- Perennial Vegetables
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- About Perennial Vegetables
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. In temperate climates, 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, Old-Time Blue Collards, chicory, and leaf celery.
Many that are native to mild climates or have a history of cultivation will germinate and grow reliably, and have been domesticated as standard garden vegetables: sorrel, bunching onions, erba stella, rhubarb, asparagus, artichoke, and chives.
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. They need cold-conditioning (stratification) before germinating. The easiest way to do that is to plant them in fall or very early spring. Failing that, they will need to be chilled for a short time in the fridge.
The truly wild plants from northern regions are challenging to even experienced gardeners: Good King Henry, herbs like lavender and rosemary, 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, so they too should be planted in pots outdoors in the winter or very early spring.
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.) It often helps to "inoculate" your seed-starting mix with some forest duff from areas with deciduous (broadleaf) trees. Like putting yeast in bread dough, the organisms in the forest soil will spread through your pots. If that is not an option for you, there are many fungal inoculants on the market that will put beneficial fungi in your mix which is helpful in germination as well.
The usual method of fertilizing perennials and controlling weeds is to apply mulch to the soil around them. Fallen leaves are ideal, so if you have fruit trees or broadleaf shade trees, this is an excellent use for the autumn leaves. Chipped branches (rather than the trunk wood) of trees is another great nutrient mulch. Straw or dead plant material is fine, but do not use conifer needles, Black Walnut leaves, decorative bark, or plastic. Conifers and walnuts contain compounds that act as natural herbicides, weakening nearby plants. Some plants (Most bulbs, beans, bluebells, and squash for example) are immune to the poison, but most are not.
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. In temperate climates, 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, Old-Time Blue Collards, chicory, and leaf celery.
Many that are native to mild climates or have a history of cultivation will germinate and grow reliably, and have been domesticated as standard garden vegetables: sorrel, bunching onions, erba stella, rhubarb, asparagus, artichoke, and chives.
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. They need cold-conditioning (stratification) before germinating. The easiest way to do that is to plant them in fall or very early spring. Failing that, they will need to be chilled for a short time in the fridge.
The truly wild plants from northern regions are challenging to even experienced gardeners: Good King Henry, herbs like lavender and rosemary, 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, so they too should be planted in pots outdoors in the winter or very early spring.
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.) It often helps to "inoculate" your seed-starting mix with some forest duff from areas with deciduous (broadleaf) trees. Like putting yeast in bread dough, the organisms in the forest soil will spread through your pots. If that is not an option for you, there are many fungal inoculants on the market that will put beneficial fungi in your mix which is helpful in germination as well.
The usual method of fertilizing perennials and controlling weeds is to apply mulch to the soil around them. Fallen leaves are ideal, so if you have fruit trees or broadleaf shade trees, this is an excellent use for the autumn leaves. Chipped branches (rather than the trunk wood) of trees is another great nutrient mulch. Straw or dead plant material is fine, but do not use conifer needles, Black Walnut leaves, decorative bark, or plastic. Conifers and walnuts contain compounds that act as natural herbicides, weakening nearby plants. Some plants (Most bulbs, beans, bluebells, and squash for example) are immune to the poison, but most are not.