Planning a Perennial front garden

[lmayhow]

Good evening all

I was hoping to magically find someone who know where to buy Nine Star Broccoli seeds? I have found one company who sells the actual plants but was hoping to find the seeds from somewhere...

Planning to try my front garden as a bit of a perennial veg garden, I have walking onions planted, sea kale seeds, tree cabbage seeds looking maybe at the idea of Good King Henry and then maybe add more next year.

Regards

[veggiechicken]

Nine Star broccoli seeds are very elusive. What about Daubenton kale, asparagus, rhubarb and globe articokes.?

[lmayhow]

Thank you for quick reply, asparagus, rhubarb and globe articokes are already in my back garden from previous year I will head off to look at the Kale variety now, I guess I may need to buy the plants instead of being stubborn wanting seeds.....

[lmayhow]

Aw man that's another one added to my list VC

[veggiechicken]

Broccoli - Perennial , Nine Star Perennial, Broccoli (Seed)

[lmayhow]

Your speed and ability amazes me..... thank you thank you I was just sat reading about the Kale and Babington’s leeks possibilities are endless with growing find it fascinating!!!!

[veggiechicken]

Babington leeks are a must-grow
What about perennial herbs like bay, rosemary, sage, thyme - they always look attractive.

[lmayhow]

Do have my little herb area at my back door, leave my chives to self seed, Parsley did self seed last year but growth wasn't that great so still had to sow... have you grown Sea Kale?

[veggiechicken]

Yes, I have some Sea Kale - though I've never eaten any! Love the flowers though.

[veggiechicken]

I treat a lot of "annual" veg as "perennial". I have cabbage that is 5 years old, chard in its 3rd year, several different kales that just keep growing, runner beans that are 3 years old, broad beans that have grown back for a 2nd year.
It doesn't always work but, I've found that, if you don't pull up a plant immediately it has stopped cropping, it will often grow back. Doesn't work in tidy gardens though

[Bren In Pots]

VC have you noticed how different the runners grow as they get older some of mine through out 5 or 6 stems instead of the usual one that a new sown plat does.

[veggiechicken]

Yes, Bren, they're quite bushy. Mine are Firestorm, growing in a tunnel, but they have to come out this winter as they're clambering through the peach trees! I'll try to dig them out in one piece and replant somewhere more spacious.

[happyhumph]

Runners also grow bushy if you left the slugs take them down to the ground - they regrow with multiple stems

[lmayhow]

Being still new to growing and reading through some books, crop rotation was mentioned so much I think I have been scared into moving sections etc.... or do you dig up the plants each year and move them? I have two types of chard, and two types of cabbage this year. I treat the chard as a cut and come again is that how you treat your cabbage too, which varieties do you grow sorry, lots of questions....

[bario1]

Crop rotation only applies to annual crops. Chard isn't really a perennial, but it is good at self seeding, so as long as you don't mind having the odd 7' flower spike in your front garden, it will come back year after year in the same spot. Cabbage isn't something I grow a lot of, they are generally harvested in one go when they are mature - I grow kales as cut and come again, but unlike VC, I pull mine up in Spring once they've flowered and plant new ones elsewhere on the plot - I suppose to avoid the build up of clubroot, and because they turn into big ugly monsters after flowering!
I have a (loosely speaking) perennial half of my plot, and I grow asparagus, rhubarb, soft fruit, plums, apples, blueberries, chard and sorrel... and in any gaps I plant whetever annuals I can't fit on the other half of my plot - this year it was climbing French beans, squashes and spuds.