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08/04/2025

There’s nothing like stepping out of the kitchen and snipping some aromatic herbs or picking your own fresh seasonal vegetables to cook with. Gardening writer Francesca Clarke shares expert tips for growing your own, whatever outside space you have.

A kitchen garden can be whatever you want it to be. A large area divided into raised beds and packed with seasonal fruit and veg, a patch of herbs in a sunny spot outside the kitchen door, or even a simple huddle of containers on a patio with lettuce or tomatoes. You can even grow your own in flowerbeds among marigolds and petunias. Or join in with a community orchard or garden – where you can garden with your neighbours and share the produce.

And if you start now, you’ll be harvesting your own salads in as little as six weeks.

Start With Your Soil

Most fruit and veg are hungry plants, so they need nutrient-rich soil. Which is why a lot of people opt for raised beds. You can fill them with whatever you like – plus that extra height makes everything so much easier. A mixture of well-rotted horse manure (widely available online and in garden centres), topsoil and (if you have it) garden compost is ideal here – and for growing in pots.

If you’re growing in among your ornamental plants, assess your soil: if it’s clay, you’ll need to dig in compost and maybe some sharp sand to help open it up; if it’s sandy, work in extra manure as it’s likely to be low in nutrients.

Choose a Sunny Spot

Dedicate your sunniest area to growing fruit and vegetables. Remember, most crops grow and crop in a matter of weeks; if they’re fighting to get enough light, they won’t ripen before summer’s out. Watering can be time-consuming in summer, so if you have space, a water butt to collect rainwater is a great idea.

What to Plant in Spring

April is the busiest month for kitchen gardeners. The soil is warming up (even more quickly in raised beds), days are lengthening and it’s time to sow and grow for summer crops.

Growing salads from seed is inexpensive and rewarding. Try beetroot, rocket, early-season carrots such as ‘Amsterdam Forcing’, radishes, spring onions and spinach in situ (directly in their final position), and tomatoes, French beans, sweetcorn, courgettes, cucumbers and squash indoors or in a greenhouse. Poke a few nasturtium seeds into the soil among your vegetables and you’ll have gorgeous (edible) flowers and foliage that attract blackfly away from your crops.

Or plant out ready-grown plug plants, which will be speedier than growing from seed. Try broad beans, summer peas, mangetout and lettuces such as ‘Little Gem’ and ‘Batavia 
Green’.

By May, in most parts of the UK, the risk of frost is over, so you can safely plant out tender crops such as tomatoes, beans and courgettes that you’ve grown from seed. If you can find pepper and aubergine plants at the garden centre, give these a go in your warmest, most sheltered corner (or in a greenhouse).

Try Something Unusual

Chilean guava has delicious red strawberry-pineapple flavoured berries in autumn. Just 1-2m tall, it will fit into a veg patch or sunny border. 

Or grow lemongrass to use in Thai curries – harvest once it's produced lots of stems. This bushy grass-like plant is perfect for a pot that you can bring inside over winter.

And if you’re a courgette fan, try ‘Tromboncino’ squash for a change – Monty Don grew them last summer. Harvest young like courgettes or leave to become long, curled gourds around 1m long.

Experiment With ‘Edimentals’

Traditionally, gardeners have separated out ornamental and edible growing areas, but some of RHS Chelsea Flower Show’s most celebrated gardens have championed ‘edimentals’ in recent years, showing how to combine plants that are both ornamental and edible, giving the best of both worlds.

Last year, Tsuyako Asada’s Silver Gilt-winning Nobonsai balcony garden included hazel, fig, herbs and wild strawberries. In a sunny border, consider the huge, silvered architectural forms of globe artichokes and lofty, aromatic fennel for impact.

Smaller edimentals for sun include purple-topped chives, sage and the violet, bee-magnet flowers of oregano, while pretty little alpine strawberries, colourful rainbow chard and frilly ornamental lettuces such as ‘Lollo Rosso’ will thrive in dappled shade. They’ll look as good as they taste and they are low maintenance, too.

What’s Best to Grow in Pots?

If you have room for a cluster of pots on a patio or terrace, then you have a mini kitchen garden. To make the most of the space, choose crops that grow upwards. Try a teepee of runner beans for instance, or hanging baskets of strawberries, a tomato like ‘Tumbling Tom’ and a lettuce or two. Or opt for a prolific cordon (single-stem) cherry variety of tomato such as ‘Gardener’s Delight’ or ‘Sungold’ in a growbag or pot.

Do check that your pots have plenty of drainage holes in the bottom. On balconies, lightweight is key, so fibreglass pots are wise (and fill the bottom half with polystyrene packaging).

Get Involved in a Community Garden

A community garden is a great way to learn about growing your own and meet people at the same time. At Berkeley Group’s Woodhurst Park in Berkshire, the residents’ herb garden is a popular way to socialise. And residents can just pop out and pick a variety of culinary herbs to cook with.

At Lombard Square in Plumstead, plans include a foraging orchard, community garden with banquet tables and gardening club. There will also be a community orchard and residents’ growing space in the next phase of Leighwood Fields in Cranleigh, Surrey. If you’re all in and have the time to dedicate to a larger space, in Sussex at Highwood Village, Horsham, West Sussex, community allotments are available to residents via the local council.

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