INCREDIBLE EDIBLE PERENNIALS
Kitchen Garden|May 2023
Stephanie Hafferty shows how you can save money by growing crops that just keep on coming year on year
Stephanie Hafferty
INCREDIBLE EDIBLE PERENNIALS

Perennial edibles are a low-maintenance way of producing delicious, abundant crops with less work. Ideal for a budget-savvy garden, they save time too: plant once for years of food. Often cropping in the spring, many perennials can provide delicious meals during the hungry gap periods, helping to increase your home-grown abundance.

Edible perennials, which include herbs, vegetables, fruit and flowers, are plants which are expected to live for at least two years, and usually crop for much longer. Requiring less attention than annuals, they are ideal for people with busy lives. Many, such as globe artichokes, alliums and sea kale, are structurally beautiful and perfect for cottage garden-style ornamental borders.

These established plants are more resilient, with greater resistance to pests, drought and other problems. Many help to extend the growing season and can bridge the hungry gap, for example perennial kale ‘Taunton Deane’ which crops year round.

FOOD FOREST 

I grow edible perennials in the flower borders, on the edges of the annual veg beds, in pots and in designated perennial beds. Some are even fine grown indoors on windowsills, such as the perennial alliums and herbs. In my previous garden I had a whole perennial forest garden in pots, grown on an area of concrete, including fruit trees, bushes, herbs and brassicas.

A favourite way of growing perennials is as a food forest polyculture. This technique often associated with permaculture involves growing a range of plants of different heights together, creating an edible paradise which increases biodiversity and creates an easily maintained food plot.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة May 2023 من Kitchen Garden.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة May 2023 من Kitchen Garden.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

المزيد من القصص من KITCHEN GARDEN مشاهدة الكل
SEPTEMBER SPECIALS
Kitchen Garden

SEPTEMBER SPECIALS

This month, with sweetcorn, figs and blackberries on the menu, Anna Cairns Pettigrew is not only serving up something sweet and something savoury, but all things scrumptious

time-read
5 mins  |
September 2024
FLAVOURSOME FRUIT AUTUMN RASPBERRIES
Kitchen Garden

FLAVOURSOME FRUIT AUTUMN RASPBERRIES

September - is it late summer or the start of autumn? David Patch ponders the question and says whatever the season, it's time to harvest autumn raspberries

time-read
5 mins  |
September 2024
SOW GREEN THIS AUTUMN
Kitchen Garden

SOW GREEN THIS AUTUMN

Covering the soil with a green manure in winter offers many benefits and this is a good time to sow hardy types, says KG editor Steve Ott

time-read
5 mins  |
September 2024
A HISTORICAL HAVEN OF FRUIT AND FLOWERS
Kitchen Garden

A HISTORICAL HAVEN OF FRUIT AND FLOWERS

KG's Martin Fish takes time out from his own plot to visit a walled garden in Lincolnshire which has been home to the same family for more than 400 years

time-read
5 mins  |
September 2024
RESTORING THE BALANCE
Kitchen Garden

RESTORING THE BALANCE

The phrase regenerative gardening is often heard in gardening circles, but what is it? Can it help you to grow better veg? Ecologist Becky Searle thinks so, and tells us why

time-read
4 mins  |
September 2024
WASTE NOT, WANT NOT
Kitchen Garden

WASTE NOT, WANT NOT

Garden Organic's Anton Rosenfeld shares his expertise on using compost made from green bin collections with handy tips on getting the right consistency and quality

time-read
3 mins  |
September 2024
Celebrating Organic September!
Kitchen Garden

Celebrating Organic September!

In this special section we bring you four great features aimed at improving your crops and allowing nature to thrive

time-read
5 mins  |
September 2024
SEEING RED
Kitchen Garden

SEEING RED

Do your tomatoes have a habit of remaining stubbornly green? Or perhaps you're lucky to enjoy lots of lovely fruits - just all at once. Either way, Benedict Vanheems is here with some top tips to ripen and process the nation's favourite summer staple

time-read
6 mins  |
September 2024
NEW KIDS ON THE BROCCOLI!
Kitchen Garden

NEW KIDS ON THE BROCCOLI!

Rob Smith is talking broccoli this month with a review of the different types available and suggestions for some exciting new varieties to try

time-read
5 mins  |
September 2024
A NEW kitchen garden
Kitchen Garden

A NEW kitchen garden

Martin Fish is getting down to plenty of picking and planting on the garden veg plot, while Jill is rustling up something pepper-licking good!

time-read
5 mins  |
September 2024