Grow Your Own Meals: A Recipe-First Approach to Year-Round Gardening

This year, I tried something different: I started planning my garden by looking at your kitchen and your favorite meals. Instead of starting with a random list of seeds, I began with the dishes you actually cook and savor—the hearty stews, bright salads, and zingy salsas that make your table shine. By working backward from those recipes, I found it so much easier to decide what crops deserve a spot in my garden and, ultimately, on your plate.

I chose classic staples like tomatoes, onions, and potatoes for comforting sauces and soups because I know you’ll use them again and again. I included leafy greens for those crisp salads you rely on for quick, nutritious lunches, and peppers for the smoky heat you crave in your chili. Thinking about your everyday meals helped me tailor my garden to your needs, so each plant serves a clear purpose rather than just taking up space.

To keep your pantry stocked year-round, I organized these must-grow crops into raised beds that complement each other. Picture beans enriching the soil for their leafy neighbors, calendula flowers drawing in pollinators to boost your harvest, and cool-loving greens thriving in nutrient-rich spots that ease your workload. Warmth-hungry plants found a home near the stucco wall, soaking up extra heat while root veggies settled into cooler, deeper beds.

The result is a blueprint designed around your daily habits. By planning for succession planting and incorporating crops that store well or can be preserved, I’m ensuring you’ll have garden-fresh ingredients long after the peak season ends. This approach supports my personal goal—growing half of our food by the end of 2025—but it’s equally useful for you. It turns a patch of soil into a practical, reliable, and delicious extension of your kitchen, all by starting with what you love to eat.