will also affect the ambient temperature, among other matters.

Grow vegetables which are easy to care for if you’re short on time. Use gardeners’ tricks to cut down on chores like watering.

What size should your Vegetable Garden be?

And how long is a piece of garden twine? You need to ask yourself –

How big is the whole garden?
Are you happy for the utilitarian vegetable garden to be visible from the patio?
How many people are you feeding?
Do you want year-round produce to eat?
What types of vegetables would you like to grow? perhaps you would like to focus on a few expensive to buy / niche vegetables?
Do you know which growing methods you’re going to use? See the blog for more details, but for example, growing in rows is likely to take up more room than square foot gardening.
Do you know about crop rotation? Is it a cultivation method you need to follow in your vegetable garden?

As a rough guide a 10’ by 16’ space is a good maximum size for a total beginner. This is regardless of whether you’re growing vegetables in rows, raised beds, three sisters, etc.

Of course, remember that once you’ve started growing your own vegetables, it’s a short step to needing gardening lessons 😉 And a re-designed garden to accommodate greenhouse, cold frames, melon bed, compost bins, garden orchard and herb garden next to your original vegetable garden.

Seriously though, read the related blogs below and have a good rummage through the Edible Gardens blog category and design portfolio for more helpful tips and ideas. If you need specific advice and help, you know where to find us.