We’ve all heard about a kitchen garden and know it as a plot outside the backdoor that grows some of the food we eat. Frequently called a vegetable garden and occasionally potager, it is separate from our Indiana gardens or landscapes with ornamental plants.
New offerings on the market have brought the kitchen garden right to the kitchen table, counter or windowsill. Kitchen Minis provide tomatoes, sweet peppers and hot peppers ready for the picking without the work of planting and growing them. They also can be placed outdoors on a patio table, deck, porch or balcony. They are not meant to be planted in the ground.
Joker ornamental paper is ornamental and edible. Photo courtesy kitchenminis.com
Bred to be table-top plant
PanAmerica Seed under the Ball Horticulture umbrella developed Kitchen Minis. These table-top veggies have been bred to tolerate the lower light conditions found indoors. They are sold with fruit ready for picking and some fruit still coming on. Each plant produces for about six weeks. The plants are marketed as: No garden? No problem. Buy. Eat. Repeat.
Coming in 2024: Kitchen Minis Quick Snack cucumber (seeds available now at Territorial Seed Co.). Here’s what’s available now:
Three tomatoes
- Siam, red cherry tomatoes with good flavor and texture.
- Red Velvet, new this year. Has sweet flavored red cherry tomatoes, good for salads and side dishes.
- Cocoa has burgundy fruit.
Fresh Bites sweet pepper series
- Orange, Red and Yellow
Nine hot peppers
- Adobo has cone-shaped fruit that starts out chartreuse and matures to red, yellow or orange.
- Cosmo has purple snack-size fruits that turn red when ripe. Adds a medium spice to dishes.
- Hot Burrito has lime green fruit that matures to red. Mildly spicy.
- Hot Fajita has a mildly spicy flavor with fruit that starts lime green and turns red.
- Hot Joker can be used to make paprika or pepper flakes. Lime green narrow tapered peppers turn bright red and dry to a deep red.
- Lemon Zest is anything but a nice lemon yellow. It packs a heated punch for salsa and hot sauce. Similar to habanero.
- Piañata also can be made into pepper flakes.
- Tamale is a jalapeño-like pepper with thick walls and mile spice flavor.
- Taquito has small, cone-shaped upward facing fruit that ripens from green to red.
Siam cherry tomato sits on a kitchen windowsill. Photo courtesy kitchenminis.com
Where to buy Kitchen Minis?
Costco, Trader Joe’s and Menards have plants seasonally. Plant Addicts and Park Seed ship live plants year-round. Seed merchants are listed at Kitchen Minis.
Want an outdoor kitchen garden?
If you’ve been interested in adding a kitchen garden to your Indianapolis landscape, please contact a Holeman professional.