Jamie Chevalier

The PNW is a good place for the perennial vegetables from Maritime Europe, like Good King Henry, Alexanders, and Lovage.

Most of the above are basically wild plants that have been grown by humans, but not selected into many agricultural varieties. There are more of those to try, like Blood Sorrel, Watercress, and Salad Burnet https://www.quailseeds.com/store/p488/Salad_Burnet.html . I would especially recommend Erba Stella, AKA Minutina or Staghorn Plantain. It is much more mild flavored and pleasantly crunchy. https://www.quailseeds.com/store/p261/Erba_Stella%2C_Minutina.html


There are things that are from the Mediterranean that will grow at low elevation in the PNW like Turkish Rocket and Stridolo https://www.quailseeds.com/store/p587/Stridolo_%28Sculpit%2C_Silene_vulgaris%29.html

Perhaps the most useful set of plants are those that are familiar crops with perennial tendencies that growers don't usually exploit:
Perpetual Spinach is a perennial chard. It gives more meals per sq ft than any crop I know. Basically, it's a domesticated version of the wild Sea Beet, which is rare, and not so widely adapted. https://www.quailseeds.com/store/p9/Perpetual_Spinach_%28Leafbeet%29_Chard.html

Others on this list would be Salsify, Perennial Arugula, and Chicory, both the wild or forage types and the less-refined domesticated ones like "Trieste Sweet" and "Catalogna." Depending on location and management (as well as the genetic potential of the seed you happen to get) this list might also include cardoon, fennel, and collards. My Old Timey Blue Collards have proven perennial in my location.

Asian varieties that are reliably perennial include Evergreen (Nebuka) bunching onion, Talinium,(Jewels of Opar) and that common ornamental, hosta.

Native American perennial vegetables that can be grown from seed include Sochan, from the Eastern deciduous woodland, which might be adaptable to life under vine maples or alders, and Miner's Lettuce from California. There are also a host of tubers, bulbs, and rhizomes used by Native Americans, like Jerusalem Artichoke, Camas, Brodeia, Yampa, and the various things lumped together as "groundnuts."

Living with only boat or floatplane access in Alaska, I used trees in several ways in the henhouse.
During winter, when there were no fresh weeds to give them, I cut hemlock branches for my hens. (Hemlock the forest tree, not the poisonous herb.) The needles are full of vitamin C (and make a nice tea for humans, which sailors used to prevent scurvy.) The hens would strip the needles off the branches and relished them. It kept the hens happy and nourished, and kept the egg yolks nice and colorful too.

I also collected fallen alder leaves whenever I could find dry ones. Sometimes I'd row to small islands to collect them where alders overhung the shoreside rocks. They make outstanding bedding. Chickens evolved in jungle ecosystems, scratching in the forest duff--mostly fallen leaves. Because they can scratch the leaves and mix them so effectively, I never had trouble with manure caking and accumulating on top of the bedding, as I have had with straw. I used big garbage bags to keep them dry for winter bedding. (If they get wet, they make great compost, but aren't an absorbent bedding.) I did the same with dead beach grass--collect it during frozen-dry periods in winter for use as bedding. It was great because it didn't have weed seeds in it, but not as mixable, scratch-able, and spreadable as leaves.

I have comfrey all along the shady side of the chicken run, outside the fence so they can eat whatever they can reach but not scratch up the crowns.

And I've found that having to find something fresh for the hens is a good incentive to do the things I might otherwise put off in the garden, or leave for one occasional marathon, like weeding. I few weeds a day keeps the chicks happy, the egg yolks nice and bright, and the garden in better shape.

I'm indebted to no-dig maestro Charles Dowding for the insight that as soon as the lower leaves of a plant start to yellow, they send a chemical signal to slugs and snails and earwigs and such that there is decaying vegetation for them to eat. Once there, they keep going, eating good foliage as well.  Breaking off those lower leaves as they start to senesce gets rid of slug problems in two ways: it removes their preferred habitat and it physically removes a lot of slugs and snails as well. Which are extra treats for the chickens. Ain't nature grand?

One trick I've used to get a free protein source for my hens is to lay a piece of old cardboard in their run--the shreddier and older the better. It it's new, or the weather is very dry, get it good and wet first. Let it sit for a few days, then call the hens and lift it quickly. Usually there are hundreds of roly-poly bugs under there, which the chickens love to chase and eat. Rotten wood works too.

Most legumes (beans, peas, lentils) are high-protein but hens can't digest them raw and unsprouted. You can sprout them yourself, or you can scatter them during fall and spring rains to sprout naturally. I find that the chickens always search them out and eat them as soon as they are an inch or two high.

Sunflower seeds add a lot of good fat and protein to their diet. These oilseed sunflowers are easy to grow and produce lots and lots of seeds from multiple manageably-sized flowers. I have not had to stake the plants as I would with Mammoth, or other large-seeded types. It works well to grow them just outside their run. I like to throw a dried seedhead in for them to peck and entertain themselves with, rather than bothering to thresh them out of the heads. https://www.quailseeds.com/store/p141/Oilseed_Sunflower.html

I haven't noticed anyone mentioning perennial Maximillian Sunflowers.  anything perennial is always a plus, and these grow vigorously to make a thick stand in most parts of the country. Some people have found them to be deer-resistant as well. They can be planted along the run for early greens,. winter tubers, and the many small seeds after flowering in Fall. https://www.quailseeds.com/store/p470/Maximillian_Sunflower.html  
Jerusalem Artichokes are also a sunflower (with very small seeds and flowers.) I haven't tried feeding the tubers to chickens; they may need to be cooked. It would be an easy experiment to try, and they multiply like crazy from one or two bought tubers.

Moving to grains, Amaranth is easy to grow in hot weather, very high-yielding (up to a lb a plant in good soil) and chickens love it. It has neither hull nor soapy coating (that coating is what makes quinoa hard to feed to hens.) And people like to eat it as well. Makes a nice polenta or breakfast cereal. Cut some of the heads and throw to the hens when the seeds start being loose enough in the head that you get some in your hand it you run your fingers over the seedhead. Those you want to store for later can be hung upside down over a tarp or sheet to dry. Golden Giant is highest yield, Fercita is a short-season alternative. https://www.quailseeds.com/store/p310/Golden_Giant_Amaranth.html
https://www.quailseeds.com/store/p82/Fercita_Amaranth.html

Millet is harder to grow for people because of the hull but chickens love it. (It's one of the main ingredients of bird seed mixes.) Sorghum is another hot-weather grain that is easy to grow and makes great chicken food. One of the big pluses with all these small grains is that they don't need to be cracked to be the right size for hens to eat. For a cool-weather grain for hens, barley or triticale are easy to grow alternatives to wheat, and subject to fewer diseases.

Finally, Mulberries are a traditional poultry-yard tree that gives summer shade, has edible leaves, and drops it's sweet berries a few at a time all summer rather than all in a glut. You can easily prune or pollard it for more and bigger leaves down where you can reach them, and unlike other fruit trees, it bears on new wood, so pruning doesn't prevent fruiting. I don't know about it's nutritional composition, but unless I lived in the tropics, I wouldn't mess with coddling tropicals like moringa when mulberries are so easy.

As so many have said, it depends on your location and climate.
It depends on several other things too. Like:
Is this a garden we're talking about, i.e. a cleared and maintained area that will be tended at least occasionally?
Or is it landscaping, i.e. the plant life of all sizes that surround the house and make up the property?
How much labor is realistically going to go into it, and how often, at what time of year?
What is the ecosystem it's in? Forest? Prairie? Subdivision? Wildland? How much sun does it get.?
What kind of wildlife is common? Deer? Gophers? Bears? If bears are around, it will take electric fencing to protect fruit trees from being broken down.
What time of year do you visit, primarily?
As with any design problem, the best answers come from the most thorough understanding of the parameters.

Most parts of the country have a native (or naturalized) plum and a native elderberry. Probably there is also a local berry of some sort adapted to your area and not needing irrigation. If so, those are a good start for privacy screens, shelter from wind, etc. Of the European fruit trees you can buy, Quince trees are widely adapted and pest-free. In mildish climates they are a great choice, assuming you're willing to cook and/or process them. Like most hardy fruits, they don't keep. Apples also can be quite self-sustaining in my Mediterranean climate, whereas they are dependent on pest control in moister climates. Siberian Pea Shrub has proved useful in some areas, a pest in others.

If you have enough sun for vegetables and are willing to keep an area clear for them (because if you're not, weeds will lead to either grasses or woody shrubs pretty quickly) then I would suggest Perpetual Spinach, https://www.quailseeds.com/store/p9/Perpetual_Spinach_%28Leafbeet%29_Chard.htmla very deep-rooted and long-lived type of chard. It is tall enough and deep-rooted enough to survive quite a bit of weed pressure. Other possible greens for a semi-wild garden (depending on rainfall) are Seven-Top Turnips, https://www.quailseeds.com/store/p503/Seven_Top_Turnip_Greens_%28Cima_di_Rapa%29.html. They're grown for their long, long season of leaves and then flower buds, not their roots. (The big deep roots do make them very resilient.) Mustard greens are likewise quite able to deal with crowding and weeds as well as some frost. Chicory is a better alternative to dandelion, I think. The leaves are bigger and taller as well as staying more palatable for longer in the season. There are several cultivated varieties that range from those needing lots of care (Radicchio) to those that will survive in a meadow situation (Italian Dandelion, https://www.quailseeds.com/store/p597/Italian_Dandelion%2C_Catalogna_Chicory.html) There is also a semi-wild perennial chicory planted in pastures https://www.quailseeds.com/store/p473/Forage_Chicory.html. It's planted for livestock, like forage kale, but is edible by humans who don't mind strong flavors. Sorrel https://www.quailseeds.com/store/p166/Garden_Sorrel.html  is another deep-rooted leafy perennial that survives well on its own. Cilantro is widely adapted, tall enough to overtop most weeds, and self-sows readily. It is also winter hardy to zone 7 or so. Walking onions, Evergreen perennial onions, https://www.quailseeds.com/store/p269/Evergreen_White_Bunching_Onion_%28Nebuka%29.html  and any native onion you can find are all great possibilities.  Elephant garlic naturalizes in mild climates as well. In the Eastern forests, Sochan is a perennial flower that produces edible greens in spring and pollinator-magnet flowers in late summer, https://www.quailseeds.com/store/p596/Sochan%2C_Cutleaf_Coneflower.html. In the warmer zones, perennial arugula is a deep-rooted and pollinator-friendly perennial on rocky soil, https://www.quailseeds.com/store/p295/Perennial_Arugula%2C_Rucola_selvatica%2C_Wild_Rocket_%22Sylvetta.html.  Salad Burnet is hardy in most any zone--I've seen it in swamps and growing in sidewalk cracks when it was 100 degrees out. https://www.quailseeds.com/store/p488/Salad_Burnet.html

I would stay away from anything low-growing, any of the garden brassicas (cabbage, broccoli, etc) and any of the cucurbits. While it's true that vining squash are tall and able to deal with weeds, they also need a lot of fertility and quite a bit of water in order to do anything, and are prey to many diseases. The big juicy squashes are a magnet for every wild creature from gophers to deer and raccoons. So a cabin in any kind of wild setting is not their best location without fencing and human intervention. The same is true of fruit, of course, so if you truly depend on harvesting it, measures should be taken to exclude raccoons, bears, deer, and birds, all of which are problems where I live, even with the owner in residence. Of the vining crops, groundnuts might be a good choice if you live in their zone, since the edible part is out of sight.

Unless you are committing to a garden plot that is kept clear, at least seasonally, of weeds, you would do better to think of it as landscaping and concentrate on woody plants and native shrubs. hardy perennials, and their companion annuals. An island of diversity that starts with the native ecosystem and provides habitat for ever-rarer species like native bees will provide surroundings that are beautiful, useful, and full of beneficial insects. Then, if you do end up having the time and energy for a garden plot, you will have all your pollinators and predator insects already in place, as well as a bunch of flowers, teas, herbs, basketry materials, etc. It's well worth looking into what plants the Native Americans in your area used. They had thousands of years to figure out what works.

In other words, better to plant a self-sustaining guild of native (and other harmonious) plants intentionally than to try for a bunch of edibles and end up with something like Bermuda Grass.

Yes, sunlight is the biggest factor in planning companions for corn.

The first consideration is the type of sunlight your garden gets: direct sun or partially shaded; bright sun in clear air or filtered sun through clouds: high sun in lower latitudes, low slanted sun in higher ones.

Next, there is the amount of sun that reaches the ground. This is dictated by two things: the spacing you allow between plants when you sow the seed and the variety of corn you grow (how bushy, how many tillers, and whether the leaves tend to grow at a steep upward angle or out flat)  

To grow most 3 sisters plans, you need bright hot sun and  wide spacing between corn plants or clumps of corn plants.
With closer spacing and dimmer or slanted sunlight, leafy crops will be better companions than fruiting crops.

Leafy crops include all the lettuces and their relatives like endive; all the kales and collards;  all the mustard/turnip family like Asian greens; the chard and spinach family; and specialty greens like purslane and mache, as well as leafy herbs like parsley. In temperate  climates, and at the spacings most people would be using in small gardens, these are often the best choice under corn. A mix of low-input greens like mustards, Texel, Asian greens, lettuce, chicory and chard can be easy to care for and extremely productive, especially when you mix in some edible herbs and flowers that like cooler conditions and attract beneficial insects. Cilantro, calendula, and alyssum are top choices for this.

Fruiting crops would be all the plants where the part you eat is the seed-bearing structure: Beans, tomatoes, squash, tomatillos, eggplant, melon, cucumbers, etc

Crops where you eat the flower are usually considered leafy types, but many of them (i.e. cauliflower and broccoli) need too much light and space for their large frame and wide crowns to qualify as companions under corn. Root crops are likewise not good companions for corn, both because of their light requirements and root competition with the corn. (Not to mention that using them involves wading into the corn patch and disturbing the soil)

For skinning, nothing beats the Alaska Native ulu (or ooloo). It is a half-moon shaped knife where the entire convex-curved outer edge is the cutting edge and the handle is fitted to the small side. They are typically made from an old circular-saw blade cut into truncated pie wedges, or a piece of mild steel cut into shape, and sharpened. The handle is a piece of wood or comfortably sized branch, with a deep groove along its length so you can insert the small side of the blade. Native women traditionally skinned huge animals like bear and walrus with them, very very quickly and expertly. There's no handle protruding past the blade, so you can work it into place and push from behind it, not from one side.

Besides that, a chef's knife, either western or Asian, for chopping,  a filet knife for along bones and for small critters, and a cleaver.

Used carbon steel knives can be a great find, especially the Old Hickory brand or high-end Sabatier knives that were sold widely in the 1970s. Also old butcher's cleavers. Avoid super shiny stainless. Also anything serrated--a bacteria spreader and finger-wounder besides not cutting meat well.. Wustof makes a nice paring knife for very small jobs, and a decent chef knife.

We cut up dozens of deer and thousands of fish with the above lineup and they're still performing beautifully after 50 years.

Shake it up with oil or mayo for salad dressing, potato salad, sandwiches etc

Or fill your jar with chopped cabbage (onions and chiles optional) for a quick Kim chee-like condiment. Called curtido, this is a staple throughout Latin America. Used on tacos, as a side salad, on sandwiches, etc

Grapes are very deep-rooted, and hold their own quite well with a shallow-rooted groundcover beneath them, even one that forms a mat, like mint. Dutch Clover, or, as someone suggested, daylilies. Generally speaking, root competittion, and competition for space are not the big considerations for grapes that they would be for less vigorous crops.

HOWEVER, everyone has their vulnerability. With grapes, it is the specter of virus infection from sucking insects like aphids and leafhoppers. This is a serious problem, even leading to the abandonment of vineyards in affected areas. So resistance to aphids and leafhoppers, as well as other sap-sucking pest, is the prime qualification for a grape understory plant.

So for example, phacelia--which is a stellar cover crop and pollinator plant--would be off the table because it attracts sap-sucking lygus bugs. Make use of the county ag department or cooperative extension service to find out what is common in your area. You don't need to follow their suggestions about pest control, just find out what pests are around and causing problems.

I have seen research that the essential oils and terpenes in Chamomile repel aphids. That might be a start. Many herbs and perennials seem to be untroubled by pests. They might be good choices.

I've had some experience transplanting blueberries and their cousins, rhododendrons. There are a few key concepts that set you up for success.

As with most plants, transplanting during dormancy is best. (Bear in mind that for broadleaf evergreens, the dormant season may be opposite than for deciduous plants.) Suckers are almost always easier to transplant, both because there is a smaller top growth for the roots to support and because young "teenage" plants are growing faster and have more vigor than more sedate mature plants.

As with most plants, to reduce stress and shock for the plant, you need to do two things: maintain the plant's hydration and maintain top/root balance so that hydraulic lift can get sap to the whole plant.  Maintain hydration and reduce stress by transplanting at a cool, low-light, windless time. You may also want to wrap the plant in damp cloth and/or dip the roots in muddy water before replanting. Do NOT water heavily before transplanting--the extra-heavy wet soil will tear away small roots that might have remained intact if they were supporting a lighter root ball.  
Maintain top/bottom balance by serious pruning. Most berry bushes will have several canes (trunks) sprouting from the crown. If yours does, then cut 1/3 to 1/2 of them to the ground. If there is just one trunk, then cut out 1/3 of the branches. Once a particular trunk or branch is more than about 3 years old, there is no point trimming it:  either cut it to the ground or leave it alone, as old wood will not sprout twigs and fruiting spurs easily. The vitality of the plant is in the crown, not the branches. Cutting a branch to the ground stimulates the crown to make new ones. It is a coppicing process.

Tips unique to the Heath Family (rhodies, blueberries, azaleas, cranberries, lingonberries, arbutus, etc)
These plants put down a few long anchor roots and then many small hairlike roots very near the surface. This can make them easy to transplant IF you know what's important. What is important in this case is breadth, not depth. Use a sharp tool to cut around in a wide circle well outside the dripline of the plant. Have a bedsheet on hand to slide underneath the bush. Go straight down about 6 inches, then gently start digging underneath the plant and prying up the root mat. You should be able to recognize the roots of your berry bush fairly soon by where they are coming from, color, number of roots, etc. Keep gently lifting and sliding the sheet in to support the roots and soil as you cut them free. If the root mat is dense (rhododendrons), you can roll it up like a carpet, but blueberries seldom are that much of a mat, and require more support for the root mat. When it is free of the ground, slide the sheet completely under it and carry it in state to it's new home. Be sure that the soil surface is neither buried nor sitting high in it's new home--the roots need to be close to the surface but the cut edges of the mat should not be exposed. Water well. A light sprinkle of compost is usually a help. If the weather is warm or windy, give your plant protection with shadecloth, a sheet, or a cardboard shelter.

Using this method, I have transplanted rhododendrons in full bloom with no problem, but that was in a very cool climate with a lot of cloud cover.