Perennial Vegetable Plants Provide Food For Thought
Why arent we growing more food that works for us
, which is planted once and can then be harvested for year on year - excuse the pun but isnt this food for thought.
Most fruit and herbs are perennial plants, but when it comes to vegetables the gardener, harking back to earlier times in history, seems to be continuing old habits which dictate a rush and tear of planting and sowing from scratch every year.
The gardener tends to carry on as always turning the soil, sowing, weeding, watering, fertilizing, that all goes with growing annual vegetables, but perennials are an increasingly important part of how we feed ourselves and how we garden.
The food we buy takes around 10 times the energy to produce as the energy it gives us, and according to recent research its carbon footprint is huge, this is due to the use of man-made nitrogen fertilizers, which requires one ton of oil and 108 tons of water to make just one ton, and in turn releases seven tons of greenhouse gases in the process.
Rising prices and dwindling resources are a great incentive to grow your own food, and the ultimate goal is to grow more delicious, low maintenance low energy perennials like asparagus, rhubarb, kale garlic and cress to name but a few.
There are plenty of perennial vegetables from every corner of the world to choose from, and more importantly to suit all size of garden, this will of course include salad leaves, brassicas, roots, onions and edible flowers such as the popular lavender plants, grown more and more to use in the baking of puddings, and cakes.
Perennial vegetable plants can be harvested at any time of the year, but where they hold the advantage and come into their own is very early in the season, when few annuals have germinated, never mind grown, and as early as April you could be enjoying kale, asparagus and rhubarb.
The bonus of growing perennials is that the soil is rarely left exposed to the forces of erosion, for one digging can upset perfectly balanced soil ecology, and can expose weed seeds for germination also releasing carbon into the atmosphere. You will find disease and pest problems much reduced as most perennial plants out-compete weeds and resist slugs.
It is now the time of year to plan your garden for next season, choose what garden bulbs, you want to plant, and of course if left in the soil when the blooming time has finished they will bloom again the following year.
Garden seeds are a wonderful thing to start children with the interest, they can just chuck in and get pleasure when the seeds start to sprout, and of course your hanging basket plants if chosen carefully can give pleasure summer or winter.
A spokesman for Blooming Direct a horticultural business based on the Island of Jersey said we are an online facility and customers can browse and choose what they want, we offer free delivery on all orders to the UK and guarantee your plants will arrive in pristine condition to your front door.
Gardening is a fulfilling hobby, but at the same time can be so productive, providing vegetables that are fresh, straight to the table.
For further information visit: www.bloomingdirect.com or you can visit their Facebook page to discover more offers.
by: Mary Howe
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