Welcome to our Brussels Kitchen Garden
This diary is about the small kitchen garden behind our house on the south side of the city of Brussels.
The garden measuring 12 metres by 5 metres sits on an axis of north-west to south-east and has limited southern exposure. Three sides of the garden enjoy a progression of morning and afternoon sunshine while the fourth is in permanent shade.
The garden serves multiple functions for the household and family and has only a small area devoted to vegetable growing. It is surrounded by tall buildings and over-hanging trees and walled on three sides. With only limited space available for growing the aim in this garden is to use elevation for vegetable production.
The main vegetable growing areas in the garden comprise a raised bed, 5 metres by 1 metre, and 2 corner areas of pathway and stairs used extensively for container growing. Besides these three areas a number of small corners and spaces are used for additional container growing.
Over the ten years the garden has been used for vegetables more than 80 species of plants have been successfully grown. These include an extensive range of climbing beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, herbs and salad along with a variety of insect attracting plants.
The garden provides a steady weekly supply of fresh vegetables throughout the summer months aiming more for mixed produce over bulk production of one kind. It is a seasonal garden orientated to a busy summer season each year and put to rest over winter months.
It is the aim of this diary to show just what vegetables can be grown in the limited conditions of a small city garden over a single season.
