I love the idea of vegetables that are sown or planted once and keep growing. For years.
There’s a lot of effort involved in sowing vegetable seed annually, so it makes sense to have perennial vegetables as the backbone of a permaculture garden.
They may not bring instant rewards, but you know what, this croft garden is for the long term and so a few years for these plants to establish before they give back isn’t a great deal to ask.
Perennial vegetables are for the most part ancient heritage varieties. They include such vegetables as asparagus, artichokes, walking onions, leeks, kale and broccoli. Some of these varieties, such as the Sutherland kale that I’m growing from seed, nearly died out and are really quite rare.
I’ve received my very first perennial vegetable in the post from Quercus Edibles, a small grower in Devon. It’s a Babbington Leek. As soon as the hail storms abate, this little clump of hardy loveliness is going into the ground.
The first of what I hope will be many perennial plants on the croft.
Ravencroft Skye 
Hiya, that is so lovely…we mainline on good veggies albeit with meat. We have the same challenge as you – what do you plant, when and also when best to crop so a new learning curve. The Jerusalem Artichokes crop twice per year apparently, but ours had been cut back quite hard, so we may not see any until August.
J has aspirations of building a herb rack out of a couple of pallets. I suspect that is my next project and to get away from the builder’s last week, a retreat.
We don’t see kale, and miss it…lovely. Up for a trade anytime.
Stay well and have fun!
D
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You’ll get there. Figs, peaches, tomatoes like Apples, olives, nuts – it’s a growers paradise! You’ll work it out and enjoy the abundance that you’ll undoubtedly have.
Sadly posting you kale isn’t likely to work… A bunch of green leaves in a brown paper package.. 🤔
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I agree, perenial vegetables are the way to go. Also vegetables that self sow easily (like lettuce and beans) and herbs that pop up where you least expect them (parsley comes to mind) give so much of a return for very little input. I dream of a vegetable garden that self regulates, where all I have to do is pick the harvest.
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Ah, that dream. Me too! 😊
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For many years I grew 10 canes of raspberries, 5 early and 5 late ripening. And every year I struggled to pick them before they rotted. I ended up using scissors to cut off entire bunches just to gain easier access to the best of the rest.
Just saying, don’t be tempted to plant too many. Save the ground for something else 👍
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Why did you struggle to pick them – too tangled and thorny?
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So far I’ve got blueberries, honeyberries, jostaberries (yep they are a thing),Red Gooseberries (very thorny), Blackcurrants and raspberries planned for the berry bed….
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