Best plants to plant and forget? Perennials or self seeders.

Let’s say you have a little cabin property that you only visit periodically, and isn’t tended to much. If you want food available while you’re there, what would you plant?

Besides the obvious fruit/nut trees and berries, I would probably plant sunchokes, self seeding greens like mountain spinach, and of course “weeds” like dandelion, broad leaf plantain and lambs quarters

Do you have any other good “plant and forget” plants? I’m curious if anyone has any experience with more common annuals self seeding.

Depending on the climate, I think a significant range of plants will be needed so something is ready whenever I am there.

Salsify (vegetable oyster, Tragopogon porrifolius) is a prolific self-seeder for me (temperate), and is a source of greens in Spring & early Summer, the flower buds are also edible, and then roots in the Autumn. (It's a bit like a big, mild dandelion with purple flowers!).

It's apparently pretty cold tolerant (below -10 C) and prefers temperate summers (10 - 20 C) and sunnier locations with reasonably drain soil to grow well.

Native plants are usually plants to forget.  

What is growing on the property to forage?

Mt plant and forget plant is rosemary once it is established.

Not sure it would make a meal ...

Ecosystem is everything. Some hints about the cabin's ecosystem/climate/soil would help your specific needs.

I'm on the Pacific Wet Coast, (with a drought all summer), so definitely native plants that our indigenous people tended like Salal, Huckleberry, Nettles and Camas would be obvious ones. There are different names for the relatives of Fawn Lily, some of which are considered food. Amaranth can be a green or a seed, but the seed needs a fair bit of processing which if you're only at the cabin briefly, isn't so great.

Much of what I would eat, the squirrels, rabbits and deer will also treasure and possibly bear if they're around. "Plant it, and they will come," comes to mind. However, depending on the local rules, they are also "dinner". (Both Grey Squirrels and Rabbits are invasive in my region, so they are legal to hunt year round. Deer have a "season" and "rules". So far, bear haven't returned since Humans removed them, but give them time.)

If you can get it started alright, I am a big fan of planting lavender around to attract pollinators. They need a little trimming of deadwood every year but otherwise is self sufficient.

Mullein does great in disturbed soil and has medicinal value to herbalists. They are a self-seeding biennial that looks gorgeous when in flower. Another prolific self-seeder is black eyed susans which also grow well in disturbed areas.

Ac Baker wrote:Depending on the climate, I think a significant range of plants will be needed so something is ready whenever I am there.

Salsify (vegetable oyster, Tragopogon porrifolius) is a prolific self-seeder for me (temperate), and is a source of greens in Spring & early Summer, the flower buds are also edible, and then roots in the Autumn. (It's a bit like a big, mild dandelion with purple flowers!).

It's apparently pretty cold tolerant (below -10 C) and prefers temperate summers (10 - 20 C) and sunnier locations with reasonably drain soil to grow well.

I think Salsify would be a great choice, I grow salsify as a boarder plant around my beds, and I always have some popping up as volunteers.

I'm in the Ozarks zone 7a.  My place was part time for the first 10 years or so. I killed a lot of  fruit trees and berry bushes.  

I had a few survive. A fig tree that was planted next to a small seasonal pond.  Paw Paws that are native. The scrawniest ugliest Alberta peach Ive ever seen, It was headed for the end of season trash at a local nursery.   Blackberry bush that has thrived.  Concord grapes refuse to die but don't produce much.  Wild Strawberries are another that refused to die and now that they get some lovin there doing great.

I had good luck with Asparagus, Sorrel and Comfrey as well. Daylilies grow every where don't they?  

Borage?  self-seeds with abandon, medicinal and culinary uses, and the bees seem to like it.  Win-win.

How about walking or potato onions?
Hardy yam?
Diakon radish?
Rhubarb?
Arugula?
Horseradish?
Dill?
"Wild" strawberries?
Domesticated burdock(gobo)
Whatever a hunter might use in a perennial food plot should be good for you.
Mustards for example.
Even if it is forage for animals, like alfalfa, it could still be useful.
Naturalizing winecap or oyster mushrooms might be a good investment.

Asparagus grows easily from seed so if you can get it established in a pot for a couple of seasons before transplanting into your permanent bed, they will produce for many years

Artichoke i agree Megan, or it's wilder cousin Cardoon, Mine got 8 feet tall (2 and a half meter) and the flowers are much bigger than my Artichokes ( might be me sucking at growing Artichokes).
Herbs like Thyme and Sage, Oregano.
Peach trees easily grown from seeds, hard as nails and great strategic windblocks against drying out even more while you're not there.
Parsnip, easy self seeder.Perennial wild Arugula, Miners lettuce,Leeks need not much watering as does Garlic,and Walking Onions, Asparagus, perennial Kale, and a self seeding four season letttuce. Perennial Rye or grain if you can get it. And a bay leaf for good stews and you're good to go.

William Bronson wrote:
Horseradish?

Nobody told me how persistent horseradish's will to survive and multiply was before I planted it in one of my gardens. I have now accepted that horseradish will forever be in this particular garden because  it just keeps coming back. If you don't get the whole root, which you won't, it will come back like nothing ever happened. It persists better than my comfrey.

Good thing, I love horseradish sauce!

Marty Mac wrote:I'm in the Ozarks zone 7a.  My place was part time for the first 10 years or so. I killed a lot of  fruit trees and berry bushes.  

I had a few survive. A fig tree that was planted next to a small seasonal pond. Paw Paws that are native. The scrawniest ugliest Alberta peach Ive ever seen, It was headed for the end of season trash at a local nursery.   Blackberry bush that has thrived.  Concord grapes refuse to die but don't produce much.  

Most fruit trees are high maintenance, as are a lot of berries. Jujube would be worth trying, though they're not cheap. But they are difficult from seed, slow to fruit, and don't reliably produce good fruit from seed, so despite the cost, grafted trees from a nursery are probably the best bet. Some of the hybrid persimmons might do alright if they have decent soil and moisture, and they have phenomenal fruit if you can get them to establish. Many of them were bred in Crimea and in southern Ukraine where it's quite cold and dry. You could grow mulberry on moist sites.

Crandall clove currants should do well in that area. They do great planted as bare root since they've got massive root systems that transplant pretty well. I'm sure there's some Elaeagnus that likes your location, but you might not like Elaeagnus so... UofArk has a great blackberry series. Kiowa is probably the biggest, meanest, toughest one, whereas Ponca or Prime Ark Freedom are the nicest.

More unusual, but you can probably grow Osage orange, which means you can probably graft Che onto Osage orange. Che takes a while to mature and actually hold its fruit, but once it does they are quite tasty. Osage orange rootstock is of course gonna be really drought tolerant. And if you baby them the first few winters, you could probably grow some citrandarins like US-942, US-852, Bishop, or even something like the Prague Chimera.

I personally only consider trees, shrubs, and a tiny number of brambles and herbs truly "plant and forget." Plant and forget means that not only is it free of serious pests or disease, it also needs to be large enough to handle weeds for months or years at a time and not get suffocated. Which means it needs to be big, tall, and ideally woody.

A lot is climate dependent of course. Warmer, wetter climates are less forgiving and the weeds are meaner and burlier--some bigpod sesbenia volunteered in one of my beds this year and it's already more than twelve feet tall, who knows how big it'll be by the end of summer--whereas in drier and colder climates things are slowing moving and usually smaller. So a 4 inch tall groundcover might be plant and forget in Vermont or Idaho, but there's no way in heck I could plant something that short and not spend the rest of its life pulling weeds every few months to keep it from being choked out for example. On the flip side, drier also means you might need irrigation, but if there's a chance that a plant, once established, might need manual irrigation at any point to keep it alive or producing, then it's not plant and forget in my book. Hence why I mentioned jujube and Crandall clove current above as they're both very drought tolerant.

Radishes happily self seed. And any of the annual amaranths. And alliums grown for leaves like chives.

Tomatoes also, though they are not so competitive.

Stinging nettles
If you can get them started, try to put them downwind so you have less cutting back to do. I like them for many reasons that for me outweigh the maintenance of cutting them back on occasion and using those stalks for green compost. They are higher in iron and calcium than typical greens, come up early in spring, and medicinal.

Sunchokes was the first thing that came to mind for me too

Also wild strawberries

Lovage

Herbs and spices

Wild yellow mustard

See if you can get a patch of ground cherries to self seed

Also I have had luck with Matt's wild cherry tomatoes self seeding but the Lofthouse landrace tomatoes may be coming soon!

Anything landrace you can find though

Edit: I planted zucchini summer squash seeds along the hill of a compost heap the summer before last. Drought while gone. Came back to one huge squash on each plant.

Purslane would be an easy one for use in salads and stir fry.

(Just make sure you look up and become familiar with the poisonous lookalike as they will tend to grow in same spots)

I've been out collecting some from my front path and repotting them - hoping to bring it inside for the winter as succulents do well in my home so I figured purslane may thrive too.  They already grew twice the size in a week and new little shoots are even coming up so fingers crossed as they are packed with omega-3's

Conner, could you tell us where your cabin is located and the zone and general climate behavior?  Also, it would help to know when you visit it; without that information it is hard to point you toward good and easy plants that you'll be able to enjoy while on the property.  Thanks.

To what others have suggested (horseradish, asparagus, strawberries, reseeding greens, and walking onions/garlic) I'd add comfrey, squashes that will grow from seeds left on the ground as rotting fruit, and black walnut trees.  Black walnuts spread like weeds here, and provide nuts for protein and fat, sap for syrup, as well as containing anti-parasitic compounds in the green hulls.  Just keep them out of any areas you want to cultivate (this can be done every few years or so) due to the juglone produced by the roots after the trees are several years old.

I have purslane that I never planted, so that should qualify it as 'native' in Central Wisconsin zone 4b. It grows nice and plump here. Because it grazes and covers the ground, it could be the only weed I allow. I don't see many other weeds where it's at, after a first cleaning in the spring.
I use it in salads. I've never cooked it, but I don't see why not. If you are sensitive to oxalates[ kidney stones], I would not eat too much but here are some benefits according to the Health Newsletter:
https://www.health.com/purslane-benefits-8636684#:~:text=learn%20more,Ascorbic%20acid%20(vitamin%20C)

Agree. Plant vining plants such as pumpkin, butternut squash and melons. They’re there when you need them. Very forgiving. Potatoes. Sweet potatoes. They are generally happy underground until you harvest them. Pole beans on trellises. Malabar spinach.

orach. tarragon.

bok choi. makes a billion seeds on each plant. lol


what is your gardening zone?  rainfall annually?

Sandy

Gaurī Rasp wrote:Agree. Plant vining plants such as pumpkin, butternut squash and melons. They’re there when you need them. Very forgiving.

My experience landracing squash was an inedible hybrid. Perhaps this was because it was an urban environment and someone nearby was growing something decorative?

I wouldn't recommend tarragon, because if it dries up, it's too easy to see as a "weed" in the midst of all the other grasses, and 2x now I've pulled it up by its shallow roots...

Asparagus, sun chokes, horseradish, day lilies, ferns, forsythia, daffodils, mints are what run amok here. What doesn't and I wish it did  are ramps, stinging nettle, cleavers, and alexanders....

Coydon Wallham wrote:

Gaurī Rasp wrote:Agree. Plant vining plants such as pumpkin, butternut squash and melons. They’re there when you need them. Very forgiving.

My experience landracing squash was an inedible hybrid. Perhaps this was because it was an urban environment and someone nearby was growing something decorative?

Oh yes! That’s happened to me too. Weird cross breeds that made weird shaped gourd like fruits!

Gaurī Rasp wrote:

Coydon Wallham wrote:

Gaurī Rasp wrote:Agree. Plant vining plants such as pumpkin, butternut squash and melons. They’re there when you need them. Very forgiving.

My experience landracing squash was an inedible hybrid. Perhaps this was because it was an urban environment and someone nearby was growing something decorative?

Oh yes! That’s happened to me too. Weird cross breeds that made weird shaped gourd like fruits!

Dr. Google says: "The main pollinators of these  types of fruit is the Squash bee (genera Peponapis and Xenoglossa). These native bees are highly specialized, meaning they rely on these plants for food and are particularly efficient at transferring pollen".  And:
"Squash bees, like other bees, will fly a certain distance to forage for pollen and nectar. The distance can vary, but they are known to forage near their nesting sites. One study showed a high density of bees on a 150-acre field, suggesting they can forage over large areas".
For us, what that means is that if you have a neighbor growing some other type of squash, gourd, pumpkin etc. within range of these  bees, you will get some cross pollination and not what you actually planted.
Bumble bees and honeybees, also ranging far will add to the possibility of cross pollination.
Bummer. Double bummer.
When planting squash, I'm careful to plant only one of each type [ Cucurbita moschata, C. pepo, C. Kabocha and C. maxima] those do not cross pollinate.
But say a neighbor also plants a Cucurbita maxima, but not the same as mine, there will be a cross pollination between the 2 C. Maxima. Sometimes good, sometimes not so good. Also:
"Pumpkins and melons (like watermelons and cantaloupe) cannot cross-pollinate. While they are all members of the Cucurbitaceae family, they belong to different genera: pumpkins are Cucurbita, while melons are Cucumis or Citrullus. Cross-pollination only occurs between plants within the same species or, sometimes, within the same genus. "
Thank you Dr. Google for this precision.

Rhubarb, I mow all my grass toward it and don't have to fertilize it. If it gets really dry like it has here in the Buffalo N.Y. area this year just spray it with lots of water and it picks right up.  If you remember that we used to call it green manure rhubarb loves it and grows all season long even into the fall.

If you live in a place where they can grow--prickly pear or nopales. This year we planted cuttings, and in 3 weeks we were eating young pads. Two weeks after that, we cut more. Now three months in, we can cut young pads weekly, and I suspect we will be able to for many years to come. Last week we had a special treat and ate our first 3 prickly pear fruit (tunas). One red, one orange, and one yellow. Not all types give fruit or good fruit

If pumpkins were inedible, a 100% it was a cross with a decorative one. You can taste it in the leaves if you fear for a bitter cross.

Good tasting parents crossed between will result in good tasting kids. And being hybridized there is a good chance some will grow better than both of their parents. STUN like the topic starter is doing will kill the badly adapted hybrids quickly. Selecting the best tasting hybrids for reseeding is handy as well if there is a choice that is. Starting a wide grex of varieties will make for a lot of hybrids, a socalled hybrid swarm, a lot of crossing fun and surprises.

My crop of everything Cucurbit had gone badly that year. I had to buy so many. Then, very late, I saw a sale on "decorative pumpkins". But so many looked so good that I decided to try. The next day [it was about a week after Halloween], Home Depot had the best sale ever: Free pumpkins! I took 2 whole carts, filled to heaping.
I cut them in half and baked them all. I gave them a taste test before mixing them all up. There wasn't a single one that I ended up giving to the chickens.
Well, those 'decorative' pumpkins were delicious. I have no idea what they were, but I canned and canned and canned after we tasted the first one. They looked similar to regular pumpkins like Kabochas, Maximas, Pepos etc. but were labeled "decorative".
When you make a big batch, they end up being all mixed up anyway. I had so many [I think it was 2023] that 2 yrs later, I still have a few pints on my shelves. I haven't planted a pumpkin since then.
So don't get too centered on "decorative" versus "crop" pumpkins.
Now, I think of decoratives as having the goods *and* the look.

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote: Then, very late, I saw a sale on "decorative pumpkins". But so many looked so good that I decided to try. The next day [it was about a week after Halloween], Home Depot had the best sale ever: Free pumpkins!

I suggest people who live where such things are cheap or free, take a look at these to threads started by Ms Pearl Sutton:

https://permies.com/t/168071/Fall-Decor-Pumpkins-squash-excellent

https://permies.com/t/168143/Cooking-Fall-Decor-pumpkins-squash

My climate seems to be hit and miss with squashes. This year a friend gave me two rescue squash - a pie pumpkin and a kabocha. I tucked one in each corner of my allotment tomato bed to grow as a border and the pie pumpkin has taken off and is threatening to travel the whole yard. The Kabocha hasn't been as assertive, but it's got 3 useful sized fruit ripening and may manage 1 or 2 more before the weather turns. So clearly this year is a squash year!

I have heard that quality of squash fruit is improved if they can grow without supplemental water. Like so many suggestions, I suspect this one works for some ecosystems, but not so much mine.  That said, I do believe it's a crop that shouldn't be over-watered and as much as possible should be left to its own devices - you may get smaller fruit, but the flesh will have better flavour and texture.

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.