Perennial veg Crops that grow back every year are ideal for the semi-detached gardener

THE garden takes as much of your time as you let it. Few gardens are at their best at this point in the calendar and even fewer of us will be spending much time there this weekend. But before long, enthusiasts will pore over catalogues and plan their perfect garden, while others simply want their patch to look neat and tidy without too much work.

“Semi-detached” gardeners might fancy the idea of perennial veg. These plants let you grow your own while scarcely wielding a trowel. Perennial veg are usually larger than annuals and look good in any border.

Take globe artichoke – Cynara cardunculus var scolymus – a statuesque thistle that grows to at least 60cm. In time, it will form an impressive clump. Large heads form on stalks above long, broad, silvery-green leaves. The heads would open out as thistles, but the secret is to cut and consume before that happens. Over the season, the plant produces a succession of delicious globes. The artichoke dies back in winter, but should sprout again in spring.

Globe artichokes need moderately rich but very free-draining soil. Once planted out, they look after themselves. A very severe winter could kill off the crown but waterlogging is usually the killer. So cover the crown with a free-draining mulch: grit or even wood ash. If the latter, scrape it away in spring.

If you have much poorer, thin but very free-draining soil, seakale would work well. Low nutrient is essential. Like globe artichokes, it boasts silvery-green leaves, with curled edges like kale. It, too, dies back in winter. When the conical buds start swelling in late winter, cover with a large pot to blanch the emerging leaves. When the blanched leaves are 30-45cm tall, remove the pot and cut the plant to the ground. Gently sauteed with butter, seakale is hard to beat. And, left to its own devices, it seeds around nearby as much or as little as you want. But don’t worry: it’s not invasive.

Brassicas can be too much like hard work, but perennials are a different story.

I have a perennial kale, only available on the continent, I’m afraid. It’s very like Nero di Toscana kale with fine, upright, dark blue leaves – almost like ostrich feathers. But an old Victorian kale, Daubenton’s Perennial (Brassica oleracea var ramose), is available at www.pennardplants.com. This very rare plant comes with either light green or variegated leaves. The plant grows to around 90cm, and produces a fine harvest of winter leaf for quite a few years.

Nine Star broccoli is another intriguing brassica available from Pennard Plants. It’s such an unusual plant, tasting like a cross between cauli and broccoli. I leave it to you to decide whether it produces a small cauliflower curd or large white broccoli head, like Romanesco. Once the head is cut, several smaller heads form around the cut stem. As the name suggests, you could expect nine mini caulis, but you could get anything from 5-25. As with other perennial brassicas, Nine Star broccoli, grows to around 90cm. Once planted, these guys simply look after themselves.

There’s such a wealth of trouble-free perennial veg. I love and hate Good King Henry. This hardy beast produces an abundance of small, ivy-shaped leaves in late spring, when there’s very little fresh veg in the garden. But his majesty has colonial ambitions and needs to be kept properly under control.

Tree or Welsh onions are much more biddable and produce a series of tiny, but strong onions. You can also use the fresh green shoots like chives.

PHOTOGRAPH: SHUTTERSTOCK Globe artichokes are self-sufficient if planted in moderately rich, very free-draining soil