If you have a fully equipped outdoor kitchen and plenty of space, the next best thing to do would be to start your own backyard garden. There’s simply nothing as wonderful and gratifying as knowing that the vegetables and herbs you’re serving up during your barbecue cook-ups are harvested directly from your own backyard.
When you know you’ve got the perfect garden spot, then all you need is a plan. As long as you don’t mind getting your hands a little dirty, and with a bit of help and research, you can come up with a great barbecue garden design incorporating some essential outdoor kitchen accessories. And with the tips below, you should be able to embark on your DIY backyard kitchen garden project in no time.
Know what you want to plant
Should you plant flowering plants? Fruiting trees? Or vegetables and herbs?
If you heart is set on starting a vegetable and herb garden to complement your barbecue cook-ups, it's a good idea to focus on veggies and herbs that you frequently use for cooking. Also, you have to find out what’s suitable for your area; in this case, Perth. You can easily get this information from your local nursery or garden supply store.
By focusing your efforts on planting vegetables and herbs that can thrive in the Perth weather, you have an excellent chance of succeeding even during your first try.
For vegetables, some of the easiest to grow in a starter garden include the following:
Parsnips: All year
Broad beans: April to July
Cabbage: All year
Carrots: All year
English Spinach: March to August
Leeks: January to April
Onions: May to October (depending on the variety)
Potatoes: May to November
Peas: All year
Tomatoes: August to February
Lettuce: November to March
When it comes to herbs, you can start with these initially:
Basil: February, March, September to December
Parsley: March, April, July to November
Coriander: May to October
Oregano: March to August
Thyme: March, April, July to November
Rosemary: March, April, August to November
Chives: All year
Mint: March to August
Clear the area and improve the soil
For your outdoor kitchen garden to have a fair chance of thriving, make sure you remove the sod in the designated area. Do this about four months before spring. Use a spade to slice under the sod or cut it into sections for easier removal. Then, allow it to decompose in your compost heap.
Use several sheets of newspaper (about five) to cover your future garden. Cover the newspaper with a 3-inch layer of compost or a potting soil-topsoil combo and be ready to wait. After about four months, the paper and compost would have decomposed. Come springtime, your garden bed would have rich soil ready for planting. There’ll be no grass or weeds, too.
You can boost the nutrients in your soil by adding more organic matter such as another layer of compost (about 2 to 3 inches), dry grass clippings, decayed leaves, or old manure. Add these when you dig or till a new bed. You can also have a soil test done by a local service provider or use a test kit if you want to know more about your soil.
Till the soil and start planting
Work the soil by tilling and digging to make it easier for young roots to penetrate the soil and reach the water and nutrients. You can manually till the soil to avoid disturbing beneficial microorganisms and earthworms with over-tilling.
Based on the best planting time, choose the vegetables and herbs you want to grow. And to make it easy for you the first time, consider buying set plants or transplants, which are actually young plants ready for planting.
All you need to do is dig holes in the plant bed you've prepared based on tag instructions. Then you can simply remove the plants from their containers and untangle the roots (be sure not to break the roots), if necessary. Set each plant into a hole, pat the soil around the roots, and soak the soil with water.
Next time around, once you’ve gotten better at gardening, you can try growing plants from seeds and seedlings.
Water it right
Transplants need to be watered frequently, every other day or so, until their roots are well-established in the soil. Once you’ve ascertained the health of your young plants, and depending on the soil, humidity, and rainfall, you can switch to watering them on a weekly basis.
If you don’t feel confident about when exactly you should water, what you can do is to try feeling the soil about 3 to 4 inches below the surface. If the soil feels dry, then it’s time to water. Make sure to always do so deeply and slowly, so the water is absorbed. As much as possible, water in the early morning to reduce water loss due to evaporation.
Mulch and maintain
Cover the soil with a few centimetres of mulch to seal in moisture and discourage weeds from growing in your garden. Since there are different kinds of mulches, consult your local garden supply centre for advice.
Now that your garden is already in place, you can keep the plants growing by staying on top of garden chores:
Keep a watering schedule.
Enrich the soil when necessary.
Be on the lookout for weeds and pull these out before they grow bigger.
Remove dying, diseased, or dead vegetation.
Pick destructive insects and other pests off your plants.
Install trellises or stakes to support tall plants.
Harvest vegetables and herbs when they’re mature and ready.
Enjoy your DIY backyard garden harvest
After mastering the basics, you’ll grow more confident in growing other vegetables and herbs. Whether grilling or smoking your protein, consider trying out the following protein-herb-vegetable combinations for your next barbecue cook-up:
Beef: thyme, celery, marjoram, coriander, sage, rosemary, oregano, garlic, carrot, cucumber, potatoes, sweet potatoes
Chicken: garlic, marjoram, tarragon, oregano, coriander, broccoli, spinach, asparagus, corn, tomatoes
Fish: mustard, oregano, tarragon, sage, zucchini, asparagus, bell peppers, eggplant
Lamb: rosemary, mint, oregano, thyme, carrots, potatoes
Pork: sage with garlic, paprika, parsley, thyme, carrots, turnips, parsnips
Turkey: rosemary, sage, thyme, parsley, green beans, Brussels sprouts, root vegetables
With these backyard kitchen garden ideas, you’ll soon have a garden that will richly reward you with bountiful harvests you can share with your loved ones.