How to Grow Perennial Vegetables: Low-maintenance, low-impact vegetable gardening

by Martin Crawford

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.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Food, Plants, How To, Reference, Agriculture

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[melanie]

Haven't finished this book, but have begun to notice that some critical safety information is lacking. There seems to be a lot of good information here, and it's an important topic, but this should probably NOT be anyone's go-to book on perennial vegetables.

Here is an ongoing list of poor information I'm finding. I feel like I should share these notes for anyone reading this book or thinking about adding it to their library.

- - -

American elder (Sambucus canadensis): an amazingly useful plant, and rightfully included in this book, but the author leaves out the fact that all parts of this plant are toxic when raw and need to be cooked.

Columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris) : I've read elsewhere that most of the Aquilegia genus is considered toxic. The author doesn't mention any reports of toxicity. He says that "all A. vulgaris varieties can be used as a vegetable" while also saying that it readily hybridises with other Aquilegia species... if you were going to let the plant re-seed, as he recommends, you might have problems...

More to come, I'm sure...

[Janie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was gung-ho to read this after reading a few initial reviews (not on GR) from other permaculturists. Then I read a few more reviews and was feeling wary. (The reviews ranged from banally unenthusiastic to correctly concerned about serious errors in another of his books -- serious like incorrect labeling of pictures. When it comes to edibles, it's important to get that right. I'm not sure if this book is by the same publisher.)

I already had it set on hold when my expectations wilted, and when it came in I saw that Hugh Fearnley-Whittingsall wrote the intro. I very much admire Hugh! My hopes yo-yo'ed back up.

I got good information from this book. Most of it is just an index of plants. I learned highly useful things that I'd never seen mentioned about rhubarb(!), udo, and edible bamboo (particularly anent the prized varietals). Also, this was the first book(?!) where mineral accumulators were given a special section. I am astonished that I'm hours and hours of reading into my research but I've never run into a simple mineral accumulator chart??! I do wonder if I just overlooked them before.

I've come across a sort of bifurcation in perennial polyculture critics: it's either Toensmeier or Crawford. I guess I'd have to take Toensmeier if I could only have one.

Crawford seems stingy with acknowledging others' expertises. The only reference to another book that I can recall was to one of his *own* books. Most of the other authors in this field are very generous with their recommendations and citations and reliance on others' work.

[Ian Young · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good: nicely organized and attractively laid-out. A large selection of plants represented, both common and uncommon varieties. Good information on culinary uses of the plants.

Bad: Seemed oriented more towards the UK than US (obviously fine if you live in the UK). Info on cultivation was a little more inconsistent and sometimes incomplete.

Overall this works great as a source of inspiration for new plants to grow, but I'd probably turn to another reference to confirm the growing conditions and day-to-day needs of the plants.

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent resource that I'll go back to again and again. I didn't realise that many of these plants existed, and I'm going to have fun figuring out which ones to introduce into my garden.

My only small complaint was that I would have appreciated a way to group them either by cooking method or by season of harvest. I aim to plan my garden to provide food all year round, and having a shortcut for which varieties to consider would have been helpful.

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was interesting. My backyard is postage stamp size so I won't be utilizing much of the practices, but it was an interesting read. About the first quarter (?) of the book is general info and the remainder is a perennial plant dictionary. Unfortunately it's a UK author & title and many of the plants that sounded really interesting wouldn't grow here in zone 3 Alberta

[Brady Heyen · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars: really great but not a must-read

Really great info and more of a reference book than a guide book. But it helped me to select several perennial varieties to start my foray into perennial edibles, with lots of tips and and advice for each one. Definitely will be consulting this one regularly.

[Scott Andrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is SO good, I might rethink my distaste for the disheveled Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

I have to ask: can you make money with these crops?

and

I have to warn: do not plant near a controlled burn of toxic chemicals.

[Daniel Wood · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book about perennial vegetables, which are suitable for UK climates. Providing a range of examples, with accompanying information on cultivating, harvesting and there uses in the kitchen.

Similar to Martins other book 'Creating a food forest', which I would say is slightly better.

[Allyson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal guide to finding vegetables to add to a permaculture landscape.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like the A to Z section of pictures, guidance on growth, and culinary uses with pictures; it’s a nice guide. The first part was a little dry and hard to get through.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very instructive book with a wealth of information on how to grow and care for perennial vegetables, including hardiness zone and planting info. Solid reference on individual vegetables as well.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

A useful and comprehensive list of perennial vegetables with some info on each. Has helped to inspire my allotment planting

[Literate Duck · Rating 2 out of 5]

seems more relevant for ppl in UK. an overwhelming amount of plants native to Asia.

[Toni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Again, like many of Martin Crawford's publications, there is a lot of recycled information. The most overall and general purpose publication is definitely Creating A Forest Garden. Thus, this one is really not a must-read, although it is immensely enjoyable, inspiring and a good reference tool. The list of species is larger too, so if you are still not satisfied and curious for more after CAFG, then this is a good place to go. There is a bit more theory, advice of plating patterns, using the root layers to minimize competition etc. If you really only intend to grow perennial vegetables and don't want to include bushes or trees (although the benefits really are much bigger to make use of all), I guess it makes sense to just read this one. As always the pictures are beautiful and illustrative, the order of the book very easy to navigate and most of the necessary information you need readily available. What I especially like about Crawford's writing is his way of prioritizing knowledge. Not all information of a plant is necessary to know, if you want to grow it well. Some is interesting, but given that soils and plant ecology is so complex (witness the lenght of Edible Forest Gardens) you really have to cut out some of the noise. Crawford has spent two decades sorting the noise from the important stuff and we should be very grateful for his wisdom.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

I preferred Perennial Vegetables: From Artichokes to Zuiki Taro, a Gardener's Guide to Over 100 Delicious and Easy to Grow Edibles

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the beginning and only skimmed the majority of the book, the A-Z list. It seems helpful, but not encyclopedic.

[Abigail · Rating 5 out of 5]

So far I love this book. Contains lots of plants that I didn't know we're edible.