Perennial vegetables are a joy to grow. Whereas traditional
vegetable plots are largely made up of short-lived, annual vegetable
plants, perennials are edible plants that live longer than three years.
Grown as permaculture plants, they take up less of your time and effort
than annual vegetables do.
Martin Crawford's book outlines the benefits of growing perennial
vegetables:
- Perennials provide crops throughout the year, so there's always
something that can be used in the kitchen. You avoid the hungry gap
between the end of the winter harvest and the start of the summer
harvest of annual vegetables.
- Perennial vegetables are less work. Once planted, they stay in the
ground for many years. They are the classic plants for no-dig
gardeners.
- Unlike annual vegetables, perennial vegetables cover and protect the
soil all year round. This maintains the structure of the soil and
helps everything growing in it.
- Humous levels build up and nutrients don't wash out of soil.
(Cultivating the soil for annuals exposes this humous to air on the
surface, causing the carbon to be released as carbon dioxide.)
- Mycorrhizal fungi, critical for storing carbon within the soil, are
preserved. (They are killed when soil is constantly dug for annual
vegetables.)
- Perennial plants contain higher levels of mineral nutrients than
annuals because perennial vegetables have larger, permanent root
systems, capable of using space more efficiently, and they take up
more nutrients.
How to grow perennial vegetables gives comprehensive advice on all
types of perennial vegetable, from ground-cover plants and coppiced
trees to plants for bog gardens and edible woodland plants:
- In Part One Martin Crawford outlines why we should grow perennials. He
then explains where and how to grow them in perennial polycultures, in
forest garden or aquatic garden settings. He outlines how to propagate
them, how to look after them for maximum health and how to harvest
them.
- Part Two is a plant-by-plant reference of over 100 perennial edibles
in detail, from familiar ones like rhubarb, Jerusalem artichokes
(sunchokes), horseradish and asparagus to less common ones such as
skirret, nodding onions, red chicory, Babbington's leek, scorzonera,
sea kale and wild rocket.
With beautiful colour photographs and illustrations and plenty of
cooking tips throughout, this book offers inspiration and information
for all gardeners, whether experienced or beginner.
