You may already have a few perennial vegetables ready to plant in your backyard garden, but what about these six perennial veggies? Adding them to your garden is an easy way to enjoy delicious, seasonal food free for a long, long time.
1. Ramps/Wild Leeks
An onion relative, ramps grow wild in deciduous forests. You can plant them in your garden and enjoy both the leaves and edible bulbs. Grow in a shady area and keep the soil moist.
2. Rhubarb
Rhubarbs are amazing for desserts like apple rhubarb muffins or rhubarb peach crisp. But the reddish stems also have a long history of use as a vegetable in soups in Asia. You’ll want rich soil and full sun to grow these stalks, but don’t eat the leaves or roots since they’re poisonous.
3. French Sorrel
The leaves of sorrel add a wonderful, lemony tang to salads and soups. They also make an amazing pesto sauce. You can harvest sorrel from early spring to late fall. Grow sorrel in average soil in sun or shade.
4. Chinese Artichoke
Also known as mintroot, this perennial sends out runners that form a dense, 12-inch-high ground cover. The white tubers are crisp and sweet, and add a great crunch to salads. The tubers can be harvested yearly, but leave a few in the ground each year to bring them back next spring. Grow in partial shade or full sun in well-drained soil.
5. Lovage
The stems and young leaves of this perennial make a great celery substitute. The seeds and roots are also edible and the flowers attract beneficial insects. It thrives in sun or partial shade in average garden soil.
6. Sea Kale
This kale is often grown ornamentally due to its gray-blue leaves and white flowers. The plant grows about three feet tall. It should be covered in spring and the shoots should be blanched when they’re around six inches long. They taste like hazelnut! The flowers and young leaves also are edible. Plant in well-drained soil in full sun.
Check out our first installment of perennial vegetables to plant for more ideas.
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