One Yard Revolution: Creating a Small Suburban Perennial Food Forest - part 1

One of our goals this year is to grow more perennial food crops. This is in line with our longer term goal of creating a small suburban food forest with many, if not mostly, perennial crops.

We already grow many perennials, including blackberries, raspberries, honey berries, grapes, strawberries, red veined sorrel, sage, oregano, chives, Egyptian walking onions, mint, rosemary, lemon balm, and dandelion.

Though this is a great start, we want to grow even more perennials, because once established they come back year after year with little effort, and, thanks to their deep roots, often require less added nutrients and water than annuals.

Global Inventory of Perennial Vegetables: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9ew4_svq9K3N3puYWNuSF9MdlE/edit

Geoff Lawton tours Eric Toensmeier’s garden: http://www.geofflawton.com/fe/61569-perennial-abundance

Scientific Names For Perennials In Video
Tree collards – Brassica oleracea (Acephala Group)
Sea kale – Crambe maritime
Good king henry – Blitum bonus-henricus
French sorrel – Rumex scutatus
Jerusalem artichoke – Helianthus tuberosus
Asparagus – Helianthus tuberosus
Rhubarb – Rheum rhabarbarum
Paw Paw – Asimina triloba
Asian pear – Pyrus pyrifolia
Peach – Prunus persica

OYR is all about growing a lot of food on a little land using sustainable organic methods, while keeping costs and labor at a minimum. Emphasis is placed on improving soil quality with compost, mulch, and compost tea. No store-bought fertilizers, soil amendments, pesticides, compost activators, etc. are used.