A Natural Farm Presents How to Grow Perennial

and prepare an ideal garden plot for them

Plant Zone Sun Edible Layer

Moringa 8-11 Full/ Partial Leaves, , Canopy flower, pods, Papaya* 9-11 Full/ Partial Green fruit, Understory leaves for tea, seeds South Sea 8-10 Full/Partial Leaves Understory Salad

Pigeon Pea* 9-10 Full/ Partial Fresh or dry Understory shelled pods

Katuk 10-11, 9 Shade/ Partial Leaves, stems Shrub

Cranberry 8-11 Full/ Partial Leaves, flowers Shrub Hibiscus

Brazilian 9-11 Partial Leaves, stem Herbaceous Spinach

Surinam 8-11 Partial/ Full Leaves, stem Herbaceous Spinach* (moist soil)

Longevity* 9-11 Full/ Partial Leaves, stem Herbaceous

African Potato 8- 11 - winter Full/ Partial Tubers Groundcover/Roots Mint dormancy

Butterfly Pea 8-11 Full/ Partial Flowers, tender Climber (seeds for sale pods from Kelli)

Most listed can be sensitive to cold in the winter season. Propagate and grow young propagates in a sheltered space to duplicate in case cold weather knocks back or kills main .

Intro: This workshop is an introduction to growing perennial vegetables in Central Florida, and hopefully it will provide you with some new ideas or motivation to start a few perennial vegetables at home. Question: What do you have experience growing? What are you interested in perennial gardening?

Workshop outline: • Annual vs Perennial gardening • Benefits of perennials • How to grow (a few methods and strategies) • Plants available to start your perennial garden • Resources

Annual Gardening What is an annual? • An annual plant is a crop that ends its lifecycle within a season (grow from to flower/fruit) and needs to be replanted or seeded for a new crop the following season. • Pros: quick crop, familiar flavors and tastes! • Cons: Reseeding or planting = more time and money spent by the grower, traditional annual gardening practices like tilling and chemical fertilization disrupt the soil ecosystem (Fungi, Bacteria, Invertebrates) which is directly related to plant health, more inputs need to be added to the garden as soil ecosystem depletes, heavy pest pressure unless and crop rotation, more erosion issues.

Perennial Gardening: What is a perennial? • A lives more than one season. Short lived perennials can live a few seasons and slowly produce less, while a long-lived perennial can live many years! • Cons: Take longer to be established and for harvest

• Pros: Great soil builders as their roots are stabilizing soil and interacting with soil ecosystem, they add organic matter with leaf drop and decomposition, substantial system catches and stores water and helps with erosion control, hardy and usually have less pest pressure when growing in a diverse landscape.

How to grow perennials “Right Plant, Right Place” Zones Zones are areas with similar average minimum temperatures grouped together so growers can have a better understanding of what crops will fair better in their area.

Microclimates Though zones help to give us an idea of what may work or not work in the landscape; the way the topography of your land is, buildings, water features, and many more factors create unique growing conditions in each landscape, known as a microclimate. A classic example is the southern side of the property close to the house will have a warmer climate than the northern side. Because of the northern wind block and the sun warming up the building which will radiate heat from the house, planting on that southern side can extend your growing zone. So, understand your zone, but push it or challenge it with specific growing strategies! Such as creating windbreaks, water features, planting close to buildings, growing in pots that can be moved around or overwintered, and if you get serious about zone pushing- grow in greenhouses!

Site Preparation for Perennial crops

-observe - build organic matter - suppress weeds

If you have a blank slate on your property you may be wondering where to start? The first thing is to observe your landscape. What is growing there naturally and doing really well? Where does the water pool or what areas are well draining? Cold spot? Hot spots? How do the building or other large features effect the landscape? These insights will start to direct you to the spots for “right plant, right place “perennial gardening.

Next you will want to feed the soil by building your organic matter. Sand is not void of all nutritional value for plants, but it sheds away quickly. You want to add organic matter to retain water and provide food for the support system of beings living within in it- microbes- fungi, bacteria, and invertebrates. I’ll be sharing how to do this shortly.

Suppressing weeds So, you made your observations and now you want to begin, but you have a landscape of unwanted plants – weeds/ sod… what do you do? There are a few ways to start. • First method is the tarp method. Use a large, dark colored tarp (we use landscape fabric at the farm) and lay (with weights) on the area you would like to create your garden space. The tarp will suffocate the weeds but not kill the soil ecosystem inhabitants. • Second method: solarization. If you have a problem area with pests or invasives that a tarp won’t kill, you may need to solarize the soil. Instead of a dark tarp, use clear plastic. We use this method as a last resort because the sun will magnify through the clear plastic and kill much of the life in the soil. You will then need to add or inoculate the soil with , beneficials, and possible cover crop after. • Last method is sheet mulching! Which I will be describing in the next slide.

Sheet Mulching Steps Sheet mulching also known as Lasagna gardening or Back to Eden gardening, is suppressing weeds while creating layers of carbon/ nitrogen as which will break down over time and create soil in your garden. The steps don’t need to be follow strictly, but the idea is to lay down a thick layer of cardboard or newspaper over the landscape. Water it down, and then layer browns/ greens ( carbon/ nitrogen- you can use food scraps or newly chopped green material for greens and newspaper for browns) with compost, continually watering it in, and the last step being a thick layer of wood chips. I use woodchips from tree trimming companies, there is also the group: chip-drop.

*Make sure it is undyed mulch, keep mulch away from buildings(termites), and don’t used diseased trees for mulch.

Planting into your new Garden bed After finishing your sheet mulching you can plant directly into it as if it was a container or wait for the mulch to begin to break down (around 6-9 months depending on site and time of year). If you want to directly plant immediately into the sheet mulch, pull mulch away until you get to cardboard layer. Break through cardboard layer and mix some compost in with the native soil. Plant your perennial in and back fill with potting soil and compost. Keep mulch away from trunk/stem to prevent rot/ disease issues. If growing annuals, you can pull mulch away, add potting soil as if the area was a raised bed or container and plant into the soil. Over time the wood chips will break down and you will have more gardening space!

Remember when planting • Water plant prior to planting • Dig a hole twice the size of the root ball of the plant to loosen the soil. But only deep enough so the plant will be in line with the soil level (not below). If planted to low, you can cause rot issues as water will pool. • Massage pot to release the plant, and massage root ball if roots are circling around the pot. • Mix compost with native soil in planting hole • Back fill, water, tamp down soil, water for the first few days and gradually less over time.

Setup for Success - Water – drip irrigation is a great garden friend! - consistent, less time needed. If not using drip water at the soil level and it’s best to water during the day as if watering late in the evening the water may sit and cause fungal issues. Do what works for your schedule, but watering at the soil level is the best practice for the plants. - Mulch – We spoke about woodchips as mulch, but you can use many other materials you have on site that creates biomass. Mulch helps retain water, regulate temperature, build organic matter, and suppress weeds. I use a method called “chop and drop” where I cut down plants, I grow specifically for mulch material = Tithonia diversifolia (Mexican Sunflower), lemongrass, Comfrey (in shade), Fakahatchee Grass, pigeon pea. You can also use things you have on site like the plant most people have growing and consider a weed = Bidens alba(Spanish needles)= which is a great pollinator plant and is also medicinal for people! - Diversify - growing a mixed garden instead of growing a row of all the same crop, will reduce pest pressure and attract an assortment of beneficial organisms. When you

grow a row of the same crop a disease or pest will have a buffet line of food! So, intercrop and diversify your plantings. You will also be providing different types for food for the soil ecosystem which helps build its resilience. - Fertilize & Feed – We routinely fertilize our plants 3 times a year (spaced out throughout the year but stopping around October as most fruit trees go dormant). We use an organic poultry manure-based fertilizer with azomite (trace minerals). But you can use many organic methods to fertilize plants and feed the soil = Worm castings, compost, manure, foliar sprays(fish/seaweed), root drenches, homemade plant ferments. Diversity your feedings for happy soil! - Propagate – propagation is creating new plants from cuttings and placing them in sterile media to develop roots. To propagate: Remove most of the leaves with sharp sterile garden pruners( a few can remain at the top), and leave a few nodes( bumps where the leaves were) below and a few above the well-draining, sterile media you will be planting in to. We use the brand pro mix (sterile soilless media made from peat moss), but you can use perlite, and some even use sand. At this stage the plant will be focusing on root development at the nodes below soil, so fertile soil is unneeded. Propagation is a great way to duplicate plants, especially those that are doing really well in your garden, or duplicate plants to overwinter in a sheltered location in case your “mother” plant is killed in cold weather. - Prune/ Harvest – To harvest is to prune on many plants. Such as when you pick the tips of a green plant to eat, the plant will then branch our or produce fresh tender leaves. Pruning and harvesting will help the health of the plant. Pruning creates more branching and more fruit development. Prune away dead leaves, old flowers, old branches, and prune to create good air circulation.

Perennial plants we recommend

Note: I’ve categorized the plants in layers for your landscape, which is known as a “food forest”. A Food forest mimics patterns in nature, where you will plant crops to fit specific niches/ layers. These plants help support each other in many ways, such as providing shade, acting as a trellis, growing as a living mulch, or building organic matter for the soil. Let nature do the growing and think back to the times when you take a walk in a healthy forest- normally you don’t find a neat row of the same plant!

Plants: Always introduce new foods to your diet slowly, by trying a little at a time. Do further research to learn if these plants will work well for your personal consumption. Most of these plants are available at our farm currently. Many can be sensitive to winter temperatures (if we have a cold one again!) so find your warmer areas of your landscape and propagate to extend your zone.

Information on the zones, food forest layer can be found on the graph on page 1 of this handout.

Moringa One of the most nutritious plants on the planet and one of the fastest growing! Drought tolerant. Great for adding biomass or chop and drop. You can cut the plant multiple times if leaves are out of reach. I do this in the late fall by cutting around 4 feet, and the new shoots start coming out in spring again. Edible leaves, pods, flowers, seeds * some eat the roots but have certain toxins, so we tend to advise away from that!

Papaya Known for the ripe fruit, the green fruit is a wonderful veggie! Good as a shredded salad or squash substitute. Make sure to remove the outer peel before preparing. Ripe seeds can also be used as a pepper substitute, and I’ve read the leaves can be used as a tea and for a meat tenderized though I don’t’ have the experience. Papaya can also be cut to manage height. Cover the cut with something like a bucket while the cut is scabbing over as the papaya is some- what hollow. Best planted out in the spring, but a mature plant can make it through the winter.

South Sea Salad Salad leaves that grow as big as a dinner plate! A few varieties, we have two at the farm. Can prune to keep smaller and more stable. Can eat raw, steamed, or cooked. Cold sensitive, but my friend has a plant that made it through the past few winters, fell after a rainstorm and continued to grow laying on the ground.

Pigeon Pea Gandules! One of the oldest cultivated species, many varieties all over the world. Day light sensitive, meaning they flower later in the season when there is less daylight fall- spring depending on the variety. Shelled peas (actually beans) can be eaten green or harvested dry for cooked beans. Great for chop and drop as it’s a legume and creates a beneficial relationship with bacteria in the soil to fix nitrogen. Pruning and harvesting with release the nitrogen. Can take a heavy prune! Use for chop and drop mulch, as a windbreak or privacy hedge.

Katuk Known as sweetbush since it has a sweet pea flavor. Best cooked as it has, though a few raw leaves won’t hurt you. Great understory shade species and can take full sun in moist soil. Grow as a hedge. Flowers, stems (like asparagus), leaves all edible!

Cranberry hibiscus A Slightly tart and cranberry colored spinach! Flowers and leaves are edible and can be made into tea. Add shredded pieces to a salad for color! Great ornamental. Prune to keep maintained.

Brazilian Spinach / Sissoo Crunchy Spinach! Grows well in the shade and forms a nice living mulch or ground cover. Add to soups, salads, stir fries, sandwiches.

Surinam Spinach Short lived self-seeding perennial that attracts many pollinators with its dainty pink flowers. Leaves, stems, and flowers are a great tart addition to salads, stir fries, curries, and quiches. Mounding growth habit, great as an edge plant in the landscape. I grow mine in part shade.

Longevity Spinach Nutritional plant that research shows to regulate cholesterol and blood sugar. Low growing vining mound, good as a living mulch. Can be grown in a container as well or windowsill garden. Little pest pressure.

African Potato Mint Grow a living ground cover and harvest tubers similar to the Irish potato! A mint that you don’t eat the leaves but creates small edible tubers underground. Goes somewhat dormant here in the winter so you can harvest, propagate, or leave in the ground to go dormant and come back in the spring.

Butterfly Pea Our viner/climber that creates beautiful edible flowers to attract pollinators. Great plant to create shade/ privacy. Blue flowers make a healthy blue(tasteless) tea that turns lavender when something acidic like lemon is added. Wonderful to make colorful cocktails, teas, and kombuchas. Being a legume, it creates that beneficial relationship with bacteria and fixes nitrogen in the soil!

Green Thumb guide:

A few take-a-ways from this workshop: Observe, Smart small, Record, Experiment and have fun!

Resources: • Florida Seed Exchange- Facebook group to trade seeds! • Your County Agriculture Extension Agency – volunteers and staff dedicated to assisting with your growing issues. Also offering workshops and the Master Gardener Program. • Your local Library- books, seed libraries, workshops • Grow & Sustainable Kashi- offering classes and Permaculture certifications • WWOOF, Helpex, Workaway- volunteer programs to find opportunities to learn farming and other skills! • Permaculture convergence – gathering of permaculture enthusiasts to share knowledge and experience