Edible Perennial Gardening: Growing Successful Polycultures in Small Spaces

284 Pages·2014·22.06 MB·English

by  Anni Kelsey

EDIBLE PERENNIAL
GARDENING
Growing Successful Polycultures in Small Spaces
ANNI KELSEY
PERMANENT PUBLICATIONS
Published by Permanent Publications
Hyden House Ltd
The Sustainability Centre East Meon
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United Kingdom
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© 2014 Anni Kelsey
The right of Anni Kelsey to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance
with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1998
Anni Kelsey’s blog: http://annisveggies.wordpress.com
Photographs © Anni Kelsey, unless stated otherwise Illustrations by Emma Lawrence,
www.emmalawrence.com
Designed by Two Plus George Limited, wwwTwoPlusGeorge.co.uk
Index by Amit Prasad, [email protected]
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Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library PRINT: ISBN 9781856231497
PDF: ISBN 9781856231503
EPUB: ISBN 9781856231510
MOBI: ISBN 9781856231527
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CONTENTS
The Author
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Introduction
Anticipation
Chapter 1
Setting an Objective – find and grow as many perennial vegetables as
possible
Starting points
Be realistic but push the boundaries of possibility
Definitions
What is special about perennial vegetables?
Are there any disadvantages?
Find and grow as many perennial vegetables as possible Principles
Chapter 2
Foundations and Underlying Themes – permaculture, forest gardening and
natural farming
Permaculture
Edible forest gardening
Masanobu Fukuoka and natural farming
Synthesis
A wider context
What are we ‘transitioning’ towards?
Chapter 3
Living Soil and Plant Nutrition
The basics of soil structure
Healthy soil is alive
Soil food webs
Dead food web
Living food web
Plants need the right nutrients
The gardener’s part
Chapter 4
Growing in Polycultures – Diversity by Design
What is a polyculture?
The advantages of polycultures
The elements of polycultures
Plant size, shape and form
Chapter 5
Choosing Perennial Vegetables – Part One
Selecting suitable perennials
Perennial leafy greens and shoots
Perennial green vegetables – cabbage family
Other perennial kales
Perennial green vegetables – other plant families
Perennial onions
Perennial roots and tubers
Chapter 6
Choosing Perennial Vegetables – Part Two
Annuals that can be grown as perennials
Annual greens as perennials
Other useful annual greens
Annual roots grown as perennials
Perennials I would have liked to be able to grow better
Miscellaneous other perennial vegetables
Flowers
Chapter 7
Cooking with New Foods
Eating your perennial vegetables
Hearty chick pea and kale soup
Kale and leek colcannon
Kale with ginger, garlic and chilli
Wild rocket soup
Roasted perennial root vegetables
Chapter 8
Plants to Complete a Polyculture
Tall plants
Medium height plants
Ground cover and low plants
Climbers
Nitrogen fixers
Flowers
Chapter 9
Pathways to Polyculture
Starting points and general principles
Planning a polyculture
Creating edible polycultures
Size and scale
Chapter 10
Site Selection and Preparation
Where to grow perennial vegetables
Site preparation and initial fertility
Establishing the patch and ongoing fertility
Raising plants from seed
Fruit trees, bushes and forest gardens
Potted polycultures
Storing produce
Chapter 11
‘Managing’ a Polyculture
On balance
Principles
How does this work in practice?
‘Weeding’
Mineral accumulators
Nitrogen fixers
Pests and diseases
Fertility