Kitchen Gardening in Pakistan

By Allah Dad Khan DGA KPK

However, before planning into the activity of 'gardening vegetables, you need to make sure of certain factors.

The place or site you choose should receive 6-8 hours of sunlight a day and also it should be near to a water supply.

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While gardening has been a part of human culture for more than 10,000 years, the idea of kitchen gardening is something unique.

These small family plots have been called by a variety of names over the years: kitchen gardens, victory gardens, portage gardens, cottage gardens, Roman peristalses and horticulture gardens, and the Japanese tea garden.

Though each of these grows vegetables, fruit, flowers, and herbs, they are all adapted to their environments and the culture of the people tending them.

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Large-scale potager at Villandry, France

Potatoes played an important part in a little known chapter in the history of kitchen gardening. In 1894, the worst economic depression of the 19th century hit, with unemployment in the nation's cities reaching 35 per cent.

The traditional kitchen garden, also known as a potager (in French, jardin potager) or in Scotland a kailyaird, is a space separate from the rest of the residential garden –the ornamental plants and lawn areas. Most vegetable gardens are still miniature versions of old family farm plots, but the kitchen garden is different not only in its history, but also its design.

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The kitchen garden may serve as the central feature of an ornamental, all-season landscape, or it may be little more than a humble vegetable plot. It is a source of herbs, vegetables and fruits, but it is often also a structured garden space with a design based on repetitive geometric patterns.

The kitchen garden has year-round visual appeal and can incorporate permanent perennials or woody shrub plantings around (or among) the annuals

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If I had an outdoor space, I’d have my hands in the dirt right about now. Instead, I’ve been distracting myself by flipping through books about other people’s gardens and I’ve become entranced with the history of the kitchen garden.

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The kitchen garden is a bit different from the humble vegetable garden – which is planted in the spring and harvested in the fall (with surplus canned or dried). The kitchen garden is designed to be useful and visually appealing year-round, and often incorporates flowers (edible as well as non-edible) amongst the vegetables.

The visual appeal of the kitchen garden is extremely important. The kitchen garden is not solely concerned with food but also with beauty. In French it’s called a potager (love that word) - what’s grown in the garden is served at the table.

Vegetables grown in Pakistan More than 35 kinds of vegetables are grown

in numerous eco-systems in Pakistan from the dry zone to the wet zone, low elevation to high elevation, rain fed to irrigated and low input to very high input systems such as plastic houses.

During summer and spring season, tomato, chilies, brinjal, potato, cucumber, gourds and okra are abundantly available. During rainy season, gourds, cucumber, beans, okra and brinjal are common. The winter season is the most important for growing a wide variety of vegetables including, cauliflower, cabbage, lettuce, spinach, onion, potato, carrot, radish, turnip, coriander, fenugreek and peas..

Vegetables produced in different zones by using different production technologies during different seasons are traded across regional markets of Pakistan in order to meet consumer demand across the country.

Varied agro-climatic conditions prevailing in different provinces of the country also contribute to year round production of different kinds of vegetables. Thus many vegetables can be grown and seen in the market during any season.

A traditional kitchen garden has four quadrants with a central water source. This design evolved from a combination of sources - the gardens of Egypt, Persia, Mesopotamia and Babylon. In the Middle Ages, monasteries developed elaborate kitchen gardens.

Because they were secluded from the outside world, the monks were responsible for growing the food necessary for their survival. Not only did the monks have elaborate kitchen gardens (and were great seed savers), but they also would have had a cloister garden, a medicinal garden and an orchard.