Gardening is not just about harvesting and picking out yields, but the satisfaction of seeing the plants grow. It’s a highly de-stressing activity, and surely, the time you spend with your plants is invaluable. But it still all comes down to how much fruits your efforts can bear. A lot of plants require replantation to harvest after a year or two.
But you might be surprised to know that there are some very popular veggies which you can grow once and harvest every year. These perennial veggies ensure your stock of homegrown vegetables never runs out.
It also is highly cost-effective as it requires little investment and effort. Here are a few popular veggies that you can yield years of harvest.
13 Perennial Veggies You Can Grow Once And Harvest For Years
1. Tomato
You didn’t expect it pop up here, right? Despite its popularity, not many people know that tomatoes can give a fresh yield year to year for a long time. Perhaps you’re missing out on a cost-saving deal if you’re not planting tomatoes in your yard.
The only drawback of planting these is that they can’t withstand chilly winters. You should plant these tropical plants in greenhouses or containers in frigid winters. Talking about uses, it’s hard to think of a delicious recipe that doesn’t involve tomatoes.
2. Peppers
If growing veggies at home are your hobby, you should better grow those you will actually use. Putting in the effort just to grow bottle guards that your children refuse to eat is plain stupid. Grow perennial pepper instead. You can use these fresh or dried forms in any and every recipe.
Add a little fresh spice to your food with homegrown peppers that will grow well for years once they start yielding. They, too, don’t prefer winters though, so a place in a greenhouse or near the window is ideal.
3. Chayote Squash
This plant has more names than Bryan Cranston in Breaking Bad(who doesn’t remember Heisenberg though?). Call it vegetable pear, chochu, mirliton or whatever you want. This incredible squash grows on a huge vine.
It adequately covers pergola in the summer season and dies down in the chilly winters when the sun is required. You would need to mulch the area around it in winters, so the soil stays warm as it may die in colder weather.
4. Horseradish
Ideas aren’t worth employing if they don’t suit your needs. While the above plants prefer heat, the horseradish barely cares about the weather. You can harvest its roots in winter and fall. It can seriously bring a warming effect on the dishes you use it in.
It also has fantastic medicinal qualities like countering sniffles, among others. This plant is quite a caretaker, too, as it combats fungicides that might attack plants around it. Plant this once, and you’ll have a guardian for your garden for years.
5. Kale
Health-conscious folks can’t get over Kale these days. Be it making healthy juices and smoothies or breakfast salads; Kale is the buzzword these days. Packed with nutrients, this plant would do anything but get out of your garden any time soon.
Kale lasts for at least two years. Perhaps its name is in the list more for its usefulness than long life. It becomes quite hardy after the first harvest and suits cold climates too.
6. Bunching Onions
They seem quite like regular onions but for one seriously distinctive nature. They actually walk around over time! Bunching Onions have bulbs on their top that grow heavy upon maturity. As they grow heavier, they fall over and start growing on their landing ground.
You might think of them as the following versions of Pikachu. The new yields are healthier. Another surprising fact is that they can travel as much as 24 inches in a year. Since they can grow for years, you might want to give them enough space for walking. Don’t restrict their movement, or they might grow sad and die.
7. Garlic
One of the most distinctive and strongly flavored veggies, garlic can grow again and again in the ground as perennial vegetables. But you’d need to work a little harder for this one. Let the garlic bulbs grow and multiply under the soil for a couple of seasons(yes, not days it’s a plant, not bread).
You’ll find a lot of small garlic bulbs and scapes instead of actual heads. Now divide the bulbs into cloves and grow them alone. They’ll keep giving you yields season after season until you finally decide to marry(or your children choose to).
8. Asparagus
This list is incomplete without the evergreen perennial Asparagus. It can grow both tall and wide. So whether you have ample space or not, Asparagus is content with what you give them. Unless it cares what you’re sacrificing, it does demand a bit of pampering but will provide you with a couple of decades worth of Spears in exchange.
But they are quite selective in terms of soil they grow up in. They prefer soil with good drainage along with direct sunlight. It does take up a bit of time and effort to understand Asparagus and take proper care of it. As a beginner, growing it from root-crowns instead of seeds is your best bet.
9. Rhubarb
A single Rhubarb plant can harvest for straight 20 years- that is more than most dog’s lifetime. No offense to dogs, but this one will become better with every passing year too. It won’t provide harvest instantly, though. You must skip it in the first season.
Once it establishes its roots, just wait and watch it grow bigger with every passing season. Enjoy the tart stalks after that, but keep pets and children away from it as its leaves can be poisonous. They make for lip-smacking jams and sauces and combine well with the perennial strawberries too.
10. Berry Bushes
You can skip the terms and conditions while sowing berries in your garden. Be it raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and so on, none of them mind soil quality. All they care about is the shining sun through which makes enough food to grow sweeter and juicier.
Apart from adding them to cakes and desserts, berries are a delight to pluck and eat as well as for jams. They’ll also protect themselves if you have an open garden as they grow with thick thorns that keep animals away. You can also produce any of the variety in containers.
11. Groundnut
Also known as the Indian potato, groundnut is the vegan’s favorite snack. The 6-foot long vines grow deliciously nutty edible beans and tubers. They enhance the flavors of cookies and desserts and are a great protein-rich snack.
Fall is the best season to harvest these while they also regrow inside the ground. The nutty-flavored potatoes taste best after a couple of year’s harvest. Perhaps they age like wine and become better with time.
12. Spinach
Take a leaf out of Popeye’s book and eat spinach to become stronger. It indeed fastens muscle recovery and healing. But become wiser than Popeye and don’t spend dollars on spinaches anymore. You can instead grow these perennial, quick-growing plants in your backyard or even containers.
Just sow the seeds in well-aerated garden soil and or high quality one in a container. There’s no particular size when you need to pluck out the leaves, though. Just do it whenever you desire to but don’t harvest when the sun is at its wrecking best.
13. Morel Mushrooms
Plant this rare delicacy at home to save $60 for each pound. Morel Mushrooms have quite a short growing season, and it’s a tricky harvest and so the high price. But once you learn the right way, you can become the owner of this particular delicacy and impress your guests with it.
You need to grow this one through morel spores, which you can easily find online. They love cool and shady spots that are rich in moisture. Sprinkle a sufficient amount of water to keep the soil moist and be patient with it.
Good things take time, and Morel mushrooms are one of the best you’ll ever eat. Early spring is the best season to harvest them, and you’ll surely be waiting for it every year once you start growing.
So here was the list of best perennial vegetables we found. For sure, you would need more plants in your garden, but these are a must-have. Having these ensures you’re never out of a new harvest as every perennial yield in a different season.
