Perennial Vegetables

No time time for gardening? Dissapointed by your crops going to the slugs? Do you go away for long stretches so you can’t maintain a vegetable bed? Then perennial vegetables maybe the thing for you.

Perennial vegetables are great in a permaculture garden, either to replace annual vegetables or to complement them. They add to your diversity and require less attention than do annuals – as such they suit someone who doesn’t have much time or interest in garden maintenance but still wants to eat from the garden. They’re more resistant to pests and are often available to you for more seasons; some can be picked throughout the year. Perennial vegetable have a high nutritional value. They cover the soil suppressing weeds and work very well in a no-dig system.

On the down side there are less varieties available and the yield from a plant may be less than that from an annual. And taste should be a consideration. Many annual vegetables have been developed to suit a sweet and bland palate; some people find the taste of some perennial vegetables to be overpowering by comparison.

Right over on the EarthAbbey wiki we’ve begun to compile a list of some tasty top pics – along with links to where you can buy the seed to grow them. Pay the page a visit and by-all-means edit the page to add more information (or to find sources for Perpetual Kale (or Dorbenton’s Kale) and Garlic Cress which I’ve not been able to find yet).

Yum, yum.

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