How to select and grow edible perennial plants | Growing Fruit and Vegies | Gardening Australia

There are plenty of edible perennial plants that will produce year after year for less work.

Globe artichoke is a perfect example. Josh has one growing alongside the driveway, under a mulberry tree in north sun. The silvery foliage and electric blue flowers are attractive. The flower bud is what we eat. The best way to propagate is via sucker. After flowering take some suckers off the base and replant. They can also be planted out from seedlings grown from seed. Josh adds compost and manure to prepare his site, before planting the seedlings. He mulches and waters in.

Behind one of Josh’s water tanks is a garden full of native plants. He’s putting in a midyim berry, another native that produces masses of sweet, slightly tart berries. It’s the perfect plant to fill a gap. Midyim berries prefer free draining soils, so Josh’s sandy soil is perfect, with a little amendment and fertiliser to help it establish. He mulches and waters in, and can expect it to grow 1x1m.

Strawberries are the perfect perennial for growing in pots. Josh has the ‘Elan’ cultivar. It’s a medium-sized, sweet fruit and is an “everbearing variety”, meaning it will crop spring-autumn.

Josh chooses a broad pot, to allow the strawberries to spill out. It’s also not very deep, because of the shallow roots. It’s glazed, to stop the mix drying out. Josh pots his 3 plants up with premium potting mix, added fertiliser and blends through. Josh says one of the biggest mistakes with strawberries is overplanting, leading to them becoming congested and diseased. He mulches with lupin mulch, and can expect these plants to keep cropping over several seasons.

Featured Plants:
GLOBE ARTICHOKE - Cynara cardunculus
MIDYIM BERRY - Austromyrtus dulcis
STRAWBERRY ‘ELAN’ - Fragaria x ananassa cv.

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[snailplumbus]

As always you bring wonderful information in an interactive and pleasant manner.

[josegoncavelsdasilva]

That helped me a lot. Greetings from Brazil

[matthewfarrell]

Love Midyims, we have 3 growing in partial shade under a gum tree and they are doing well. We are adding 3 more into full sun in the food forest.

But you missed so many, currants, gooseberries, blueberries, cranberries, brambles can be in there (blackberries/raspberries) just to name a few, and if you want natives like the Midyims, you have muntries and native elderberries (there are two types a southern and northern, we are growing the southern here in Melbourne).

So many I have missed tho, we are trying atm to get Tasmanian snow berry seeds to strike so we can get some of them going as well.

[bgrinner]

You may explain your potting soil and fertilizers.

[monikalajumin]

Having only arrived in Australia fairly recently I love to discover native edible plants , so was happy to learn about the midyims ! A small bush with edible berries, perfect ! Might look up if it's possible to freeze the berries for shakes or possibly make jam ? Does anyone know ?

[Spice_flake]

I swear, every single one of us aussies have these same green watering cans from Bunnings 🤣

[lesliedevlin]

Great show people good Aus show how 2 grow f/veg 👍👍👍👀👀👀

[nazariatorres]

Muito bem muito lindo, , , , qual o nome dessa manta