Vegetable Gardening

CHAPTER Vegetable Gardening

The vegetables being rich in vitamins and minerals, constitute one of the very indispensable items of Indian kitchen. It becomes customary to have vegetables in our daily diet. Realizing the value in human health and the potential in income generation, vegetable cultivation has been highly specialized. It is being grown for different purposes. Bailey divided vegetable farming broadly in two groups-home scale gardening and commercial gardening. Thompson and Kelly suggested seven types of vegetable gardening. These are:

One. Kitchen gardening

Two. Market gardening

Three. Truck gardening

Four. Forcing gardening

Five. Processing gardening

Six. Seed production gardening

Seven. Floating gardening

KITCHEN GARDENING

ption Ver and

(It aims solely to produce vegetables for the consumption of one's own house) Generally, cultivation of vegetable is practised in yard of house. Very intense method of cultivation, in time and space dimensions, utilizing every inch of land in quick succession, is practised. Even, furrow, meant for irrigation, is not left vacant. Kitchen garden supplies vegetables continuously throughout the year. In kitchen garden, most of the works are performed by family members. So, it is wise to select back portion of the house for vegetable cultivation. The selected portion should be near the source of irrigation or water tap. The waste water of bath room can also be used for irrigating the vegetables. The selected side should preferably be free from shade of house or planted tree. The course of setting sun being south-western, perennial trees like papaya, lemon, banana, if planted, should be set in north direction of the "kitchen garden to avoid shading. In the corner, pit of suitable size should be dug out. The waste of kitchen and other decomposable materials may be dumped there to use as compost or organic manure. The climbing nature vegetables like pea, cucurbits etc. should be grown along with boundary to have a readily available support. Preference should be given to those vegetables which are early maturing and consumed afresh in kitchen. Brinjal, Chilli, Tomato, Okra, Amaranth, Spinach, Coriander, Radish, Onion, Garlic, Cowpea, French beans, Cluster beans etc. are some good vegetables for kitchen gardening. In cities, very limited or sometimes no ground space is available for kitchen garden. Under such situations, vegetable hobbyist can go for growing vegetables in pots. The sill of window, provided light comes there, and roof of the house, etc. are very good substitutes for ground space for vegetable cultivation.