Meal Kit gardening

My usual philosophy of gardening is "Fill the garden with plants," which is beautiful and satisfying but for me can quickly lead to the garden getting a little out of control, and things being neglected or not  harvested at the right time. Lately, I've been experimenting with an approach to organizing my gardening based around my principle of "Eat what you grow."

I call it Meal Kit gardening, and basically it means that you divide the garden into moderate units of space and then plant together in that space the things you want to harvest at the same time.  It's easiest to explain with an example. My winter garden has cabbage and garlic and onions.  Typically I would plant all the cabbages in one section and then group all the garlic in another section, and all the onions in a third group.  With a Meal Kit garden, I take a 2 x 2 foot section and plant one cabbage, two onions and two garlic.  During the spring, I make a schedule to harvest one of these meal kits per week, picking the cabbage, onions and garlic, adding some bacon and taking them right into the house for that nights dinner.

This does a few beneficial things for me.  First, because I assemble these Meal Kits from seedlings I started myself, it means I have to think about not only what is fun to grow, but how the things I grow will eventually be eaten.  It forces me to grow what I want to eat.  Second, all the vegetables I need are right in one area so I am sure to pick them all, and include them in the evenings dinner.

In addition, by harvesting the entire meal kit plot at once, I now have a good-sized empty space that I can fill with a new Meal kit. For example, the Cabbage Meal Kit will be replaced with a butter lettuce and a foot of radishes - a ready made garden salad for later in the spring.  The other way, I would pull one of the onions and it would simply leave a gap in the onion bed.  I couldn't fill it in until all the onions were gone. Now, I have a reasonable space that can be put to use right away.

It also naturally creates a schedule for harvest.  If I have 12 cabbages in 12 meal kits, that means that I will need to harvest one meal kit plot each week for the three months that they will be mature.  Yes, the first ones might not be quite mature, but certainly fresh and edible and can be added to other ingredients to round out the meal.

Finally, if I want to experiment with something new, I need to think about how it fits into the existing planting schedule, about how I am going to cook that new mustard green or rutabaga and what would go with it; what supporting cast of characters that helps turn a single iconic vegetable into an entire meal.

Spring Meal Kits:
1.  Two Bok Choi and two Yellow Onions.   Per 2x2 block.  Six blocks 

2.  Two Swiss Chard and one foot of Green Onion seed tape.  Per block.  Six blocks

3.  Two Lettuce, two Red Onion, and one foot of Radish seed tape.  Per block.  Six blocks

4.  One Broccoli green, and 1 foot of carrot seed tape.  Per block.  Six blocks


Summer Meal Kits
1. One Tomato plant and one Basil plant Per 3x2' block. 8 blocks

2. Two Pepper plants and one Nasturtium   Per 2x2 block.  Six blocks

3. One Zucchini and three Green Beans, bush type  Per 4x3' block.  2 blocks


Fall Meal Kits
1. One Cabbage and two Garlic   Per 2x2 block.  Twelve blocks. 

2. One Kale and two Parsnips   Per 2x2 block.  Six blocks

3. One Rutabaga and one Red-veined Sorrel  Per 2x2 block.  Six blocks


Now, there are objections to this method of gardening. 

The primary one  is that the vegetables in these meal kits all mature at different times.  The radishes will be sprung up and out of the ground by the time that the lettuce is ready, and at that time, the onions are just only getting started.

The answer to the first objection is to simply say that it's true.  The onions might be more of a green onion, and by picking it you are forgoing a much larger onion if it was harvested later in the Fall.  This efficiency is the sacrifice for a more dynamic garden, one that has more interest at all times of the year.  There is a story that illustrates one of my recurring garden failures. 

I sometimes get the urge to plant a long season crop, like cantaloupe.  I carefully tend it all through the hot summer, and just about the time that the melons are about to ripen, some fungus or insect infestation or flock of crows come in and damages the harvest.  The result is that I am very wary of plants that stand for a long time without being harvested.  I love vegetables that are "cut and come again" or that can be picked in an immature state like peppers and green beans and onions.  I don't have to wait for a perfect moment of ripeness, that may never come. 

My answer is to plant many vegetables and pick them over a long season.  Some may be immature but still delicious; others may stand too long and be slightly soft.  And many will be picked at the peak of perfection. 

The other solution to this objection, is to take some time to match companion plants that have similar maturation cycles as well as seasonal preferences.