Design for a perennial veg raised bed
Brief: Low maintenance vegetables in a semi-exposed (can get cold and windy) 1.2m x 1.2m raised bed. To include brassicas and onion or leek equivalent.
Design: Based on a permaculture forest garden guild. Usually a guild would include a small tree and shrubs but since I’m working with a limited space there’s no space for either. What I have included instead is a Purple Tree Collard which is a type of perennial kale that if staked as it grows rather than leaving to spread will hopefully be training into a small upright shrub shape with space for underplanting.
Plants:
Skirret – Clump forming herbaceous perennial with sweet edible white roots that taste like carrot and liquorice. Looks like parsnip above ground with umbellifer like white flowers.
Jerusalem Artichoke ‘Dwarf Sunray’ - High yielding artichoke produces tubers with creamy white flesh and delicious flavour. Shorter than some varieties of Jerusalem artichoke so should be a bit more sturdy in this windy location. Bonus of an amazing flowering habit so look spectacular and can be used as a cut flower and excellent for pollinators.
Purple Tree Collards – A beautiful perennial brassica with attractive deep purple tasty leaves. Upright habit with a central stem and bushy top growth.
Turkish rocket - Young florets which can be used as a substitute for a sprouting broccoli. The leaves have a flavour like mild cabbage in spring but getting hotter later in the year. Can be used in salads or cooked. Extremely low maintenance and yellow flowers attract all kinds of insect life.
Babington Leek - Tall easy to grow, low maintenance perennial vegetables providing a yearly harvest of slender leeks with a hint of garlic.
Everlasting onions - Useful clump forming hardy perennial onion. Green parts can be used like a spring onion and bulbs can be dug out and used for cooking. Resilient to all kinds of weather and pests.
Gaps between the main plants will be filled with a variety of groundcover. There will be more ground cover in the first few years as the perennial veg takes a bit of time to mature.
Many to choose from but it will probably be one or two from this list: Stringy stonecrop (edible) Stitchwort (Edible) Phacelia (fast growing, good for pollinators and nitrogen fixing) Tagetes (good for pollinators)
