How to grow edible perennial plants

A perennial fruit and vegetable garden by Hatchet & Seed. (Photo: Kelly Brown)

Eat more local foods — out of your backyard or community garden, if possible.

Solara Goldwynn of Hatchet & Seed, calls them “edimentals” — edible, ornamental plants — and supplied a list.

Perennial vegetables are great because they:

Keep coming back and can be left all winter!
Withstand pests better than annuals
Build and improve soil quality
Don’t need tilling, leaving mycelial culture (mushrooms and other fungi) and soil structure intact
Increase aeration and water absorption
Create compost, add to topsoil and bring up nutrients from deep down when dropped leaves die back each year
Are edimentals — delicious AND beautiful!
Are often long-lived — e.g., asparagus lives up to 40 years!
Create resilience when planted from seed (avoid moulds, pests and diseases)
Use microclimates around trees

Know your plants. Related species may not be edible. If you’re unfamiliar with any of these plants, do some research or take a workshop to be sure you know which parts are best to eat.

Need a warm, protected spot. Varieties include globe and cardoon (wild). Blanch stalks and eat them cooked, too! Note: sunchokes and Jerusalem artichokes tend to spread.
Buy crowns or start from seed. From seed to shoot takes three years! Before prepping your bed, think long-term (they live up to 40 years) and keep soil mounded.
Grows well in shade. Shoots are edible.
A sedge tuber found in wet areas. Popular in Spain.
Grow in pots (even an old bath tub) since tubers are large and will go deep. Use the vine to create shade.
Hardy plant that grows more than two metres tall. Extremely nutritious due to many years accumulating minerals. Great flavour. Tender enough to eat raw.
Flowers are best to eat as buds, before they open.
Easily grown from seed. Green tops similar to parsley.
Enjoys shade. Shoots are edible. Looks like spinach.
A nitrogen-fixing ground tuber with climbing vines. Native to the East Coast. Contains 16 per cent protein (potatoes are five per cent protein).
Eat the shoots in spring.
Edible early before leaves get big (when it looks a bit like asparagus).
A perennial leek. Eat as you would leeks or harvest entire bulbs.
Stronger tasting than celery. Leaves are great in soups.
From the Andes. A single tuber costs about $3.50. Flowers and leaves are edible. Similar to oca.
Best in early spring. Easy to grow from seed. Prefers a moist, shady area. Cook young leaves like spinach or use in tea. A popular dye plant. Promotes good soil. Great in compost, too.
From the Andes. Needs full sun but can survive in partial shade. Harvest the bulb after frost, once above-ground greens die back. Once harvested, lay in the sun to sweeten. Prepare as you would potatoes.
All parts are edible, even flowers! Varieties include Welsh, garlic chives and walking onions. Bees love ’em!
Only eat stalks — leaves and roots are toxic. Compost leaves. Happy near a compost heap!
Related to dill, parsley, celery, cilantro and carrot. Shoots and roots taste like parsnip.
Great in soups or pesto! The French variety grows in clumps.
Eat shoots, flowers and leaves. Note: This spreads!
This giant tuber from South America is a heavy feeder and gets tall. Harvest after frost. Pot in winter, replant in spring!