We all know that eating our greens keeps us healthy and strong, and that the best greens are the ones you eat within moments of harvest.
Summers around here can be a real challenge for growing the standard greens without water stress, sunburn or insect attack. 

To avoid the heartache and toil, I encourage the perennial leaf greens to flourish in an edible kitchen garden polyculture. These plants need little water, little care and several parts of them can be eaten.

Simply by embracing a wider range of food, you could suddenly have more food than you could possibly eat growing in a small space.

I love this simple way of perennial food gardening. 

1. Surinam Spinach (Talinum triangulare): shoots, leaves, flowers
2. Brazilian Spinach (Alternanthera sissoo): leaves and young stems
3. Sweet potato leaves (Ipomoea batatas): stems, young and mature leaves
4. Cranberry hibiscus (Hibiscus acetosella): young shoots, leaves, flowers
5. Pumpkin leaves (Cucurbita maxima): young shoots, leaves, flowers, plus of course the fruit, the seeds and the skin.

Surinam Spinach

RELATED BLOG POSTS

• Surinam Spinach: http://our-permaculture-life.blogspot.com.au/2017/03/spinach.html
• Pumpkin:  http://our-permaculture-life.blogspot.com.au/2016/03/7-ways-to-use-all-of-your-pumpkin-plant.html
• Articles about Brazilian Spinach, Sweet Potato Leaves and Cranberry Hibiscus coming soon.

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