[Can you eat that?]

Hi I'm looking for some tips on perennial veg worth eating, I've already got established fruit trees, a good selection of fruit bushes, strawberries , Jerusalem artichokes and globe artichokes. Plus herbs of course but would like to hear about others.

I've been reading about tree collards, and would love to know if any one grows them in the UK , if it's possible and where you get them. There seems to be a theory out there that it's Jersey kale or walking stick cabbage but from the description of height and how it's eaten I don't think it is.

Any ideas ?

[Can you eat that?]

Oh dear no one into perennials?

How about Egyption walking onions? any experiences?

[operabunny]

Welsh/Siberian onions
Asparagus
Rhubarb
Hardy celery
Sorrel
Cardoon

[Can you eat that?]

Welsh onions, check, although they haven't multiplied in the way I had hoped. Last years four bulbs have turned into this years four bulbs :o(

asparagus, I'm going to have to give up on this one after three years, the bed looks empty, one tiny piece of fern last year I think I have to accept it doesn't like me.

Hardy celery, new one I thought it was a biennial, how do you grew it?

and cardoon, is it worth it?  I've wondered about it but I've never tasted it.

and thank you for replying :o))

[operabunny]

My welsh onions just grow like chives - I pull what I want and every so often I split the clump. I was lucky to get them as an established clump though so they were away really quickly!

I'm afraid I can't remember the name of the celery - I planted it as a cut-and-come-again variety ages ago but it just keeps going. It survived this winter completely unprotected!

Cardoon I haven't tried yet, but I've just seen some at the local garden centre so I'm thinking of giving them a try. I am also trying a few Egyptian tree onions this year. Anything that self propogates has to be worth a go!

[Kajazy]

If you can find last Saturday's Telegraph Gardening section, the lead front-page article is ALL about growing perennial veg! I wish I could remember what it said though...maybe look it up online?

[Can you eat that?]

Couldn't agree with you more , self propagation is a boon. Plus if you are trying to price your veg most perennials are expensive or impossible to find in the shops.

A friend is sending some Egyptian walking onions , same thing as tree I think, to me . I'm looking forward to trying those.

I had some ransom bulbs given to me last year, but they have failed as well, hopefully I'll have more luck with these, at any rate it'll give the old boys something to talk about. I don't think I'm on the same wavelength as the other plot holders. :o))

[Can you eat that?]

Re Telegraph- read it  and wondered at the apparent ease of his asparagus growing
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/plants/vegetables/8450220/Perennial-vegetables-Plant-once-and-eat-always.html

After a couple of years of veg boxes ( pre allotment)I swore never to plant chard, but I can feel my resolve crumbling. I'd have liked to read more about occa.

[Can you eat that?]

http://downtheplot.com/oca.php

Haven't steeled mt self to look at the price of tubers yet.

[spud]

just bumping this to the fore again, as its an important side to growing food I believe.

Someone kindly sent me some perennial onions last year and they have done really well, they are very mild and the tops are very nice just eaten from the garden or as I normally use them, in an omlette.

I'd love to hear what else folks have in their plots that are perennial and they find really usefull?

I'd like to add some more bits and bobs, but like things that are hardy enought for the uk winters.

TIA

[JayG]

Many of the common herbs, chives and asparagus are usually fully hardy here and certainly have a place in my garden, but a surprising number of other plants we usually grow as annuals are actually perennials in their native environments (tomatoes, runner beans, peppers of both types..........sorry, I digress - not what you were asking!)

[allotmentann]

I have to say that I too am very interested in growing perenial veg, I can find plenty of herbs but not much veg. I think it seems such a sensilble idea. The celery sounds interesting and I am trying to grow some globe artichokes (I hadn't even realised that they were perennial! ), the seeds are just starting to germinate on my window sill now. Will have to look up the onions.

[New shoot]

I've got everlasting onions and walking onions, plus asparagus and seakale. I also grow potato onions, which are a kind of shallot and you can save the sets to replant the following year.  You can also get seeds of Good King Henry which is perennial although my chickens eat all of mine.  Someone also very kindly gave me some oca to try this year.

There are several crops which are pretty long standing as well - perpetual spinich will crop for months.

You might find this site interesting - they do lots of unusual stuff and native plants traditionally used as veg http://www.poyntzfieldherbs.co.uk/ 

[spud]

Thanks folks, I have the every lasting celery but find its gone by the time I really need it for making soup! but I do harvest it and feed it to the hens, so I benefit through the eggs.
I have been reading up on perennial veg, but it gets confusing as to what really is useful to actually eat as I don't really know enough about herbs for cooking etc. so asking for help in picking stuff for starters that is very useful. I have recently moved house and starting again in the garden, so this time I'm trying to achieve more of the forest garden effect, and hopefully as I age the work won't over whelm me.
Fruits and berries are so good health wise when they are grown under natural conditions and I was hoping the perennail veg would be the next progression.
Please keep your posts coming.

 

[viettaclark]

Jerusalem Artichokes, chards, perpetual spinach, sorrel, parsley, chillies (bring them in over Winter) Things like mustards/wild rocket/mizuna/corriander will self-seed after summer bolting and come up later in the year.