Growing your own food is not always as easy as it looks on TV or in glossy magazines. For many years we gardened, diligently buying potting mix and planting European annuals like large tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, cabbage and lettuce. While we had some successes, lettuce often wilted, and large tomatoes were plagued with pests.

The effort and expense involved kept us buying from the local grocery store. This all changed when we discovered edible perennial plants.