As we've mentioned once or twice it's Garden Month here at The Kitchn, and we're starting it off next week with a full slate of reader questions answered by our friend and guest gardening expert Jennifer Bartley. Jennifer is the author of Designing the New Kitchen Garden: An American Potager Handbook, and she's currently working on a new book about eating out of the kitchen garden.
She has designed formal landscaping as well as kitchen gardens, and she has a strong practical knowledge of designing for the kitchen; she has designed two working year-round herb and vegetable gardens for restaurants in Columbus, Ohio. One of them is a vegan restaurant that relies very heavily on the garden that she designed for them.
We're thrilled to have her with us, and she is an excellent source of answers and ideas for your kitchen garden questions. Since it's the first week of the month, perhaps we should focus on getting your garden started, so if you have questions about the gardening startup or planning process, fire away!
But don't hold just for that - if you have another burning kitchen garden question, feel free to ask. We'll choose five questions and Jennifer will answer them next week. We'll give you a review of her first book, too - a really stunning and lovely book for kitchen gardeners.
Post your questions in the comments here...
Also, check out her blog here:
How To Cook Fluffy, Tasty Quinoa
Perfect Summer Cocktail Recipe: Honey Bourbon Lemonade
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Elizabeth Apron fro...
100 DIY Ideas for the 3-Day Weekend
Danielle's Charming, Classic Walk-Up
I live in an apartment with low light and no outdoor space-- if I'd like to grow some food-type things (herbs, lettuces), do you think I can? How do you suggest I go about it? And thank you!
Hi, I have always had a brown thumb, but I would like to grow some herbs to keep on hand for cooking. Any advice for a novice gardener for container herb gardening? Is it better to have several types in one pot, or separate pots of each? And if so, what goes well together? I'd like to have basil, rosemary, and mint, at a minimum.
Hi with the rising food cost, I have decided to earnestly start my kitchen garden. What herbs and vegetables can be grown in hot climates in containers and how do we care for them
I have limited outdoor space for gardening, but lots of plans for this summer. How can I best use this space - specifically:
- how to plan plots for more than one thing in the season - I have a lot of space used up on radishes, lettuce, spinach, peas, scallions - and these won't last all season. What will be ready to plant in my radish corner when the radishes are gone?
- what about companion planting?
Thanks!
i second dena's question...
i have a large kitchen windowsill that i want to put pots in, but it gets limited light and i have no outdoor space.
what can i grow? i want herbs, but i would love to try vegetables also, if they would survive. thanks!!!
I have a container garden on my west facing, covered deck in San Francisco. Lettuces, beets, radishes and Meyer lemons are growing well. I can manage about 6 16" containers.
With only about 4 hours direct sun in late afternoon, what should I plant when it's too strong for the cool crops I currently have? Is that enough sun for tomatoes, bell peppers or beans to ripen?
Also, what edibles grow well in hanging baskets?
We've dedicated half of our backyard to raised beds for growing food--this is great, but with the recent mad construction of duplexes and triplexes in our neighborhood, privacy has become a big issue. How can we allow enough sunlight in for growing veggies and still maintain a private feel in our backyard?
Mine is a container garden as well. Till last year, I would empty out the pots (in the wooded area behind the apts.) at the end of summer, clean the pots with a mild soap solution, dry them and store them. I got tired of buying new soil at the start of every growing season (we are in the northeast) so last fall I just left the soil in the pots. (I usually buy potting soil and supplement with horse manure, etc.) Is this good growing practice?
I have a kind of silly question about when/how to cut herbs from container gardening. I have a rosemary plant and a chive plant and am thinking about buying pots of mint and basil. (Not adventurous enough to grow from seed just yet.) I think I've kind of mauled my chive plant by cutting off too much, too quickly. How much and how often can I cut from my plants and still keep them healthy?