Creating your own kitchen garden

A kitchen garden is part of a long-standing tradition, whose charm combine the beauty of flowers with useful plants like herbs and vegetables, which you can pick fresh and enjoy while they're still bursting with flavour.

You can thank medieval monks for developing gardening culture. As they became aware of the benefits of mixed plantings for protecting gardens from pests, these monks increasingly grew medicinal plants and flowers along with their vegetables and fruits. As early as the 16th century, the rural population of Europe used these cloister gardens as a model for their own gardens.

In a kitchen garden, plants are generally laid out close to one another in mixed plantings. The benefits: soil doesn't get depleted, vermin and diseases don't spread, you don't have to fertilize too much and you get a large yield with very little effort. It's fairly easy to select your plants as well. Here are a few examples:

• Include heirloom vegetable plants such as parsnips, runner beans and tomato varieties.
• Plant medicinal and seasoning herbs such as valerian, savory, dill, oregano, chamomile, garlic, basil and peppermint between the veggies.
• Plant heirloom aromatic plants. Sweet pea, phlox, sage and centifolia roses attract butterflies and bees, which are important for pollination.
• Ensure you always have a variety of plants by including self-propagating perennials such as columbine, fennel, foxglove, bellflower and lupine.
• Plant marigold. It blooms abundantly from June to first frost. The flowers can be eaten or used as a medicinal herb to prevent infections. In addition, they help ward off aphids.
• Place tall perennials such as delphinium and hollyhock against a fence or hedge where their long stalks can get support.

• If you've got a fair bit of room, consider planting a circular flower bed in the centre of your garden, potentially with a fountain or standard rosebush as a focal point.
• Place a wooden or cement basin in the centre for collecting rainwater — you can easily disguise a less-attractive installation with climbing plants.
• Install a small gazebo or bench under an arch covered with climbing plants in the centre of the garden.
• For larger properties, enclose your kitchen garden with a hedge or a fence. With fairly large gardens, plant shrubs, hedges or hawthorn. The dark green brings a peaceful vibe into the multicoloured installation and keeps your kitchen garden from becoming too busy.
• Incorporate trellis plants or hydrangeas if the kitchen garden abuts a wall of the house.