Customer Reviews

Perennial Vegetables: From Artichokes to Zuiki Taro, A Gardener's Guide to Over 100 Delicious and Easy to Grow Edibles

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I very seldom buy new books, and even more seldom buy books as expensive as this. But I had a $25 Amazon gift certificate, so I went ahead and bought it, and I'm very glad I did.

The first section of the book is useful information on growing perennial vegetables (and other perennials, for that matter), and on landscaping using these plants, many of which have great ornamental value.

Part Two is a listing of each of the more than 100 (I didn't count) perennial vegtables, with information on each species. About half the listed plants have quite extensive growing information, and about half have shorter descriptions. A map is included for each species, showing where it will grow as a perennial and where it can be grown as an annual. Toensmeier has not included plant 'thugs' such as kudzu or Japanese knotweed, and warns the reader if any of the other plants may naturalize.

The author's inclusions of certain species (as vegetables) may be slightly questionable: we are more apt to think of them as fruit or as herbs, for example, rhubarb and lovage. (However, my daughter cooks a lot of Persian food, and uses rhubarb as a vegetable in a meat and vegetable stew.) Also, this book will be of even more use to people who live in a warmer climate than I do (northern Pennsylvania in the mountains, with Zone 4 weather). I actually already grow four of the vegetables in the book: rhubarb, lovage, Good King Henry, and sorrel. I discovered some others that I'll definitely try - two of which I had never even heard of before. Those who live considerably further south than I will find a wealth of species to try.

The book is well written, and carefully edited. It includes a list of recommended reading, a list of recommended web sites, a list of sources for seeds and plants, a list of sources for garden supplies and equipment, a bibliography, an index by both scientific and common names, and a really valuable list of perennial vegetables that will grow in each of the various climate types in the USA (including Hawaii).

If you're at all interested in growing perennial vegetables - or in permaculture in general - I think you'll want to read this book and probably to own it. I think it's a very useful book and a pleasure to read. I recommend it most highly.

I have spent a lot of time with this book. It is very well done and the standard of excellence is very high. Like many, I think we face the real possibility of having to be largely self-reliant as many different global crises converge, water, oil, climate change, etc. The antidote to despair is getting busy and one of the very best core strategies is to plant perennial vegetables and do edible landscaping.

As noted above, not only is this book very thorough and very complete, it will point the reader to seed, plant, and other resources to implement their ideas. I consider it a master work and far more valuable than its very reasonable price. Get it, it will be one cornerstone of your self reliance toolkit.

If you are a gardener interested in sustainability, the "holy grail" must be a more-or-less stable perennial polyculture. (See Wes Jackson's work with perennial grains at The Land Institute: e.g., Becoming Native to This Place or Consulting the Genius of the Place: An Ecological Approach to a New Agriculture, for example.) In other words, you want a garden that mimics nature. The problem is that most of our food gardens are the opposite: we grow lots of annuals, mostly of a very few varieties. That is why, if you are anything like me, you already know what artichokes are--and even the difference between artichokes and Jerusalem artichokes--but you may never have heard of 'Zuiki' Taro or any of the "Over 100 Delicious, Easy-to-Grow Edibles" heralded by Eric Toensmeier's subtitle. His goal is to introduce people who garden for food to 100+ new food crops, all perennials. He wants to ring the changes on perennial vegetables from A to Z! Does he succeed? Yes, in my opinion he does.
Most of these plants I have never grown or tasted, or even seen with any recognition! And that is what is so exciting. I cannot wait to devote sections of my garden to this new (to me) kind of vegetable next year. Already I grow lots of perennial fruit, so the addition of perennial vegetables is only natural. The key questions, it appears, will be where to find good varieties of the vegetables Toensmeier names ("Only a small number of nurseries and seed companies offer even the best perennial vegetables!") and whether I agree that they are palatable. (This latter appears to be a point of much debate.)
Part I ("How to Grow Perennial Vegetables") If you already have experience with perennial ornamental plants, fruits, and nuts, there will not be much new in this section. You already know much that is required to plan the garden, choose the plants, prepare the soil, and plant and care for your new "babies." You know how agonizingly long it can take for your plants to "grow up" (especially if more mature specimens are not readily available for planting), how to watch for and mitigate problems with species that are "aggressive," and all about plant pests and diseases.
A subsection of chapter 3 (Plant Selection) is entitled, "You Might Be Surprised by What You Can Grow." While I trust that Toensmeier knows whereof he speaks, I'll want to verify that before sinking a lot of money into plants that may not be hardy in my zone. For example, Toensmeier lists the groundnut (Apios americana, aka Potato bean) as "extremely cold-hardy..., being hardy to Zone 3." However, the only source I've found for them as of now (12/01/2009) is in the Edible Landscaping catalog. Edible Landscaping lists the plant as recommended for Zones 6-8. At $15 for the quart or $25 for the gallon, I'll think twice before going all out. Maybe a quart first just to see whether I can get them established? My hunch is that the catalog is playing it safe with the USDA Hardiness Zone info and that Toensmeier may be stretching. At any rate, Zone 5b is close enough to Zone 6 for this gardener to gamble, what with global warming and all that jazz.
One potentially controversial aspect of the book should be mentioned. Toensmeier advocates a rethinking of the whole issue of nonnative plants. Following David Theodoropoulos (Invasion Biology: Critique of a Pseudoscience), he suggests that the whole "native" vs. "nonnative" plant issue has been overblown, or that the native plant movement has become too rigid. More to the point, he advocates the use of some non-native perennial vegetables.
Toensmeier offers an extensive section on plant propagation and breeding in chapter 4, "Techniques." Throughout the book he advocates that we backyard gardeners must once again regain this significant part of our gardening heritage to become effective plant breeders and propagators once again. We seem to have lost that art, especially the art of breeding, and with it some of the variety that used to characterize food gardening. More to the point, many of these perennial vegetables are still very hard to come by. Propagating them ourselves, and improving the available varieties, will for a while be our best and sometimes only choice.
Part II of the book begins with a caution about sampling too much of too many new food plants for the first time. This is an important caution, given the prevalence of food allergies. Sample slowly! I was also a little taken aback to see how frequently some of these perennials have poisonous cousins and look alikes. Exercise caution and know what you are eating before you taste!
After that brief caution, Part II plunges into the meat (OK, the vegetables) of the subject in earnest. What follows is a list of edible perennials, accompanied by a map of the U.S. climate range for the particular plant (similar to the maps in bird-watching books); shaded pink where the crop is perennial and yellow where it might be grown as an annual. Along with the Latin name of the plant and known common names, Toensmeier provides the following for each entry (as applicable): Overview, Crop Description, Climate, Tolerances and Preferences, Naturalization, Pests-Diseases-Weeds, Propagation-Planting-Cultivation, Harvest and Storage, Uses, and Related Species and Breeding Potential. Wow! These "notes" on various plants are alone worth the price of admission. (However, I should note that Toensmeier breaks his pattern sometimes and treats some plants in a rather cursory manner, e.g., Lovage, pp. 86-87.)
By my count, Toensmeier lists more than 30 perennial vegetables even for my cold Zone 5b. That's about thirty more than I now grow! Part III of the book is entitled "Resources" and includes lists of perennial vegetables for each climate type for all of the plant hardiness zones and with great detail, including variety names and Latin names. He also includes a list of recommended books in the following categories: useful plants, permaculture and edible landscaping, history-ecology-native/non-native species, garden climates, and gardening techniques, water gardening, pests-diseases, and propagation. There is a short, but excellent list of organizations and web sites, and lists of plant and seed sources and garden suppliers. Finally, Toensmeier includes a bibliography and helpful index.
I heartily recommend the book. It is well worth the $35 list price. The only downside is that the cultivation of perennials as garden vegetables is so new that the details are sometimes sketchy at best, because sketchy details are all that is available. Toensmeier has done us a great service in drawing so much information together under one roof. It is now our turn to do the hard work of collecting, propagating, and breeding these plants--and introducing them to our friends and neighbors--until they become successful, mainstream garden varieties. I for one wish winter would hurry up and end so that I can get started. [Note: The above title was provided for review by the publisher. No remuneration was received for the review.]

This is an interesting book with nice photos, but of limited use to me here in USDA zone 5. Most of these plants require much warmer weather than I have, and from those I have grown, I'd say that while some may be easy enough to grow there are reasons they're not in widescale commercial production.

Take the sunchoke, or Jerusalem artichoke, for instance. It's currently growing like a weed in a corner of my garden from six tubers I planted last year. I thought I had dug up the majority of what had grown last year - apparently not from the volume of new growth that sprouted this year. A friend of mine told me he had had a patch that got completely out of control before he mowed it into submission and gave up on harvesting it. I found the tubers really didn't have much taste until after frost, which meant there was only a narrow window available for harvest in the late fall/early winter before the ground froze but not completely. They are small and knobby and a pain to peel, and don't store all that well once they've been dug up out of the ground. All in all, easy to grow but not easy to use and certainly as likely as not to become a pest in the garden. I've tried New Zealand Spinach, too, and I'd have to say it was not very tasty - very tough and bitter. I'm glad it didn't survive the winter.

So, while it's a lovely coffee-table book and an interesting conversation piece, I'd say it's "buyer beware" on the actual "veggies" featured in the book itself.

As other reviewers have noted this really isn't that helpful a book if you live in a cold climate gardening zone. For my zone, 7, I counted only 38 perennials and many of those were actually from the same family, for example two different kinds of sorrel.

Anyone with gardening experience probably knows most of the common vegetables listed, like asparagus, rhubarb, jerusalem artichoke and many of the perenial herbs.
If you want a coffee table book about interesting or exotic species that will grow in Hawaii or parts of Florida then this is the book for you but for serious 4 season gardeners it just wasn't that useful.

I have to give it 5 stars for being the first real comprehensive review of perennial vegetables, and the organization of this book is fabulous. Some of the information I found at odds with my own experience, such as that I have found hardy varieties of clumping bamboo available. Also, I question the sustainability of some of the quarantine methods for more invasive varieties he suggests (what happens if someone stops mowing?). Overall a fantastic book for gardeners who love perennials!

This is a good book well worth owning. I personally think that the layout could have been done better. There is a section at the end with lists of plants by climate zone, that really needed to give page numbers for the plants. Also the grouping by family, well very scientific, can make it hard to find what you are looking for. If you don't happen to know what family it is in you have to look in the index. Be prepared to become very friendly with the index if you are looking for a certain plant. Also don't take the maps too much to heart, the delineation of zones on the maps are wrong (he puts Vancouver WA as a Cold Temperate Climate type... we are zone 8 and rarely get snow.) but that is probley more a printer error then anything else. Add in the fact that the author has a HEAVY bias toward the warmer climes (like my zone 8 garden). Although a good part of that slant could very well be that there is a lack of research on edible perennials for the colder areas.

All that said I don't regret buying this book, it is a good book with lots of interesting information.

This is a great book. If you want to grow unusual vegetables, this book has lots of possibilities for you. If you prefer perennial gardening to annually planting tomatoes and sweet corn, this book is for you. It has great descriptions of loads of different kinds of plants with full growing information as well as detailed info on how the more unusual vegetables taste and are prepared for eating. I thought that I just couldn't grow vegetables, because pretty much all my garden beds are perennial, and I don't want to be disturbing the long-lived residents with annual vegetables every year. This book has lots and lots of options for perennial vegetables, many of them hardy but many others that have possibilities as container plants. Since reading this book, I've begun growing Sea Kale, Multiplier Onions, Scarlet Runner Beans, Sorrel, Rocoto Peppers, Chayote, Watercress, Pepinos, Achira, and more, and I'm planning to get Taro, Okinawan Spinach, Mashua, Chinese Artichokes, and many other kinds of plants. Not all the plants in the book are easy to find in the U.S., but so far, they've been worth looking for. And the book is too.

I live in the wet tropics of Australia and have found this book fills a gap in the information available on growing perennial foods in the hot humid areas of the world. The information is concise and extensive and seems to be a good attempt to catalogue most of the common useful foods. Just be careful where you acquire the initial plants/tubers from as some varities can be quite toxic and may need extensive processing before they can be safely eaten, whereas there are edible varities that do not need processing to be had.

This is a fantastic resource for any serious gardener. You won't find any stale information in here- we thought we were pretty well-informed about garden plants that are suitable for our area, but this book introduced us to many, many more, and we have tried quite a few, some very successfully! I now recommend this book to pretty much every gardener or gardener wannabe I know.