Building a Kitchen Courtyard Herb Garden in a Small Space in Scotland (Part 1-2019)

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Building a Kitchen Courtyard Herb Garden in a Small Space in Scotland (Part 1-2019)

A kitchen courtyard garden blends beauty and function, turning even the smallest outdoor space into an edible space. With thoughtful design, you can grow fresh herbs, salad greens, and more just steps from your kitchen, perfect for enhancing meals, reducing waste and creating a productive green space.

This area was pretty much open when we moved in, in the February 2019. The trees that were a loose hedge were bare opening up onto a huge field. These doors to the right lead into the kitchen.

Looking the opposite way towards the main garden along the side of the house

Looking along the whole side of the house.

You can read about this area in this blog Making Every Bit Of Space Usable. Building A Long Planter Raised Bed

We had to get this area fenced in asap so the kids were safe from roaming deers, dogs or anything else that bounded across the field to us.

Trimmed the trees back & had a fence put up along the edge. If we had cut the trees down we could have moved the fence another meter, but we decided to leave them to grow on the other side.

6ft fence around the main section, then 4ft fence so we could still see the view from our kitchen window

From inside the Kitchen. Couldn’t block that view with a fence right!

What Did We Do?

After getting the fence and gate up to make it an enclosed space, this was originally for a sensory play area for our eldest, Clayton (then 12) Autistic son to have water tables and tubes, sand tables with measuring and weighing items to cover his Home Education too.

That was until we found out his love for the garden, planting seeds, watering, harvesting, so this area then became our Kitchen Courtyard Herb Garden, which still only have half of the area done. This area sat doing nothing for a few months before I cleared it again and started getting some herbs in.

The paint all came off the top rails with the snow/frost in the winter and sat doing nothing for a few months.

All cleared out, weeded & ready to start taking shape.

There was already a part retaining wall at the end, which was so cute and perfect to start the herbs right there, I bought some ready made little wooden edging, painted with Cuprinial Black paint and hammered the attached stakes in place to make it a little higher to plant in.

What Did We Plant to Start With?

In the first year 2019-2020 (April-April) nothing happened this area wasn’t ready. Fencing went up Oct ish in 2019 & sat doing nothing until the following year.

The following year, April 2020 we got started after clearing, weeding it all again & planted a row of herbs & broad beans. I wasn’t really sure if this area would get enough sun to grow in, so this first year was a bit of a observation year.

Area started filling out & Strawberry baskets went up

Crimson & White Broad Beans started to flower, lettuce was added to any spaces left

Rosemary kept spreading. Lettuce in spaces

Strawberry Planters grew well here with the afternoon sun

Next We Built Another Fence Planter

Using the same methods as in the blog Building a Mini Food Forest in a Small Area. Ours is On A Fence

Our younger 2 kids got involved measuring & building these. They would have been 9 & 11 here.

Lettuce seedlings planted out interspersed with radish &

To be continued….

More blogs on this area:
-No Waste Wednesday-How We Grow Food in a Vertical Garden Using Milk Cartons On A Fence

DIY: How We Grow Food in a Vertical Garden Using Milk Cartons On A Fence – 2022 UPDATE

Small Space Gardening: Create a Lush Kitchen Courtyard with Herbs and Salad Greens

Kitchen Courtyard in 2025 Video Reel

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A post shared by KATRINA & CLAYTON | Food Forest Gardening (@buildingafoodforest_scotland)

Happy Gardening!

Katrina & Clayton and family live in East Ayrshire and share their daily life in the garden on instagram. They practice permaculture principles in the garden, reducing & repurposing waste whenever they can. Katrina shows how home educating in nature has helped Clayton thrive.

Clayton Completed The 2 Grow and Learn Courses with the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society. He is Autistic, Non Verbal & has been Home Educated since 2018. Katrina & Peter hold their PDC & PDC PRO Permaculture Design Course from Oregon State University.

They featured on BBC Beechgrove Gardens Ep23 2022 and returned in 2023 for an update,Katrina & Clayton are also columnists for ScotlandGrows Magazine, Guest Blog for Caledonian Horticulture as well as working with Gardeners’ World Magazine and many other brands.

They are also Author of the new Children’s Book Series: Clayton’s Garden Journey: Stories of Autism and Gardening. Topics on Growing, Harvesting, Sowing & Composting and 108 Page Weather and Seasons Weekly Gardening Record Book available on Amazon and Kindle.

Listen in on their Guest Podcasts to learn more about them.

Building a Kitchen Courtyard Herb Garden in a Small Space in Scotland (Part 1-2019)

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Our Children’s Book Series

Author of the new children’s book series: Clayton’s Garden Journey: Stories of Autism and Gardening and Sowing, Growing, Weather and Seasons Weekly Gardening Record Book available on Amazon and Kindle