Perennial Vegetables For Your Garden

 

Perennials are a plant that regrow each spring after going dormant in the winter. While most vegetable crops are grown as annuals and require replanting each year, perennials are planted once and provide years of delicious harvests.   

While many are familiar with perennial flowers, there are perennial vegetables and herbs you can add to your garden.  Once established you have years of harvests and minimal care to maintain the perennial. 

The perennials you can plant, depends on your planting zone. Those I am sharing can be grown in zones 4-7. 

Asparagus

Asparagus is grown from crowns which are the one year old root system of asparagus grown from seed.  The tender spears of an established asparagus patch are cut and enjoyed for 3-8 weeks depending on the age of your patch. The spears are then allowed to mature creating fern like foliage that can reach 5 feet.  This feeds the roots ensuring you will have a harvest the following year. It takes 2 years to establish before harvesting any spears.

Smoked asparagus with BBQ sauce, yum!

Growing Conditions:

- Cold winters where the ground freezes

-Dry summers

-Prefers a sandy loam soil and full sun

Choosing Asparagus Varieties

Asparagus plants are monoecious plants meaning they are either male or female plants.  Male plants produce more shoots while female plants must invest energy in producing seed and produce fewer shoots.  Jersey Knight or  Jersey Giant produce all male shoots. 

Planting Guide

Planting in a raised beds makes weeding and maintenance easier.  A raised bed also warms up earlier in the spring and allows you to properly amend your soil with plenty of organic matter. Be sure to start with a sandy loam soil and add 2" of compost. Raised beds will drain better preventing the crowns from rotting.

Dig a trench down two sides of your raised bed.  The trench should be about 1 foot deep.  You can add a dry organic fertilizer to the trench.  Place the crowns in the trench about a foot to a 1 1/2 ft apart.  Cover with 3 inches of soil.  Continue adding soil as the plants emerge until it is level with the soil line.

Maintenance

Each spring add a complete dry organic fertilizer and mulch with compost around the plants.  Keep the bed free of weeds.  The first two years water regularly.  As asparagus matures it sends down deep roots and can go longer without water.  

After the fronds die back leave them there through the winter to act as a protective mulch.  In the spring before the spears emerge cut the foliage to the ground and remove it.

For more detailed information on harvesting refer to this post:

Growing & Harvesting Asparagus

Rhubarb

Rhubarb is a lush large leafed perennial.  It adds a tropical touch to our high desert gardens and one of the earliest garden treats. With stalks ranging from deep crimson to green with a touch of red, it is truly a beautiful plant.  While leaves are toxic, the stalks are the prize used in pies, jams, lemonade, sauces, and breads. Rhubarb will produce for 10 or more years.

Rhubarb crowns are cylindrical in shape.  Both the roots and the buds which will become the stalks grow from the crown.

Planting Rhubarb

• Purchase 1 year old rhubarb crowns which can be ordered online or found at garden centers.  
• Dig a large basket size hole.  Amend with compost and a handful of a complete dry organic fertilizer
• Rhubarb should be spaced 2-3 feet apart
• Plant the crown with the roots down and buds up about 2" deep
• Water well
• Rhubarb tolerates in afternoon shade in hot summers

Care of Rhubarb

In early spring, give a feeding of fish emulsion.  Clean up the area of debris, weed, add a dry organic fertilizer, and mulch with 2" of mulch.  Even moisture is important.  Cut out all bud stalks to encourage more leaf growth. You can side dress with a complete organic fertilizer throughout the season.

Harvesting Rhubarb

• Do not harvest stalks the first growing season and harvest very sparingly the second to allow for the plant to become well established
• Harvest the 3rd year for 8-10 weeks which is until around mid summer.
• Harvest 12- 18 inch thick stalks.  When the stalks become thin stop harvesting.  Always leave 2-4 leaves when harvesting
• To harvest grab the stalk at the base turn and twist.

Refer to this post for more rhubarb tips and delicious recipes:

Rhubarb Growing Tips & Recipes

Rhubarb: The Pie Plant

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

Rhubarb Breakfast Cake

Rhubarb Strawberry Cobbler

Rhubarb Lemonade

Rhubarb Crisp

Sorrel

Sorrel is a perennial green that sprouts in early spring. It is a traditional European cool season crop.  Although less common in American gardens, it deserves a permanent spot in your garden.  It looks like spinach or arugula but this leafy green has a lemony zesty tang.  Oxelic acid gives it the sour taste.  (Same substance found in rhubarb which is in the same family) It's nickname is sour grass. 

Sorrel is the common name for three different species common garden sorrel or sour dock, French sorrel, or mountain sorrel.  All three have a history of being collected in the wild and grown in the garden.

Sorrel has arrow shaped leaves and grows to about 12".  It prefers the cool spring and fall.  In summer it will quickly bolt sending up a tall flower stock. Sorrel will self seed if flower stocks are left.

Growing Sorrel

Sorrel can be grown from seed. Prepare the bed remember it will be a permanent planting.  Amend your soil with lots of organic matter.  

 It can be seeded directly in the garden when soil warms to 50 degrees F. Press  the seeds into the soil and cover very lightly. Thin the plants to 12" apart.

Sorrel will overwinter in the garden and be a welcomed early green.  Plants can then be propagated easily by divisions in early spring.  You will want to thin them out.

Harvesting

Harvest the outer leaves when they about 4 inches.  Keep the flower stocks trimmed to the ground and cut off older declining leaves to help keep younger new leaves sprouting.

Because of the Oxelic acid deer do tend to leave sorrel alone

For recipes and ways to use sorrel refer to this post:

Sorrel: Perennial Green

Sage

Perennial Herbs

There are also many perennial herbs you can grow in your garden.  Your planting zone will determine if the herb will grow as a perennial or needs to be grown as an annual.

In my zone thyme, oregano, lemon balm, mints, sage, chives, lavender, and parsley can all be grown as perennials.  Many of these will reseed and spread rapidly throughout the garden.  It avoid this don't allow the plant to go to seed. Frequent harvesting will prevent this.

 Mints, thyme and oregano can also spread through roots.  A lot of these herbs are best contained in pots or a box dedicated to perennial herbs. 

In warmer zones rosemary, marjoram and other herbs are perennials.  In my zone I plant them in pots and move them into the greenhouse to overwinter.

 

How To Select Seed Varieties

 

When choosing seeds what you DON'T want to do is walk into a nursery and pick up any variety or the cheapest seed packet.  All seed companies are not the same!  You need to put a little thought and planning into your seed selection in order to have success.  

Some of the things to look for in a seed company are:

•  Genetic integrity (the seed is true to type)
• Good germination rates
• Companies that provide detailed descriptions about varieties
• Companies that sign the Safe Seed Pledge which means no GMO seeds
• Price of seeds and shipping
• Number of seeds per packet (While you may need lots of carrot seeds for succession planting you don't need lot of one variety of pumpkin or cucumber)
• Growing info for crops

I prefer to order online for a number of reasons:

• More varieties to choose from
• I enjoy reading seed catalogs.  They contain a wealth of information
• I have had better success with good quality seed from reliable companies

Some of my favorite seed companies:

• Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
• Pine Tree Seeds
• Seed Saver's Exchange
• Johnny's Selected Seeds
• Territorial Seeds
• Fedco Seeds

After you determine what vegetables and herbs you want to plant, you need to determine what crops you will start from seed.  Seeds can be direct seeded in the garden or started indoors.  Depending on your planting zone, certain vegetables that need a long growing season should either be planted as transplants or started indoors and transplanted outdoors after danger of frost.  Crops such as peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, and onions are in this catagory.  So decide what seeds you need to direct seed or start indoors. Then determine what transplants you will purchase. If you are not set up to start seeds indoors then plan on purchasing transplants.

How to Plant Seeds & Transplants

Factors to Consider When Choosing a Variety:

Hybrids vs. Open Pollinated or Heirlooms

 

Open Pollinated are genetically diverse and have more variability.  this is why you may have success with them one year and a failure the next.  OP tend to be less expensive than hybrids because the breeding process is cheaper for seed companies. If you want to save seeds from a certain crop you will want to purchase OP or heirlooms.  Not all open pollinated seeds are the same from different companies.  Companies can have different strains of the same varieties.  That is why if you have success with one variety of OP seeds but switch companies you may not have as much success. That's why keeping notes is so important.

Heirlooms, Hybrids & Open Pollinated

Heirlooms are open pollinated but usually specific to a region, have a history of seeds being saved and passed down, and have stories about the heritage of the seed.  Sometimes, as is true with tomatoes, you have unique flavors, colors, and shapes not available in hybrids.  Heirlooms can be more difficult to grow but are well worth the effort.

Hybrid plants have two separate distinct parents. These parents must be crossed each time to get the hybrid variety.  Hybrids are also know for having more vigor.  If you save seeds from hybrids you will not get the same variety and it will be less vigorous.  If you aren't saving seeds hybrids are a good option because they can bred disease resistance into the genes of hybrids. 

 

Days to Maturity DTM

Days to maturity has two meanings. For vegatables that are seeded directly in the garden the date refers to time of  planting the seed until maturity or harvest.  This includes beans, corn, peas, lettuce, peas, spinach squash cucumber, melons beet, kale, and collards which should all be seeded directly into the garden 

For crops that are typically planted as transplants it means from the date of transplant until harvest.  This includes tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower.

Days to maturity is extremely important if your growing season is short.  For example, smaller watermelons such as Blacktail or Crimson Sweet may ripen before a frost but larger melons such as Georgia Rattlesnake may not ripen before a frost especially if you plant late or have a cold spring.  The same is true for pumpkins, winter squash and cabbage.  In my area we have cold springs and then it just gets hot so spring crops like cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower tend to mature in the heat and have problems with aphids.  Planting smaller cabbages or heat tolerant varieties meant for summer harvest helps with this issue. 

With tomatoes this is very important.  The large beefsteak varieties will be the last to ripen and can ripen very late in the season especially if you have cooler than normal weather.  Look at other tomatoes to get an earlier harvest such as paste, salad or smaller slicing varieties.  A combination will give you more continuous harvests.

Disease Resistance is usually coded within the growing information for each type of crop.  Choosing a variety based just on disease resistance is not helpful.  You only need to worry about diseases you actually have in your area not every disease. HR means high resistance IR means intermediate resistance. No variety is completely resistant and if disease pressure is very high in your area you will probably still have problems.  If, however, you know you have problems with certain diseases it will be beneficial to try disease resistant varieties. Good cultural practices combined with disease resistance varieties will ensure more success than disease resistance varieties and poor cultural habits and poor soil management.

Other helpful information included in seed catalogs and on seed packets:  

• The soil temperature when seeds will germinate
• Days to start indoors before last frost.  Great to know for planning your calendar
• Description of the crop and positive characteristics
• Uses of the crop for example pickling, slicing, roasting etc

Choose companies dedicated to producing good seed of trial proven varieties.  Cheap seed is a bad investment and does not save you money or time but instead is guaranteed to frustrate your gardening experience.  

Starting Seeds Indoors

 

How to Choose the Best Seed Starting Mix

 

If you are going to go to the expense and effort of starting seeds, using the right seed starting mix will ensure healthy seedlings and strong transplants.  There are may DIY mixes, however, purchasing an organic seedling mix often saves time and maybe money.  You do the math. My favorite is Black Gold.  It's very fine, easy to wet, and produces healthy seedlings.  

Characteristics of a seed starting mix:

• Seed starting mixes are soilless this ensures that fungus such as damping off disease and other soil borne diseases are not a problem
• Seed starting mixes are non-fertile.  Within the seed are are the nutrients that an emerging seedling needs.  It's not until after the true leaves appear that you would fertilize your seedlings with a diluted liquid fertilizer such as fish emulsion.
• Seed starting mix are meant to hold water which penetrates the seed coat and along with the correct soil temperature begins the germination process
• Seed starting mixes are finer than a potting mix.  A good mix is well screened and fine allowing roots to easily penetrate the medium and allowing for good seed to soil contact.

What's in a good seeding mix?

Almost every seedling mix will have peat moss or coco coir as the base ingredient.

Peat Moss

Peat moss is mined from peat bogs in Canada and the Northern US.  Some consider it non-sustainable and opt to use coca coir.  Peat moss is very fine texture if it has been sifted and retains water remarkably when. 

Coco Coir

Coco Coir is the refined husks of coconuts.  It comes in compressed bricks.  It can be a slow process to rehydrate it.  I prefer peat based seedling mixes.

Vermiculite

Vermiculite is volcanic rock that is heated until it expands.  This light weight fine amendment is great at retaining moisture and holding nutrients. It provides less aeration but better water retention than fine perlite.

Perlite fine grade

Perlite is created when volcanic glass is heated causing the particles to pop forming little ball like particles.  Only use the fine grade perlite for seed starting.  Perlite provides drainage and aeration preventing compaction.

Coarse Sand

Only use sand if you need a heavy mix and better drainage.  It works well for larger seeds.  Look for builder's sand or all purpose sand.

Grit

Grit it not added to the seedling mix but some gardeners like to put it on the surface.

DIY Seed Seed Starting Mixes

If you enjoy creating your own mix.  Here are some ideas.

Basic Seed Starting Mix

1 part sifted peat moss

1 part vermiculite

*Better Drainage Mix (preferred mix)

1 part peat moss

1 part vermiculite

1 part fine grade perlite

Peat Free Mix

2 part coco coir

1 part vermiculite

1 part perlite

Seed Starting mix with High Drainage

2 parts pet moss or coco coir

2 part vermiculite

1 part coarse sand

You can premix these and keep in totes.  Scoop out the amount you need to wet.  I use a dish pan to wet the seedling mix.  You are then set to plant.  

When potting up plants add 1 part compost to the mix.

Hardwood Cuttings

Elderberries are a shrub I take hardwood cuttings from.

 

Winter may seem like a bleak time for the gardener, but there are many chores that you can and should do in winter.  Hardwood cuttings can be taken from woody shrubs and perennials.  It is a great way to increase your edible shrubs, berries, and fill in gaps in your landscape.

Elderberry is a large beautiful landscape, edible, and medicinal shrub.  
The berries can be made into jams juice and syrups.  The flowers and berries are medicinal.  

How To Take Hardwood Cuttings

• Look for healthy stems about pencil thickness.
• Cut straight across the stems just above a bud.  Take more cuttings than you need to compensate for any that fail to grow.  Use sharp, clean pruners.
• Next, cut off any soft growth at the growing tip end of the cutting. Cut at a sloping angle so water will run off the top of your cutting, and so you can easily see which end goes up. 
• Cut your chosen stem/branch/vine section into pieces around 12 inches in length. (Making a straight cut at the base, and a sloping cut at the top of each section. 
• Best results will often be achieved if you dip the ends of your cuttings into something to promote root formation. Hormone rooting powder is one option. However, this is not always necessary, and many hardwood cuttings will successfully take without rooting powder. 

Jostaberries are a cross between currants and gooseberries with the benefit of no thorns.  The berries make delicious jelly.

Jostaberries Not "Just A Berry"

How to Plant Hardwood Cuttings

• Insert your hardwood cuttings into the soil or growing medium such as a potting mix in containers, leaving around 1/3 of each one visible. Roots will form below the surface, and new green growth should emerge from buds above the surface in spring.
• Firm the ground around the cuttings to ensure good contact and to make sure they are held in place firmly. Water in your cuttings.
• In colder climates, it may be a good idea to offer some form of protection for certain cuttings. You may wish to place them in a greenhouse, high tunnel, or cold frame.  You might use cloches to fend off the worst of the winter cold. Many hardwood cuttings will remain dormant over the winter months and should require little protection or care during this time. 
• Leave your cuttings in pots until next fall. In spring, roots should be well on the way to forming, and new growth should emerge. It is always a good idea to take more cuttings than you think you need, to make up for any losses or failures.
• Make sure your cuttings are watered over the summer months. (Remember, you will need to water more if your hardwood cuttings are growing in containers than you will if they are in the ground.)
• Next fall, you will be able to take them and transplant them into their permanent growing positions. 

Taking hardwood cuttings is easy, and you have nothing to lose. Even if the cuttings don’t take, you have not lost out. Taking a few hardwood cuttings won’t usually do any harm at all to the parent plant. And you stand the chance of getting new plants for your garden entirely for free. 

Plants I take hardwood cuttings from include elderberry, gooseberry, currants, and jostaberry. 



Gooseberries are a good shrub to take cuttings from.  They make delicious desserts.



Growing Gooseberries


Gooseberry Coconut Cake



Gooseberry Jam

Preparing for the Garden Season

Variety of heirloom tomatoes

Gardening is not usually on the minds of most people in winter;  however, to ensure you have a good productive season now is the perfect time to prepare and plan your garden.  Here's a list of what you can do in winter so you will be prepared for the season this spring.

1.  Make a list of what you want to grow this year include veggies, herbs, and flowers.

   Determine if you want a spring and summer garden. This requires different planting times and more space because some crops overlap.  Spring plantings or cool season crops include:

 potatoes, greens, lettuce, spinach, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, peas, Swiss chard, onions, shallots, leeks, cilantro, parsley, beets, kohlrabi, kale, radishes and carrots.  

The purple carrots are Purple Sun.

A summer garden or warm season crops includes:

 carrots, beets, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, melons, pumpkins, summer squash, corn, winter squash, eggplant, tomatillos beans, basil, and other herbs.

What To Plant in Early Spring

Watermelon can and should be seeded directly in the garden.  Their roots don't like being transplanted.

 

2.  Determine what you will purchase as transplants and what you will direct seed in the garden.

Crops best grown from transplants include broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, peppers, eggplant, tomatillos and tomatoes.  All other crops can be grown from seed in the garden. Root crops should always be seeded directly in the garden.  You can start your own seeds indoors if you have the proper set up to ensure you raise healthy transplants. 

How To Plant Seeds & Transplants

Starting Seeds Indoors

Seed Planting Schedule

A Chinese cabbage good in cole slaw, salads, and stir fries.

3.  Organize and order seeds and perennials

   Lots of varieties are already sold out so the earlier you order seeds online the better.  Before ordering inventory your seeds.  I don't keep seeds older than 3 years.  While the length of time you can store seeds varies, the longer you store seeds the lower the germination rate.  Having fresh seeds saves time.  Onions seeds need to be reordered each year. Order perennial crops such as asparagus and rhubarb.

Preparing for the Growing Season: Organizing and Ordering Seeds

How To Select Seed Varieties

How Long Will My Seeds Last

Heirlooms, Hybrids, & Open Pollinated Seeds

Asparagus is an easy to grow perennial.

4.  Determine what additions to the orchard, grapes and berries you want to add.

Don't wait too long to do this.  It's best to order barefoot for fruit trees and some berries such as raspberries come bare root.  Given the choice go with bare root.  Strawberries are best bought as a barefoot plants they come in bundles of 25.  Albion are my favorite strawberry.  Blackberries that are erect or semi erect do best in our area.  Generally those with Indian names and Triple Crown have done well. Triple Crown seems more prone to fungal infections.  I prefer everbearing to Juneberry with berries because you get fruit throughout the growing season until a freeze.  Plan carefully because these are permanent plantings so put some thought into it. All berries should be contained in boxes. Below are links to other helpful posts.

Albion strawberries are my favorite.  Everbearing variety with large sweet berries.

Everything You Need To Know About a Home Orchard

How To Choose and Plant Fruit Trees

Backyard Orchard: Choosing a Site

Brambles: Growing Blackberries and Raspberries

Growing Strawberries

White peaches are the best fresh eating.  They are a delicious dehydrated or juiced.  Too soft to can.

Bing cherries

 5.  Consider adding elderberries, gooseberries, currants, or jostaberries. Some of the other hybrid berries such as loganberries or boysenberries or tayberries may also do well certain areas.

Elderberries, gooseberries and josta berries grow well in our area.  Some berries prefer some afternoon shade such as raspberries, currants, and some varieties of elderberries and all the hybrid berries. My own experience is that hybrid berries without shade are not as productive.

  

6.  Consider planting a medicinal garden including elderberries, echinacea, lavender, catmint, lemon balm, thyme, peppermint etc.  These are perennials you can incorporate in beds within your garden or some make great landscape options.

6.  Purchase supplies

Winter is a good time to inventory and purchase garden compost, tools, organic fertilizers, and organic pesticides.  This ensures you have the products you need on hand when needed.

Amendments:  Complete dry organic fertilizer, azomite, greensand

Liquid Fertilizers:  Fish emulsion, sea kelp

Organic pesticides:  Neem, Captain Jack's Dead Bug Brew (spinosad) which is for coddling moth and other caterpillars, dormant oil, Pyrethrin, Sluggo for pill bugs

Row covers to protect against frosts and insect damage

Compost

Favorite green bean Slenderette.  Favorite filet green bean Maxibel.

7.  Determine if you want to add beds or new growing areas to your garden and what materials you might need.