Edible Climbing Vines help maximise growing space and double the amount of food in each garden bed or container. One thing that I think is so underrated is the ability to grow food up π
Today I am going to share a list of edible climbers to grow in your garden and utilise vertical space and create shade and protection. These 10 edible climbing vines are perennials which means they will produce more and more food each year without us having to replant them!
There are so many incredible reasons you should be growing food vertically.
Not only to maximize space but also to increase airflow to reduce rot or disease, strategic shade, or like me to reduce some of the heat in my garden by covering my ugly fences!
Click to watch for bonus Planting Tips π
Annuals vs Perennials πΏ
Annuals will allow you to still change up your garden beds each season and have the flexibility of space. Whereas perennials (which grow for longer than 2 years) will allow you to get a crop established and provide long-term protection and produce more and more food each year.
10 Perennial Edible Climbing Vines
1. Passionfruit
Passionfruit is one of my favourite fruits to eat and the main reason I am growing this edible climber in my garden. They are also evergreen so it has leaves all year round to create shade and protection. Passionfruit have thick, lush leaves so they work perfectly to cover fences or create screens to block out unsightly structures or areas.
Watch the video above to see how to plant passionfruit from a store-bought fruit!
BONUS TIP: Purchase a passionfruit plant that is NOT grafted. Grafted passionfruit needs to be carefully maintained or the rootstock can quickly take over and become invasive with no fruit.
2. Choko /Chayote
Choko is a quick-growing vining edible plant that can make great summer shade to protect your summer garden. They will often die back over winter but will pop up and regrow each spring. Any fruits left on the ground will also easily regrow.
Choko are similar to a large zucchini or marrow and can be used as a substitute for potatoes or even apples to bulk up pie recipes.
3. Sweet Potato
Growing Sweet Potatoes / KΕ«mara (Ipomoea batatas) in your home garden is a great step toward self-sufficiency. They are my favourite permaculture plant and are an easy crop to grow for beginner gardeners. It is important to grow plants that support and encourage other plants and beneficial insects in your garden. Creating a cohesive ecosystem that promotes the growth and success of your garden’s health and supports abundant harvests.
Sweet potatoes send out runners and can easily be trained up a vertical trellis. Plus, many people do not know that the leaves of the sweet potato plant are also edible.
4. Grapes
The great thing about growing grapes as edible climbers is that they are deciduous. This means they lose their leaves in winter so you can plant grapes strategically to provide shade in summer and let light through in winter!
5. Malabar Spinach
Malabar spinach is a fantastic edible climber for warm or tropical climates. It thrives in summer during warm weather when most other spinach and leafy greens die off. This can help fill the gaps in your seasonal harvests. Malabar spinach can be grown in pots or containers. It has succulent-like leaves so can handle hot weather but it can be frost sensitive.
6. Butterfly Pea
If you love colour then this edible climber will be perfect for you! With bright blue-purple flowers the butterfly pea is a striking addition to an edible garden. The flowers can be used as a natural food colouring or infused in teas or cocktails. Plus, if you add acidity such as lemon juice the colour will transform to hot pink! Such a fun plant to grow.
7. Kiwifruit
Kiwifruit can be grown over structures to create great canopy shade. They are prolific produces and the fruit can be eaten fresh, frozen for smoothies, made into jams and even dehydrated for naturally sweet treats. You will need to have both a male and a female plant for pollination.
8. Kiwiberry
Kiwi berries have a similar taste to the kiwifruit but are much smaller around the same size as a grape. Kiwi berry vines grow really well in containers or urban gardens.
9. Nasturtium
Nasturtium is often known for its wild rambling nature but it can be trained vertically as an edible climber. The whole plant is edible including the leaves, flowers and seed pods. Nasturtium has a strong peppery taste and can be used in salads, flavoured salts, pickles and many other recipes. Here in Perth, my Nasturtium dies down in summer but will pop up and regrow by itself in Autumn/winter.
10. Scarlett Runner Bean
Scarlet runner beans are also known as the 7-year bean because they pop up and regrow each year (for about 6-7 years). Beans are a great addition to an edible garden and can easily be cooked or frozen to preserve.
Annual Climbing Vines πΏ
Annual climbers are also great because they don’t need dedicated space so you can grow, harvest and remove then grow something different each season! Having a mix of annuals and perennials will help you grow more food all year round.
Annual climbers can be plants such as Cucumber, Squash, Tomatoes, Pumpkin, and Melons.
These sweet and spicy greens are packed with flavour. Sweet potato greens are thriving in the warmer months just as chillies are. Combining two in-season crops is a great way to get the most out of your garden. The Sweet Potato greens can be swapped for a mix of other greens in your garden such as spinach or chard.
Sweet and Spicy Sweet Potato Greens
Yield: 2-4
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 2 minutes
Total Time: 2 minutes
Chilli and sweet potato greens are both thriving in the warmer months. This sweet and spicy side dish is a great way to combine the two.
Ingredients
Greens
4-6 cups Sweet Potato Greens
1 TSBP Sunflower Seeds
Sweet and Spicy Sauce
2 garlic cloves
1-2 red cayenne chillies (or your favourite)
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 tsp Olive oil
1 TSP Red wine vinegar
1 TSP Maple syrup (or honey)
1 TSP Tamari (or soy sauce)
1 /4 cup finely chopped red onion
Instructions
Pick and wash your sweet potato greens well (see notes)
Finely slice Onion, Garlic and Chilli. Remove the chilli seeds if you don't want it too spicy (I prefer no seeds).
Add the rest of the sauce ingredients together and mix well.
Heat a large wok or frying pan on medium-high heat.
Add sweet potato greens and 3/4 of the sauce mix and stir-fry until the greens have wilted.
Place on a side dish and top with the remaining sauce along with Sunflower seeds and flowers to serve. Serve immediately.
Notes
Sweet Potato Greens excrete a white milky substance when picked. This can cause allergies to sensitive skin. Rinse well.
Sweet potato leaves will wilt to less than 1/4 the original size just like spinach does.
Choose young sweet potato leaves and shoots - the newest 4-5 leaves.
Add and swap for other greens such as spinach or chard.
Make it as mild or as spicy as you like by adding in or removing the seeds.
Growing Sweet Potatoes / KΕ«mara (Ipomoea batatas) in your home garden is a great step toward self-sufficiency. Sweet Potatoes are my favourite permaculture plant and are an easy crop to grow for beginner gardeners. It is important to grow plants that support and encourage other plants and beneficial insects in your garden. Creating a cohesive ecosystem that promotes the growth and success of your garden’s health and supports abundant harvests.
Many people do not know that the leaves of the sweet potato plant are also edible. This is most likely because the leaves provide no economical value in the mainstream food system and so they are discarded. Our learnt behaviours tend to come from what is around us but the key is to question things more often. Can I eat this? How do I cook this? We are very lucky to have so much knowledge available to us at the click of a button.
If you want to learn more from outside “the box” subscribe to my blog and let’s get into all things, Sweet Potato!
WATCH my top 12 Reasons to start growing Sweet Potatoes or scroll down to read more.
12 Reasons to Grow Sweet Potatoes
1. The Whole Plant is Edible
Not only does the Sweet Potato plant produce delicious edible tubers underground but, you can also eat the leaves and stems of the plant too ( It rarely flowers but these are not edible). Sweet Potato is not actually part of the potato family but is part of the morning glory family. Unlike potatoes – the sweet potato leaves are edible and packed full of *vitamin A, C, K, B1, B2, B3 and B9. Sweet potato leaves also have minerals such as calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus and potassium. Sweet potato leaves are used in a similar way to spinach. The young leaves and shoots can be added fresh to salads and smoothies or to curries, stirfries and soups. They can also be sauteed to make a delicious side dish of greens. Sautee in butter and garlic or tamari, garlic, chilli and ginger is another delicious way to use sweet potato leaves.
2. Produces an Abundant Cropon each Plant
Sweet potatoes produce many large tubers underground from a single plant. These tubers are high in calories and carbohydrates which can form a great “base crop” on your journey to living more self-sufficiently. Growing base crops such as sweet potatoes or pumpkin can increase your ability to make wholesome meals entirely from the garden. You can store sweet potatoes by letting them harden off for half to a whole day in sunlight or diffused sunlight. Then store them somewhere dark and cool for a few weeks or up to a few months. They will keep until they start sprouting or start to go soft and spongy. It can be a good idea to make meals from them and freeze them to preserve your harvests that way. Curried sweet potato soup is one of my favourite ways to prepare and save my sweet potatoes.
3. Grows Quickly and Easily
Sweet potatoes like warm weather and once the soil warms up in spring and summer they will take off and grow vigorously. They are a very low-maintenance plant that can still produce well with neglect. They can handle low water or dry spells but will produce best when kept well watered. They require free-draining soil as wet, boggy or heavy clay soils may cause the tubers to rot. Promote healthy, free-draining soil with lots of compost. The leaves may get holes and be eaten by bugs but they are very hardy and it would take a lot to restrict their growth. Sweet potato is fairly pest resistant but as the tubers form they will get closer to the surface of the soil. If they are exposed to the surface, rodents such as rats and mice may find them. Check that you can’t see any above the soil and if so, rebury them.
4. Can be Grown all Year Round
In warm climates with mild winters like we have here (Perth, Australia), Sweet potatoes can be grown all year round. It slows down in winter but you can still harvest the leaves. I have found the purple varieties grow best during winter. In cooler climates, it’s best to harvest your sweet potato before the winter sets in and grow it annually. You can, however, take cuttings and grow them indoors in jars of water or pot them up and have lush house plants over winter. Once Spring arrives and the soil warms up you can replant them back out into the garden. To get the most out of your tuber harvests it is best to harvest annually and then replant your patch. You can leave some tubers in the ground and they will remain dormant until the soil warms up and they will just pop and regrow by themselves!
5. You can Harvest in Stages
If you have a large sweet potato patch and multiple plants you can harvest your sweet potatoes in stages to get the most out of your harvests. When veggies are ready all at once it can be hard to utilise them and not get overwhelmed. Towards the end of summer and autumn, I will also just go out and harvest one or two for dinner. Here in Australia, we call it “bandicooting”. Bandicoots are marsupials that look kind of rat/rabbit-like, that fossick around for food. Find where the main stem of your sweet potato goes into the ground and have a light dig around to see if you can find any sweet potatoes near the surface.
6. Easy to Propagate
Propagating and growing more sweet potatoes is very easy and there are multiple ways to do this. If you do not already have sweet potatoes growing at home then you can start a patch with a single tuber from the farmers market. You can bury the whole tuber in the garden or cut it into 3-4 pieces and start multiple plants. Another way to grow a plant from the tuber is to place the tuber in a jar of water until it sends off shoots. The shoots can then be cut and placed in water to grow roots. Let the shoots get above 10cm before cutting them off. You can keep doing this and using your tuber to farm multiple plants.
Once you have an established patch you can cut sections of the vines off ( known as “slips” ) and regrow more plants. Either plant the slips directly into the soil or place them in a jar of water to form roots first. If you plant them directly into the garden make sure to keep them well watered while they strike roots.
To learn more about growing food from cuttings, check out my ebook. It’s a great way to establish an edible garden for little to no cost.
There are a lot more varieties of sweet potatoes than the ones you commonly see in the shops. Growing your own food opens up so many more exciting options and varieties of vegetables. The varieties available at the supermarket have been bred to aid in mass production, pest resistance and shelf life. Rather than on the quality of nutrients, texture and flavour. I know which ones I would pick! I am growing the Orange, Red and White, Hawaiian (white skin with purple flesh) and Purple skin with Purple flesh variety. They all have unique qualities and cooking properties. The Purple and White are deliciously roasted, whereas, the all-purple variety is not great roasted but delicious mashed. Once you have established some plants you can then swap and trade with others who may be growing different varieties to you.
8. Amazing Living Mulch/ Ground Cover
The Sweet Potato naturally grows as a vine along the ground. It will send off side shoots and quickly become a thick and lush ground cover. This protects the soil from the harsh sun and creates a healthy habitat for beneficial insects. Having lots of beneficial insects is an essential part of growing a natural, thriving garden. This lush ground cover provides an excellent bottom layer of a food forest system. I have Sweet Potato vines growing all in between and underneath my fruit trees.
9. Grows in Sun or Shade
Sweet Potato prefers full sun but will grow in a wide range of locations from full sun to full shade. The plants that grow in shade will be slower to produce but will still grow well. This means you have more options in choosing a location to grow your Sweet Potato. I actually find that during our harsh summers in Perth, my Sweet Potato prefers some shade. Versatile plants are great for the garden because you have more flexibility and options for choosing a location to plant them. It also means they are a little more forgiving for beginner gardeners because they won’t up and die if the sunlight isn’t just right.
10. Grows in Containers or in the Garden
Urban gardens often mean utilising container gardens and selecting plants that grow in both is amazing! Ok, you can see why I love this plant! It is just so easygoing. The Sweet Potato plant can take off quickly and grow very vigorously. This means it can shade out smaller plants and take over the garden. If you are short on space or have small space, or urban gardens, then it may be best to grow it in containers. Don’t be afraid to cut off the edges if it starts to take over.
11. Can be Fed to Animals
Sweet Potato leaves can be feed to many animals including chickens, pigs and rabbits. When you are harvesting the patch or just trimming the edges, then this can be a great way to add feed to your animals. They are full of vitamins and nutrients to help boost your animal’s overall health. Plus, it promotes a sustainable cycle and the animal manure can then be composted to use on your gardens and grow more Sweet Potatoes!
12. Save Money!
Sweet Potatoes can be expensive! Especially if they are not the common variety. Recently the Red and White ones were over $9 p/k at my local store. With their ease of growth and abundant production, Sweet Potato is such an economical plant to grow in your home garden.
As you can see I could talk about growing sweet potatoes all day! They are my favourite permaculture plant because they are versatile and have so many benefits and interconnected relationships within the garden.
If you have any questions about growing, harvesting or propagating sweet potatoes please leave me a comment below. If you found this content helpful please share it with your friends. Sharing my articles will help me inspire and help more people to start growing their own food. Every little bit counts towards growing and inspiring a greener world.
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DISCLAIMER: Links included in this description might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge to you! Thank you for supporting my page so I can continue to provide you with free content!
