Edible Perennial Gardening: Growing Successful Polycultures in Small Spaces PDF
Preview Edible Perennial Gardening: Growing Successful Polycultures in Small Spaces
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 Hampshire GU32 1HR United Kingdom Tel: 0844 846 846 4824 (local rate UK only) or +44 (0)1730 823 311 Fax: 01730 823 322 Email: [email protected] Web: www.permanentpublications.co.uk Chelsea Green Publishing Company, PO Box 428, White River Junction, VT 05001 www.chelseagreen.com © 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] eBook conversion eBookPartnership, ebookpartnership.com British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication 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 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, rebound or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of Hyden House Limited. 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
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