Agroforestry för svenska förhållanden 2024 - Flipbook - Page 43
Perennial vegetables can benefit from spring
and autumn rains, while annual vegetables
require irrigation during the summer months,
a time when the perennials take a rest.
Motivation, profitability and demand
Hanna’s and My’s motivation is to explore the design
of a food production system that produces more
resources than it consumes. They are also interested
in which crops and vegetables can be developed and
combined in a well-functioning polyculture. A strong
motivation is to show that it is possible to produce
food both efficiently and sustainably - along with the
joy of working regeneratively; creating rich and
healthy ecosystems, full of life. According to Hanna,
they are in a constant process of developing and
learning about their operations. Skogsträdgårdens
växter is currently the most profitable business on the
farm. The demand for seedlings is higher than for
Hanna Jönsson & My Kjellberg.
The benefits of perennial vegetables
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High nutritional value, less disease-prone and
less pest-prone than annual vegetables.
Early harvest and extended growing season:
harvest before slugs and snails arrive and
before the drought hits. Some perennial vegetables can also be harvested several times
during the growing season.
Less work: soil ecosystems are largely self-sufficient. With perennials, you also don’t have to
replant every year. All you have to do is weed
and water from time to time once plants are
established.
Good for the soil ecosystem and diversity: with
continuously vegetated soil and living roots in
the soil, carbohydrates are always available
for soil organisms at the same time as
mycorrhizae are being supported. A diversity
of perennial plants with different root thicknesses and root depths creates conditions for
a diversity of soil organisms to thrive.
The year on the farm
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fresh perennial vegetables, perhaps because individuals seem more likely to travel long distances to buy
seedlings than produce.
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Under eken.
Winter: construction, planning, starting plants
as early as possible in the greenhouse, seed
packaging and sales during the winter.
March to May: attending several trade fairs.
First weeding in April.
April, May and June: planting autumn-sown
plants.
April to October: harvest in the garden and of
wild plants in nature.
May: Large harvest of leafy greens.
All summer: seed and berry harvest.
Late summer- early fall: Various work including
fixing paths, construction and second weeding.