Do you dream of a low maintenance perennial garden? One that is full to the brim of perennial vegetables that you don't have to keep replanting, but only have a small space?
Do you struggle with too little time for gardening or controlling the pests and diseases that eat your crops? Do you want to grow unusual vegetable varieties? You can do all of this with Edible Perennial Gardening. Anni Kelsey has meticulously researched the little known subject of edible perennials and selected her favourite, tasty varieties. She explains how to source and propagate different vegetables, which plants work well together in a polycultures, and what you can plant in small, shady or semi-shady beds as well as in sunny areas. It includes:
Getting started and basic principles
Permaculture, forest gardening and natural farming
Growing in polycultures
How to chose suitable leafy greens, onions, roots, tubers and herbs
Site selection and preparation
Building fertility
Low maintenance management strategies
If you long for a forest garden but simply dont have the space for tree crops, or want to grow a low maintenance edible polyculture, this book will explain everything you need to know to get started on a new gardening adventure that will provide you with beauty, food for your household and save you money.
I love Annis book. Shes taken traditionally big space ideas and approaches and brought them alive on a domestic scale, where most gardeners operate. The bigger picture of redesigning our food system with perennials at its heart underlies, yet it never gets in the way of inspiring and enabling the reader with case studies, examples, advice and experience. A must-have for forward thinking gardeners."
Mark Diacono, experimental gardener, journalist and author of "A Year at Otter Farm."
"This is a valuable addition to the literature on growing perennial vegetables. The authors experiences of creating and maintaining polycultures are a great guide and inspiration to this challenging aspect of edible perennial gardening.
Martin Crawford, director of the Agroforestry Research Trust and author of "Creating a Forest Garden" and "How To Grow Perennial Vegetables"
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