Perennial vegetable ideas

I am hoping to plant in the spaces (~18 ft) between my fruit trees.  I will maintain my fruit trees to under 12 ft so there is some afternoon sun on the east/west side of each tree.

Through this Permies website I have learned about Orach and Cardoon, which I think I can grow in North Alabama (Zone 7b) and will try next spring.  

Are there any other perennial vegetables that I can plant in my newly wood chipped backyard?

I'm not sure how these do in your climate, but I'd consider rhubarb, asparagus, walking onions, lovage and sorrel.  We ate our first salad with red orach and sorrel in it yesterday and it was great!

Susan Montacute posted a link on another thread that has a LOT of ideas for perennial vegetables, organized by region: http://www.perennialsolutions.org/a-global-inventory-of-perennial-vegetables?fbclid=IwAR2HgBAZKWFnHE-q0zW9Gwz4NyrhZPAKeY9pIqzNr42DrSJXzpqcKUSnjt0

I'm a fan of common milkweed and daylilies.  French sorrel is a nice perennial vegetable as well.  I'm trying to get some cutleaf coneflower started which I understand can be good eating.  I'm also striving to get goji berry or wolf berry going.  This one has been fighting me even though I hear it's usually easy to grow.

Malva moschata is being really good to me and just starting to flower now, at which point this year's self sown seedlings are ready to eat.  I'm pulling out the biggest clumps because I don't need all of them to set seed and there are far too many leaves to eat now as well.  

I'm struggling with Goji berry as well here in north Alabama, zone 7b and very hot and humid summers.  I have them in a sunny spot and they look so good in the spring and then about May drop all their leaves.  They then struggle to put new leaves out all summer long and then when fall comes they green up again, set a few berries and then go dormant only in the very coldest part of the winter.  Everything I read is that they are such hardy plants and easy to grow.  I have them in raised beds of scaveged top soil from building a pond.  Don't know the pH exactly where they are planted but I have some high pH soil for this area of the country (6.5-8.0).  I would like to know under what conditions people are having success with Goji berry bushes.

Thanks for the ideas.  Some planning needed for next spring.

I have been thinking of asparagus but realize it takes many plants to get any real crop from them.

I do like the ideas of rhubarb, walking onions, lovage and sorrel.  I just bought lovage and angelica root to make some tinctures for my allergy related asthma.  

I have never heard of Malva moschata and found that it can grow in Tennessee and I am a stones throw south of there so I may try musk mallow.  

While I have heard that some lillies are edible and some are not. May find it hard to deprive the bees and others from their food.  I did not know milkweed was edible but have grown it for the butterflies.  For some reason it did not reseed.

I have several goji berries going and they do seem to be slow growing here.  I get a lot of root suckers and am aware they can spread like crazy

Looking into the walking onions led me to a link of interest at plants for a future. It lists 10 plants for investigation. https://pfaf.org/plants/spreading-the-food-forests-revolution-with-edible-perennials/

1. Hablitzia Tamnoides or Caucasian spinach
2. Skirret
3. Nine Star Perennial Broccoli
4. Taunton Deane Kale also known as Cottagers Kale
5. Purple Tree Collard
6. Chinese Artichoke
7. Yacon or Peruvian Ground Apple
8. Mashua
9. Babington’s Leek
10. Walking Onion

Sunchoke, black salsify

I had tree collards at my last place, and have recently bought 3 cuttings. I really like them, they taste like collards, as you'd expect, but I don't have to worry about succession planting. I just always have collards. I don't know if they will do as well here as they did in California, but we will see.

Thought I'd give some input about asparagus & rhubarb since I live not too very far away. Rhubarb grows well here but I think we're on the edge of it's comfort zone. Might be a little too hot for it there but that's just a gut feeling. Asparagus has a better chance. I grew that in TX for many years. It does better in TN. I find both plants easy to grow in quality soil. They are relatively pest & maintenance free. Asparagus does require patience. (& the more the merrier) I feel it is well worth the extra effort to initially prepare the asparagus bed & the several year wait for a reasonable first crop.

I have grown peanuts in wood chipped areas. Not a vegetable but it's food & good for the soil. It acts as a perennial if you leave some in the ground at harvest time.

Mike Barkley wrote:
Asparagus does require patience. (& the more the merrier) I feel it is well worth the extra effort to initially prepare the asparagus bed & the several year wait for a reasonable first crop.

 Maybe I did not give mine enough time. I had maybe 8 plants but was only getting enough for a meal for one person every two weeks.  In the past I read that it would take 25 plants to give a regular crop for two people.  If I can ever get hold of the vacant lot next door then that is something I can pursue but right now I only have 0.65 acres and am growing on maybe 1/3rd acre.

The natural habitat of asparagus is shingle beaches.  I was recently driving down a busy dual carriageway road with gravel verges and spotted a large and happy looking stand of asparagus growing in it!  The wild stuff is very rare.  They had one female plant left on Chesil Bank and had to fly male flowers up from Cornwall to pollinate it and get berries to safeguard the population.  But that's by the by, I just find it fascinating!