Don't overlook these important plants! We're discussing what are perennials and why they're an important aspect of the homestead. Growing perennial plants on the homestead is our greatest form or resiliency when it comes to food production.
What Are Perennials?
Perennials are plants that you don't have to plant every single year. They come back over and over again from the same root stalk. Depending on your growing zone, they'll either be evergreen, where they continue to grow year-round, or they'll die back to the ground each year and grow back from the same root stalk.
This is opposed to an annual that grows up every year and releases seed. The following year, that plant grows back from the seed, and this continues each year.
What Are Perennial Plants?
There are countless varieties of perennial plants out there. Many are ornamental plants and flowers that look beautiful in your yard, but in this blog post we'll be discussing food and medicine-specific perennials.
Why Grow Perennials?
We have a goal of making life easier for ourselves in the future. When you plant perennial plants and get them established, you're creating food security for your future.
By designing a food forest, you can plant perennial edible plants in a manner that mimics nature. Did you know, there are over 400,000 edible perennial plants according to the World Economic Forum?
Plant Once, Grow Forever
Take an apple tree, for example. If you plant a baby apple tree and tend to that tree for multiple years, that tree will continue to provide fruit for your family for years to come. This is in contrast to something like a tomato seed that you plant once and get fruit for one season. The following year, if you want tomatoes, you have to replant the seeds and tend to the harvest.
By planning out your perennial food garden, you can grow a well-rounded supply from various plants. Perennials include fruit trees, berry bushes, vegetables, nut trees and even medicinal herbs and flowers.
HOA Rules
Something else to consider, especially those living in areas with HOAs that don't allow for a vegetable garden, is that there are many perennial food-producing plants that actually look more ornamental than they do food.
What Priority Should We Give Perennials
You know the saying, "When is the best time to plant a fruit tree? Last year!" However, we all have realities and time constraints. But the general idea is that the sooner you can plant perennials, the sooner you'll start harvesting.
Types of Perennials
Vegetables
The benefits of growing perennial vegetables are that they tend to bring up a lot of minerals from deep in the ground. This is great for us as we're coming out of winter where we're usually eating less nutrient-dense foods and less fresh items.
- Asparagus - We love asparagus because these are some of the first perennials that come up in the spring. Roasted asparagus, pickled asparagus, asparagus relish, and asparagus soup are household favorites.
- Dandelion Roots - Another great source of nutrition early in the spring and one of the first things to bloom as the days get longer. Dandelion has many uses on the homestead.
- Sorrel - We already see our sorrel coming up, and there's still snow on the ground! We couldn't even be sowing spinach right now because it's still too cold. Sorrel sauce is the perfect companion for your spring dishes.
- Good King Henry
- Artichokes
- Caucasian Mountain Spinach
- Mushrooms - While technically not a vegetable, some mushroom varieties you can grow at home will produce for up to nine years.
Berries
The benefits of growing berry bushes are that they generally fruit much earlier than your other fruit-bearing trees. They don't take up a large amount of space, nor do they have the canopy that typical fruit trees have. Some berry bushes can even work well as a hedge in your yard.
- Raspberries
- Blackberries
- Blueberries
- Honey Berries
- Elderberries
- Currants
- Grapes
Fruit & Nut Trees
What would the world be without fruit and nut trees? Depending on where you live, you have a wide variety of options when it comes to fruit and nut trees. These kinds of trees are great to tuck into the landscape for food-producing and shade-producing perennials.
Even if you don't consume all the harvest from your trees, consider what else can be sustained from the fruit or nuts from your trees. Do you have livestock that you can supplement their food with your excess apples? This is a great option for creating more financial resiliency on the homestead.
Furthermore, if you're raising those animals underneath the tree, the tree is feeding the animals, the animals are fertilizing the tree, and you're creating a great system.
There are too many fruit and nut trees to list (far too many for a blog post), but we'll just cover a few:
- Apple, Pear, Peach, Cherry and Avocado Trees
- Hazelnut (Filbert), Almond, Chestnut and Walnut Trees
Culinary & Medicinal Herbs
There are generally a lot of crossover plants that work as both culinary and medicinal herbs. Many of your culinary herbs are perennial. Not only are they high in nutrition, but in a survival situation, if I'm going to have to eat beans and rice for every meal, having some herbs to season the food with will be incredible. (Read this post to learn how to grow a survival garden!)
- Oregano
- Rosemary
- Thyme
- Savory
- Tarragon
Beyond the culinary herbs are your medicinal herbs. When you can grow a perennial medicinal herb you essentially are creating a pharmacy in your backyard. Perennial medicinal herbs also generally flower and are beautiful to grow. So, if you find yourself living in an area where you don't have the space to grow a vegetable garden, medicinal herbs could be a great alternative for you to grow.
- Elecampane
- Echinacea
- Mint
- Catnip
- Hyssop
- Lavender
Know Your Zone
Before you purchase a perennial plant, make sure it will work in your climate or zone. If you don't know what zone you live in, you can find out your USDA Hardiness Zone here. Type in your zipcode and it will tell you your general zone.
Perennial Care & Maintenance
For the best self-sufficiency, focus on growing items that work well in your zone. Make your garden work for you. You don't want to have to baby these plants if they're your insurance policy for food.
Before planting your perennials, you may want to prepare the area with the lasagna gardening method, as we demonstrate with our cottage garden. This will help suppress the weeds and help the plants to get established a bit more quickly.
Each year, you may want to amend with a bit more soil and/or compost until you have a well-established area that's healthy and productive each year.
Growing perennials means building resiliency, creating habitats for creatures and helping feed the bees. It's something we're very passionate about here at Riverbend as we develop our property.
