Ready to plant perennial greens in your garden?

I just learned about hostas this past spring and was excited.  I'd always loved the look of the plants but never planted any wanting instead to focus on food plants, esp. perennials.  When learning they were edible I ran out to the local greenhouse and bought 8 plants which I planted in an otherwise little used shady zone.  The last I looked they were all alive.  I look forward to trying to eat a few leaves this spring to see what they are like!

Hans, (Nice to hear your sister's spirit lived on, I hope you got seeds from the plant!) your post reminded me of another perennial plant, Nine Star broccoli. This is really worth growing. In my experience the heads get smaller each year but we usually get five or six good years before the plant is exhausted and keels over. The Cleavers (or sticky willies as we used to call them) climbing through the leaves are also edible and quite yummy.



Yukka or Yucca You can eat any part of this plant which is new growth. I've never tried the huge asparagus like flower shoot (That seems like such an indulgence) but the flowers taste good. These are too far gone to eat but what a beautiful sight. The fruit doesn't ripen in our climate, so I've never tried it.




Canna



I planted Canna to use the seeds as a dye but you can also use them for making jewellery, and for shot for catapults etc. They are incredibly hard.



You can also eat all parts of the plant, the new green shoots are OK, or you can cook and eat the roots (We did it only once.) Now we use them to make a sort of arrowroot used in cooking or for adding to deodorants and cosmetics. I usually give the awful job of grating them to somebody else!



Maybe this should be in your next post Daren about perennial root crops but it's difficult when plants are so versatile.

Hans Quistorff wrote:

Susan Mené wrote:What about Lamb's Quarters?  Are they persistent re-seeders or perennials?
. LOVE this post.

Lamb's Quarters are persistent re-seeders. They will generally grow until frost but they get thicker and tougher with age. if tips are harvested aggressively you can harvest from a plant for a long time but the tips will bolt to seed more rapidly on older plants.  So for productive harvest frequently disturb soil in a spot that will not get much heat and scatter harvested seed each week.
But this reminds me of broccoli.  I enclosed the garden into a greenhouse that my sister had planted in barrels before she died. In one of the barrels was a large broccoli plant. It would produce small Beansprouts that would open to a small broccoli head. I harvested from that plant for 4 years until it neglected to get watered and died.  

Thank you! Useful information!

The Cleavers (or sticky willies as we used to call them) climbing through the leaves are also edible and quite yummy.  

When I learned their true name I started calling them cleaver weavers. To cleave means to stick to.  My original name for them was sticky wicked was less kind. I wish they had never been imported. They are also extremely prolific seeders with there Velcro hooks giving themselves the capacity to hitchhike to distant places. I have tried to eat them in different ways but never found them desirable. they start growing at the same time as the chickweed but do not die back with summer heat but instead weave their way through desirable plants you want to harvest so that they can plant their seeds on you to transfer them to anew location.

Hans Quistorff wrote:

The Cleavers (or sticky willies as we used to call them) climbing through the leaves are also edible and quite yummy.  

When I learned their true name I started calling them cleaver weavers. To cleave means to stick to.  .... I have tried to eat them in different ways but never found them desirable. ....

Those 'cleavers' (Galium aparine) are an 'ordinary weed' here (probably they originate from this region). They are edible, but only in the early spring (starting right now). That's the season they are soft & tender. So: harvest them now, or within a few weeks, when they're still small. Don't wait until they start blooming.  
If you harvest all of them you won't be bothered by the sticky weed later.

Great comments all and thanks for sharing all those suggestions! Some point I will update the article and add more perennial greens to it or just make a second one

I grow a black satisfy plant in every bed. It grows anywhere. The leaves are a bit thicker than lettuce but are mild and sweet till May when they get thread like fibres along the leaves. My ducks ate them to the ground in spring but the chickens leave them alone. The roots are very deep one foot if you treat it as a biennial. You can leave it in the ground for years and the roots grow larger without getting woody. It has pretty but few yellow flowers.not too many though, you could do better for the bee's to grow carrots. They are very early I see the leaves before I see my tulip leaves and harvest when they are the length of my small finger.  Hostas are also tasty but have threads in the leaves. They sprout like a rosette but if you put an upturned flower pot over them they will produce a shoot more like asparagus and you get a substantial harvest before they get too stringy to chew. My favourite perennial green is linden because you can get different harvests the whole year and it is up off the ground and great for bee's.

Nicole Alderman wrote:

Lovage does die back during the winter, at least it does on my herb spiral. It also kind of gets brown and woody after it blooms, so I try to pinch off all the blooms to keep it green longer. It'll send up new shoots after it blooms, though, so it's not too much of a problem. I do wish it didn't die back during the winter, though, because that's when I like to make soup! I think this spring/summer, I'll try to dry some so I have it during the winter!

Try layering some leaves with salt, the lovage flavor infuses the salt and adds an extra herbal note to soups.

Most perennials do die back in the winter--that is the adaptation that allows them to survive cold. Annuals just keep going and green until frost kills them, instead of taking refuge in their underground portion. Herbaceous perennials that are evergreen are very few, and usually in my experience are either from warm-winter areas or live as understory plants. Tiarella would be an example of an evergreen forest understory groundcover, which is sheltered from the worst winter winds and drying cold.

I used to collect wild lovage in Alaska, and dry it for use all winter. Good in pasta and meats as well as soup.

You get more to harvest the more the host as are shaded

Here's some black salsify photos from the garden

Due diligence to my watch list indicated I had permanently marked this.  Though it is a year old it is a perennial thread so I will add a biennial heavy seeder that is one of my staples. Evening Primrose: The first year or winter in a mild climate it will be a rosette of pointed leaves with a central stem. These leaves are mild tasting and mostly tender to bite.  It can make a large storage root, carrot shaped, that could be used if you lack root vegetables.  Once the flower stalk starts to shoot up the root and later the leaves get tough but now worry the flowers are delicious. As the name indicates the flowers open when afternoon shade begins and collapse the nest morning when hot sun hits them which some days doesn't happen here.  They produce a seed pod even when the flower is picked because the overy is at the end of a long tender sweet stem. The seeds are used to produce a medicinal oil.
Evening primrose and hollyhocks are planted at perimeters as sacrifice plants for the deer because they will often satisfy themselves before invading further into the raspberries. The hollyhock blossoms are also excellent in salads and the fresh seed ring is also considered a delicacy by some.

I love perennial greens!  I’ve been breeding perennial collards and kales for the last several years. I have a few specimens which are really promising and have been reliably perennial and taste terrific. These plants are entering their third winter and are still going strong!

Christy Garner wrote:I love perennial greens!  I’ve been breeding perennial collards and kales for the last several years. I have a few specimens which are really promising and have been reliably perennial and taste terrific. These plants are entering their third winter and are still going strong!

Christy, I'd love to know more about these. I only recently learned about perennial collards and purchased one plant from Oikos Trees. It's currently doing nicely in a pot, but I plan to transplant it soon. Any tips about location, etc.? Yours look lovely.

Perennial kales, I didn't know about, but would love to have some of these around as well. Can you tell me something about them?

Leigh, I’m happy to share my experiences so far. What growing zone are you in?  I’m in 9b, but most perennial collards and kales can go down to zone 6 or 7 just fine.

They can either be staked up or are quite happy to ramble along the ground. I stake mine to keep them out of reach of the wild turkeys that frequent my orchard.

They are especially delicious this time of year because the cold weather increases their sugar content.

I’ve experimented with growing out 50 different perennial greens each season, saving seed from my favorites, and then planting that seed the following year. At this point, I have 7 perennial kales and collards that I’m really excited about.

I’m hoping to stabilize their genetics and be able to share them soon.

Happy growing!

Christy Garner wrote:Leigh, I’m happy to share my experiences so far. What growing zone are you in?  I’m in 9b, but most perennial collards and kales can go down to zone 6 or 7 just fine.

Thanks Christy! I'm in zone 7b, so most winters, my collards and kale do well all winter long. In fact, I have some collards that I planted in fall of 2017 that are still alive. They don't produce much, but I've left them because I'm amazed and how long they've survived. They are what sparked an interest in perennial collards.

Questions:
1. Stalking would be better for me, and I'm trying to figure out where. My question is, how much sun do they like? Or, can they tolerate some shade?
2. Where would I find perennial kale? Do you have some variety names I could search for?

I’ve experimented with growing out 50 different perennial greens each season, saving seed from my favorites, and then planting that seed the following year. At this point, I have 7 perennial kales and collards that I’m really excited about. I’m hoping to stabilize their genetics and be able to share them soon.

That sounds interesting. Please keep us posted.

Leigh Tate wrote:... Questions:
1. Stalking would be better for me, and I'm trying to figure out where. My question is, how much sun do they like? Or, can they tolerate some shade?
2. Where would I find perennial kale? Do you have some variety names I could search for?
...

Hi Leigh. here in the Netherlands it's like zone 7 too. We have a Dutch variety of perennial kale, we call it 'eeuwig moes' (eeuwig = eternal, moes is an old word used for green vegetables). I don't know if this one is sold in the USA too. It is a kale with soft light green leaves, growing from a branching plant which never flowers. The taste is not strong, it can best be used as a salad. It grows very well in shade, but can grow also in sunnier spots.

Thanks Inge! That gives me a start to hunt for seeds.

Leigh Tate wrote:Thanks Inge! That gives me a start to hunt for seeds.

Hey Leigh, you are quick to react!
Sorry, but this perennial kale you can't grow from seeds. Because it doesn't have flowers, there are no seeds! You need cuttings. Maybe you can ask for cuttings in a (local) gardening group?

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:Hey Leigh, you are quick to react!
Sorry, but this perennial kale you can't grow from seeds. Because it doesn't have flowers, there are no seeds! You need cuttings. Maybe you can ask for cuttings in a (local) gardening group?

I happened to be at the computer when your answer came through! Thanks for the tip about the kale. I'll have to start asking around to see what I can find.

I haven't seen anyone mention Perpetual Spinach, an extremely mild and tasty perennial green. It is a form of chard that is closer to the wild than our familiar Swiss Chard type. The leaves are matte rather than super shiny, the stems are narrow rather than wide and eye-catching like the silver or colored stems of Swiss Chard. The flavor and mouthfeel are closer to spinach too--softer and milder than most chard. It is probably not perennial in the coldest zones, but it is cold-hardy to about zone 7 for sure, and I have talked to people in zone 5 who have overwintered it with very good drainage and mulch. https://www.quailseeds.com/store/p9/Perpetual_Spinach_%28Leafbeet%29_Chard.html

Purple Tree Collards are the sweetest brassica I have ever tasted in winter and spring, with milder flavor and higher production of leaves than other perennial collards or kales. They do not make seed, which means they pump out leaves year-round. They turn a lovely purple color in cool weather. However, they will die out if the ground freezes. Sundial Seeds and Bountiful Gardens which were sources, are both closed. They are now available here:  https://www.quailseeds.com/store/p312/Tree_Collard_Cuttings.html  along with 27 other perennial vegetables. These can get huge. Once we were eating dinner on a restaurant patio when we realized that the "tree" we were sitting under was in fact a huge old tree collard plant!

Thought I'd mention also that the walking onions are not the only option for perennial onions. Evergreen, or Nebuka, is a scallion that is perennial to zone 4. https://www.quailseeds.com/store/p269/Evergreen_White_Bunching_Onion_%28Nebuka%29.html

This is a great thread!  My perennial veggie obsession has now become so abundant that I’m selling the overflow from my food forest in a little boutique nursery that specializes in perennial plants. I’m happy to share these plants with you, so if money is an obstacle, I’m also open to bartering. I think everyone deserves these amazing plants!  You can check out what I have available at:  www.perennialpermaculture.com 🌿