This is part of a new series of blog posts for beginner gardeners. These posts may be a little shorter and more specific in nature.

Many of us end up planting lots of annuals: tomatoes, beans, peppers, corn, squash, to name a few, and these are indeed great choices for the edible garden. The only problem is that you have to replant every year, buy new seeds (unless you’ve saved them) or plants, dig new holes for new plants, and repeat.

But what if you could reduce that repeating cycle? What if you could plant things that grow for years and years?

That’s where perennials come in. Perennials benefit the gardener in many ways. There’s the obvious, that you don’t have to buy new plants and seeds every year, but perennials have other advantages as well.

What is a perennial?

Perennials don’t usually need a lot of water, because they have deep roots, and saving water is very important these days. In the town where I live, which has allowed too much development for the water supply, we have on occasion nearly run out of water. But it’s not just here; many areas of the west and southwest are in a drought. When I compare the water I use on my rhubarb, asparagus, or currant plants to the amount I use on my young tomatoes and peppers, I see a huge difference.

saving water, saving money

Another advantage to planting perennials is the reduction of soil disturbance. Once your perennial plant is in the ground, you can just leave it there. There’s no need for any more digging. You may ask, why is that a benefit? When you dig, you disturb the soil, exposing fragile organisms to the air, even cutting some with your shovel.

There are bacteria in the soil that sequester carbon, but when they’re exposed to the air through tilling, they release that carbon. It’s best to dig as little as possible.

If you don’t dig, you’re clearly saving yourself a lot of work. That’s right, you’re cutting down on work when you plant perennials. You don’t have to do a lot of work for the food. It just shows up every year! Well, you may have to trim or weed your perennials, but you have to do that for ALL of your plants, right? I’ve found that I get fewer weeds around my perennials: some of them, like rhubarb, shade out the weeds.

And when I do have to trim some plants, such as currants and jostaberries, I use the cuttings to make new plants, which I can then plant to increase my supply, give to a friend, or sell.

Now let me tell you about some of my favorite perennials in the temperate zone.

Rhubarb is a great plant – I use it for pies, cobblers, jams, and even liquors. Its leaves shade out weeds and make great mulch when I harvest (you pull the stems and rip the leaves off, leaving the leaves on the ground). Asparagus is another favorite, especially because it’s a savory food. I just eat it fresh or sautéed, but you can pickle it for longer term storage if you have a lot. And don’t forget about the artichoke!

Then there are the berries: raspberry, marionberry, boysenberry, serviceberry (a native!), jostaberry, haskap (honeyberry), blueberry, gooseberry, currants (red, black, and white), beautyberry, lingonberry, thornless blackberry, seaberry, and strawberry. Some of these, like the strawberry, aren’t exactly true perennials, but they send out long runners with new plants on them, ensuring that you always have a supply. Raspberry canes die out, but new ones come up. Gooseberries, jostaberries, and currants are all easy to start from cuttings. Starting plants from cuttings is one of my hobbies. Some of the vining berries, like marionberries, start new plants by layering – where the vines lie on the ground, they make roots. You can cut the attached vine, dig up that new marionberry, and plant it elsewhere.

I included the beautyberry here because it is both edible and native, though the fruits are pretty small. I have a friend who collected beautyberries and made jelly. I’ve never tried this myself; perhaps I am too lazy!

I love to cook with berries: cobblers, jams, pies and other pastries, but also wine! Our black currant wine is to die for. You can freeze berries, and of course, you can eat many berries fresh. I like to sprinkle a tad of balsamico on my strawberries for dessert. There are a few berries that I simply toss in with other fruits in a pie or cobbler, mainly for their nutritional value. The sea berry comes to mind.

There are a few plants that can’t be considered perennials by definition, but on a day to day practical level, they act like perennials.

Consider walking onions, arugula, and kale. Once you get your walking onions started, they’ll keep coming, but they’ll wander all over the garden, so you’ll have to keep a look out. Kale will go to seed, and you may soon find kale plants in all sorts of strange places. The same goes for arugula. I tend to let these plants grow where they like, unless I want to transplant them into a different spot. Sometimes they get in the way, and then I just eat them.

Finally, there’s a much neglected and even maligned group of perennials: weeds.

A weed is really just a plant that thrives where you don’t want it to, but many weeds are not only edible; they’re also delicious and very nutritious. Many people consider dock a weed, but it’s actually very good for you. Dock contains iron. You can add the softer leaves to a pesto, or you can collect the seeds. Some people sprinkle the seeds in crackers, but I know of one fellow, Pascal Baudar, who makes flour from the seeds of dock and many other “weeds”. The stinging nettle is an important perennial food, delicious in pestos, soups, or teas. Dandelion is another great food, especially in early spring before they flower. Many gardeners consider native violets a weed, but I use the flowers on cakes, and I eat the leaves in salads. You can make candies and syrups from the flowers too.

And if you have a lot of invasive non-toxic perennial weeds in your yard, feel free to harvest without inhibition! If you do that, you’re achieving more than one thing: harvesting food, cleaning up your yard, and reducing the population of invasive plants. 

I hope I’ve shed some light on the world of perennials.

Plant as many as you can, save yourself work and money, while giving the soil organisms a break. 

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