How to Grow Perennial Vegetables

How to Grow Perennial Vegetables gives comprehensive advice on all types of perennial vegetables, from ground-cover plants and coppiced trees to plants for bog gardens and edible woodland plants.

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, and extend the harvesting season - avoiding the hungry gap between the end of the winter harvest and the start of the summer harvest of annual vegetables.

Unlike annual vegetables, perennials cover and protect the soil all year round, which maintains the structure of the soil and helps everything growing in it. Humous levels build up, nutrients don't wash out of the soil, and mycorrhizal fungi, critical for storing carbon within the soil, are preserved. Perennial plants also contain higher levels of mineral nutrients than annuals because they have larger, permanent root systems, capable of using space more efficiently

Written by gardening expert Martin Crawford, this book gives comprehensive advice on how to grow and care for both common perennial vegetables like rhubarb, Jerusalem artichokes, horseradish and asparagus and unusual edible plants such as skirret, red chicory, nodding onions, Babington's leek, scorzonera, sea kale, wild rocket, coppiced trees and aquatic plants.

With plenty of cooking tips, colour photographs and illustrations throughout and an A-Z of over 100 perennial edibles, it is an inspiration for all gardeners.

Auteur

Martin Crawford has worked in organic agriculture and horticulture for more than 25 years. His experiences span from working for the Yarner Trust in North Devon, teaching small-scale organic agriculture to restoring the walled gardens of a manor house to running an organic market garden and tree nursery in South Devon.

Martin is director of the Agroforestry Research Trust, a charity that researches temperate agroforestry and all aspects of plant cropping and uses, with a focus on tree, shrub and perennial crops. He runs a commercial tree nursery specialising in unusual trees and shrubs, and has an 8-acre trial site, researching fruit and nut trees.

Résumé
Perennial vegetables are a joy to grow and require a lot less time and effort than annuals. In this book Martin Crawford gives comprehensive advice on all types of perennial vegetable (edible plants that live longer than three years), from ground-cover plants and coppiced trees to plants for bog gardens and edible woodland plants. There are many advantages to growing perennial vegetables, for example: they need less tillage than conventional vegetables and so help retain carbon in the soil the soil structure is not disturbed in their cultivation they extend the harvesting season, especially in early spring and, of course, they are much less work. Part One looks at why and how to grow these crops, and how to look after them for maximum health. Part Two features over 100 perennial edibles in detail, both common and unusual - from rhubarb to skirret; Jerusalem artichoke to nodding onions. This book offers inspiration and information for all gardeners, whether experienced or beginner, and also includes plenty of cooking tips. It includes beautiful colour photographs and illustrations throughout.

Contenu

Foreword by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
Introduction

Part 1 - An introduction to perennial vegetables

Why grow perennial vegetables?
- What is a perennial vegetable?

• The case for growing perennials

Growing perennial vegetables

• Types of perennial plant
• Soils
• Perennial beds
• Planting patterns
• Perennial polycultures
• Perennial grains
• Perennial tuber and root crops
• Perennial vegetables and ground-cover plants
• Forest gardens
• Growing perennial vegetables under existing trees
• Growing aquatic perennial vegetables
• Native and non-native plants

Maintenance of perennial vegetables

• Feeding
• Soil pH
• Disease management
• Pest management
• Harvesting and yields
• Propagation
• Maintenance

Part 2 - Perennial vegetables A-Z

Appendix: Common and Latin names
Resources