A Natural Farm Presents How to Grow Perennial Vegetables and prepare an ideal garden plot for them Plant Zone Sun Edible Layer Moringa 8-11 Full/ Partial Leaves, seeds, Canopy flower, pods, roots 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 plants 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 plant. 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 seed 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 intercropping and crop rotation, more erosion issues. Perennial Gardening: What is a perennial? • A perennial plant 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 root 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 compost, 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 mulch 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.