Hello there, everyone. Welcome back to the Epic Gardening Podcast. Kevin is here. I

have Chris from Fluent Garden. She's a horticultureist and a garden consultant. And we've been talking

about perennials for quite a bit so far here on the show. But now we're going to zoom out

slightly and tie it to this idea of a longer term. So we think perennials there for sure and lower

maintenance, which you can kind of think of perennials as, although I think of course there is some

yearly and through season maintenance. But Chris, you mentioned in yesterday's show that your

garden doesn't really look like a standard annual vegetable garden. So, you know, what are some

principles that you've used to get it to be that way and hopefully not spend too much time on it?

Right. So, I mean, this is why I love perennials. Like, I talked about not needing to start things

from seed year after year. Like, even though I do grow a lot of annuals like tomatoes and squashes,

I like these plants that just kind of hang out there like once they're established and produce

food because that means I don't have to do as much work. Like, yeah, I'll do like a basic

weeding, pruning and mulching. But other than that, like once they're established and happy,

they just kind of pump out their fruit. They pump out their leaves. As long as they get enough

nutrition and the amount of light, they're doing their thing. And yes, a lot of perennials, maybe

there's that upfront cost, like they cost more than like a package of seeds. But remember,

you're going to have these plants for many years to come. So, when you're researching your plants,

you're like, I really want to eat this. I'm really interested in this. I'm like, I really,

really want to learn about this plant, like get it in your garden. And then if it's a good match

for your garden's conditions, like you're going to get food from that thing. And the thing with

established perennials is that many of them can handle temperature and moisture fluctuations,

a lot better than the annual crops. Like, I know for squashes and tomatoes, you really have to

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