THE VEG THAT KEEPS ON VEGGING

This month Becky Searle sings the praises of perennial vegetables and encourages you to find a space for them on your plot

- Becky Searle

Vegetable gardening is a labour of love. We must sow our seeds and carefully raise them in spring and throughout the year for continuous crops. We plant them out and hope they don't get eaten by all the hungry slugs. And then we must clear them away as they reach the end of their lives, and start all over again.

But there is a shortcut, and it comes in the form of perennial vegetables. Incorporating a few perennial vegetables into your kitchen garden can cut out some of the work while still producing crops. You may want to set aside an otherwise unproductive area for perennials or include them alongside your other crops.

Perennial vegetables carried me through a difficult spot in my life. A few years ago, I had to leave behind my beautiful garden and didn't take anything with me. I suddenly found myself in the middle of a pandemic, a full-time single mum of two. I had to home-school, set us up in a new home with almost nothing, and mentally pick myself off the floor. My garden helped me do this, but I didn't have the energy, resources or time I usually would put into it.

With the help of a few perennials and some lovely friends, I was able to establish my garden quickly and get some low-input crops. Before long, I was planting up the whole garden with vegetables, but the perennials are what got me started.

That was a few years ago, and now I still incorporate perennials into my garden as they're such an efficient, easy and logical use of space!

Here, we will examine some of the star performers regarding perennial veg!

PERENNIAL KALE