12 Best Edible Perennials to Plant in the Garden
Plants come in two varieties: annuals, which survive for a season, and perennials, which must return year after year. Many of the plants in your garden, from carrots to tomatoes, are annuals, but you can also grow quite a few perennial crops.
In my book, growing your own perennial food forest—a constant source of nutrition—from perennial plants is the mark of a true gardener. Here are all the edible perennials I recommend adding to your yard. (Note: All plants are sensitive to weather, so which plants are “perennials” depends on the USDA planting zone you live in. In some places with harsh winters, artichokes, for example, are considered annuals. Talk to someone (contact your local garden center to find out which perennials will grow well in your area.)
Berries
Most berry plants are perennials, including strawberries (in the majority). Planting a variety of June-bearing (plants that fruit in June) and everbearing (plants that fruit all summer) strawberries means you should have a full summer of berries. But strawberries aren’t the only game in town: blueberries are an outstanding shrub that grow well in sun or partial shade and don’t require too much water. There are hundreds of varieties, and if you plant a mixture of early, mid and late varieties, you will have blueberries from June to August.
Other berries also grow on the bushes: currants, goji berries, foxgloves, gooseberries, honeysuckle, salmon, blueberries and others. Elderberry grows on shrubs that can reach heights of 30 feet in a few years. Then there are all the cane berries such as raspberries, blackberries, boysenberries, marionberries, loganberries and tayberries; these plants need support, such as a trellis, but will grow abundantly and spread easily (with a little care you can keep them under control).
Fruit and nut trees
Well-groomed apple and pear trees will last for several generations, producing harvests year after year. The same applies to stone fruits such as apricot, peach, cherry and nectarine. I can’t imagine my garden without figs, although like elderberries they can grow to enormous heights if not kept under control.
Each type of fruit has many varieties that vary in taste and harvest time. The same applies to nut trees, including almonds, walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts and other nuts. These trees can also provide a canopy over other parts of your garden, benefiting plants that grow in the shade.
Asparagus
An absolutely charming vegetable, asparagus is usually planted in a ditch as a root; every spring it produces shoots that we call asparagus. (Although asparagus can be grown from seed, it takes several years for the spears to be ready for harvesting, so most people buy crowns instead.) Every April, watching my asparagus patch reappear is a joy; crowns continue to return and the asparagus plant can live 15-20 years.
Rhubarb
A funny-looking plant prized for its stems rather than its leaves or fruit, rhubarb grows from a rhizome. The stems will be green-red in color, but you can blanch them early in the growing process to produce prized cherry-red stems. Rhubarb can be harvested from spring to early fall and spreads slowly. This is an ideal plant to place under trees (in the understory) as the less sunlight it receives, the brighter the red color it will be.
Horseradish
Unlike rhubarb, horseradish has a tap root and spreads quickly through a network of underground roots. Every spring it produces tall green leaves that can also be eaten. At any time you can dig up one of the roots and collect it. Since horseradish loses its pungency the moment it is cut, having fresh horseradish at your disposal is a real pleasure. You can even replant part of the root; it should take hold and produce more plants. Like rhubarb, horseradish is an excellent understory plant.
Artichokes
All my life I’ve dreamed of having a garden full of artichokes, and now that I have one, it’s just as beautiful as I imagined. Artichokes lie dormant all winter, but come to life in early spring, growing up to seven feet tall with spreading silver-gray leaves. Then shoots appear, and at the end of each shoot is an artichoke. Each plant will produce a large artichoke, and then each subsequent one will be slightly smaller. The artichokes you don’t pick will open up and bloom into gorgeous purple bee hideouts. When grouped together they form a spectacular border plant.
Fennel
You can’t kill fennel. I tried. And it cannot be grown with anything else, as it will prevent other plants from thriving. Worse, it grows through a taproot and spreads easily. So why are you growing it? Because fresh fennel is beautiful, and when fennel is given to seed, it produces bright yellow pollen that you can collect for use in cooking (and save your own fennel seeds). Bees also love fennel.
Egyptian walking bow
The walking onion, the most fantastic vegetable in the world, shoots a single green stem from the bulb into the soil. At the end of the stem, three tiny bulbs will grow, flapping in the air until they are heavy enough to tilt the plant, where they will burrow into the soil and start all over again – hence the “walking” name. You can collect the bulbs in the soil or those at the top of the plant. (I give the walking onion more space than it should because when I’m waiting for other plants to germinate or fruit in late May/early June, the architecture of the walking onion amuses me.)
Saffron
The red stamens used to add the delicate flavor and color to rice actually come from crocus plants. You can buy them as bulbs and watch them bloom, then harvest the red stamens for a saffron reward. It’s important to place these bulbs where you can see and access them so you don’t miss out on the harvest, so planting boxes are the ideal choice.
Herbs
Perennial herbs are the primary edible product of perennial plants. Bay leaves, rosemary, lavender, sage, mint, thyme and many others can be grown year-round as hardy shrubs. In some cases, you can successfully grow perennial herbs such as parsley and dill. luck.
Ramps
This is a relatively recent development: you can now purchase ethically grown ramp bulbs specifically for growing in your own garden (I usually find them on Etsy). This means you’ll have your own section of ramp that will grow every year (if you’re careful about harvesting it). Ramps need dappled light and plenty of moisture, so grow them near mushrooms.
Mushrooms
There are many ways to grow mushrooms : in buckets, on logs or simply by throwing eggs on paths strewn with wood chips. Access to mushrooms that flow in waves is economical to say the least, and there is something magical about going outside and finding new shiitake or wine-capped mushrooms in your yard. Mushrooms require dappled light, which means you’ll have to turn them into undergrowth.
Other plants that can be perennial.
Other edible plants can become perennials if you can include them in a reseeding cycle, including potatoes and sweet potatoes—if you leave some small potatoes at harvest, you’ll find the bed recovers in the spring. Radicchio often finds a way to come back year after year, and onions can become perennial if you let them go to seed, just like celery. I’ve had less luck with the types of broccoli that claim to come back every year.