Perennial vegetables, permaculture and more...
If growing your own food is printing money, (said Ron Finley whose Ted talk is inspirational) planting perennials must be like owning a very fun and reliable printer.
Here are some of my collection of perennial plants, planted this year. They hopefully will keep growing back year after year with minimal fuss.
Jerusalem artichokes
Purple tree collards
Sea kale
Taunton Deane Perennial Kale
Dwarf apple tree (grown in a 50 litre bucket)
Earth chestnut
Babington's leek
Wild garlic
Sweet potato orca
Nine-star perennial broccoli
Chinese artichokes
I used to grow plants on my little balcony in a London flat. Now I have more space, there are plants everywhere especially my home office and kitchen. Worm towers, composting, zero waste as much as possible and feeling so connected to nature. There are many invisible helpers in my garden to encourage too: Earthworms, a toad, insects, beetles and centipedes that eat slugs, butterflies, everyone enjoys the party and there’s enough to go around.
I found the Backyard Larder’s blog very helpful and bought some plants from them. Backyard Larder sends their plants beautifully packaged in recycled shoe boxes which I so appreciated. I also bought some plants from Otter Farm and want to support the great work they do for the Earth.
A small celebration-my nectarine tree has fruit this summer, less than two years after planting it from a bare root plant in the winter. My neighbour said it would be impossible in our UK weather — which makes me worry about global warming. If you don’t have space, you can still sprout seeds, a great source of lovely nutritious goodness… My favourites are mung beans… Easy, peasy… Jar and water required… That is all. Pea shoots are also lovely and look great on a dinner plate; they taste like peas with all the fresh, green goodness. Pea shoots do need compost and a sunny windowsill, read a blog by Vertical Gardener, Mark Riddill Smith here.
My husband is protesting about eating so much Kale — which is the only downside (for him) of my having ‘green fingers’. I can live with that.
