small space gardeners Should Prioritise perennials
What are perennials?
There are two major types of food crops we can grow at home, annuals and perennials. It is really handy to know the difference, especially for beginner gardeners. It can be extremely overwhelming with so many options of plants, trees, herbs etc to choose from.
Let’s break it down.
Annuals are plants that grow from seed and die all within one season. They live fast and die young, this is why they are called annuals. In modern agriculture and home gardens they are replanted each year. They take lots of maintenance, vast amounts of nutrients so they can grow quickly and they have very shallow root systems. which then also requires frequent watering.
Perennials on the other hand live on for many years before they die. Perennials do not need to be replanted at the end of each growing season, they may just need a good prune and they will continue on. They are often slower to establish, use less nutrients from the soil over a longer period of time, usually require less watering and generally have deeper root systems
There are also biennials, which will go from seed to seed in two years. These are much less common and they are often grown as annuals so we won’t focus on this group. but common biennial crops include onions, parsley and chard.
Why perennials?
I think gardeners, particularly those like myself who have limited space should prioritise perennials where possible for a number of reasons. But the biggest reason being the ability to sow the seeds or plant and being able to harvest from them for many years to come.
Growing annuals is extremely rewarding, who doesn’t love growing their own lettuce, snow peas, tomatoes or carrots? All of these are easy to grow in pots but they can also be very time consuming and will need to be planted every year, perennials on the other hand can be planted just once and relied upon year after year.
Perennials in Permaculture
According to the Permaculture Research Institute “approximately 80% of the world's food crops grown in the world are annual plants and perennial plant food crops are pretty much in the minority in terms of how the human race derives its nutrition… whereas in Nature, over 90% of plants are perennials. From this simple fact it is clearly evident that our conventional farming systems are very far removed from how Nature prefers to grow plants.”
They also go on to talk about the importance of perenials in permaculture. “Permaculture strongly emphasises the importance of using perennial plants in our food production systems. When we consider the permanent agriculture aspect of permaculture, it should be apparent that we would need to utilise perennial plants to construct a permanent system, rather than using annual crops to create temporary systems, which are there one season, and return to bare earth the next.”
If you would like to know more about the importance of perennials in permaculture and the vast amount of issues surrounding annual farming I urge you to read the article titled Perennial Plants and Permaculture.
Examples
Herbs
Herbs are probably the easiest and most accessible for all gardeners, all of the herbs listed below are suited to pots, so no matter your living situation you can grow these at the bare minimum. Luckily the most common herbs are perennials, they include:
Rosemary
Oregano
Mint
Lemongrass
Thyme
Sage
Lemon balm
Lemon Verbena
Chives
Fruit
Pretty much any fruit tree will live for a long period of time and continue to produce fruit as long as it is situated in a suitable location and is pruned and fertilised fairly regularly. This includes:
Apples and pears
Citrus
Figs
Stonefruits
Passionfruit and many more.
There are many smaller fruits to choose from too, they include the likes of:
Strawberries
Currants
Blueberries
Raspberries and blackberries
Midyim berries
Lilly pillies
Vegetables
The most popular vegetables and also some fruits we consider to be vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumbers and pumpkins are annuals. But there are some great perennial vegetables. Some include:
Rhubarb
Warrigal Greens
Malabar spinach
Sorrel
Wild rocket
Asparagus
Globe artichokes
Watercress
Egyptian walking onions
Spices
Ginger
Turmeric
Bay laurel
Curry tree
Edible flowers
There are many perennial flowers that can also be safely consumed, here are some common examples:
Roses - (rose petals and rosehips are great for tea)
Lavender
Dandelions
Echinacea
Violets
Roman chamomile
Why small space gardeners should prioritise perennials
As you can see from the above examples, there is a long list of perennials that can be grown in small garden spaces. Perennials are an excellent choice and should be considered as the preferred option.
