About Perennial Vegetables
Perennials can be a great addition to the garden. They do not require yearly tillage and sowing, and generally need less fertility than faster-growing annuals. They can often use areas that are too shady, too full of roots and rocks, or too steep for other crops.
But nothing is without cost--perennials do not yield as much as annual vegetables. A plant that is going to live through the winter or for many seasons must save some of its energy and biomass for its own survival. Perennials are a supplement, not a substitute, for other vegetables.
Some of the easiest to sprout and grow are familiar annuals that are showing perennial tendencies: perpetual spinach, Delft leeks, and leaf celery.
Many that hail from mild climates or have a history of cultivation show reliable germination and have been domesticated as reliable garden vegetables: sorrel, bunching onions, erba stella, rhubarb, asparagus, artichoke, and chives.
The truly wild plants from northern regions are challenging to even experienced gardeners: Caucasus Spinach, Good King Henry, and Alpine Strawberry are good examples.
They are programmed to stay dormant through the winter and sprout, a few at a time, in spring. Success with them depends on mimicking that schedule. Like most wild plants, they have complex relationships with soil chemistry, moisture, temperature, day length, and other factors known and unknown. Forest plants generally sprout best in a soil with decayed leaves and wood in it. One reason is that this kind of soil is rich in germination-inducing compounds like gibberellic acid; another is that it has more beneficial fungi.)
Lovage and Alexanders are wild celery relatives that are intermediate in variability and difficulty; given cool, moist soil and time, they usually sprout pretty well.
But nothing is without cost--perennials do not yield as much as annual vegetables. A plant that is going to live through the winter or for many seasons must save some of its energy and biomass for its own survival. Perennials are a supplement, not a substitute, for other vegetables.
Some of the easiest to sprout and grow are familiar annuals that are showing perennial tendencies: perpetual spinach, Delft leeks, and leaf celery.
Many that hail from mild climates or have a history of cultivation show reliable germination and have been domesticated as reliable garden vegetables: sorrel, bunching onions, erba stella, rhubarb, asparagus, artichoke, and chives.
The truly wild plants from northern regions are challenging to even experienced gardeners: Caucasus Spinach, Good King Henry, and Alpine Strawberry are good examples.
They are programmed to stay dormant through the winter and sprout, a few at a time, in spring. Success with them depends on mimicking that schedule. Like most wild plants, they have complex relationships with soil chemistry, moisture, temperature, day length, and other factors known and unknown. Forest plants generally sprout best in a soil with decayed leaves and wood in it. One reason is that this kind of soil is rich in germination-inducing compounds like gibberellic acid; another is that it has more beneficial fungi.)
Lovage and Alexanders are wild celery relatives that are intermediate in variability and difficulty; given cool, moist soil and time, they usually sprout pretty well.