Grow These 29 Perennial Crops for Endless Harvests

If growing annual veg and fruit in your garden is like living paycheck to paycheck, then growing perennials is like having a dividend portfolio that pays you year after year. Which is why we've chosen 29 of our favorite perennials, some of them you've heard before, but there are a few there that you're going to want to add to your garden because they do amazing things for you. The plant in this bed is the OG perennial plant, I venture to say. It's actually the plant that I might plant and then my grandchildren will die and it will still be producing. I'm talking about asparagus. You can see a little clue as the asparagus in this bed, because there's a little fern coming up right there. But we're at the time of the season where asparagus goes dormant. There were all these ferns and stalks and we cut them up, chopped them up and put them on top of this bed as mulch. The way asparagus really works is it's one to three years of setup time. After that, you're laughing your way to asparagus bank 24-7. So the reason why is because there's these crowns that are underground. You can start asparagus from buying crowns. You can buy asparagus seed, which we offer on our store, but you can also start it from seedlings from the nursery. I think a lot of people don't know that, but it is totally possible to do it that way. So a lot of different options for starting it. But really those first three years is for getting the asparagus crowns sized up, that structure underneath the ground to throw up more and more spears. So you as the home cook or the chef or the person who wants to actually eat it can take enough of them. In years one, two and three, it's not a good idea to take a lot of spears. Did I still do it? You better believe it. I took one or two per and I just wanted to reap what I sowed. But in year three and four, which is I think year five is even coming up now, this is going to go absolutely crazy. I have reports from some folks down in the comments in the past who have said their grandmother planted an asparagus patch in their childhood home and it is still going almost a hundred years later. So it is the true OG perennial that I think every gardener should get in the ground as soon as possible. Have you ever heard of the pie plant? It's actually a plant that is only used for consumption in sweet things and usually delicious pies, sometimes mixed with apples, sometimes with strawberry. And it is of course the rhubarb plant. Now the reason why it's called the pie plant is because you're never going to really eat it on its own. And it's in fact a little bit toxic if you eat the leaves, but the stems, that is where all the action is. They tend to be red. Sometimes they're green, but they have a natural tartness to them that when cooked with sugar becomes something magical. It is easily my favorite pie type. Whenever I see strawberry rhubarb or apple rhubarb, I always go for it without any doubt. And the thing to know about rhubarb is that in most cases, it tends to prefer cold climates, but there is one variety out there that I know of called Victoria that I've successfully grown here in my garden, San Diego. In fact, I have two quart freezer bags full of it in my freezer at the moment. And the reason it is a perennial is that of course it comes back year after year. Now, if you live in a cold climate, you really only harvest it in the spring because you want to conserve some energy for it to survive the winter. But in a warmer climate, like here in San Diego, you could harvest all through spring and even into early summer and still have that plant come back every single year. What you're seeing in this shot right now is a perennial plant coming back. Proof of life, as you would call it. So this is my artichoke patch. I've talked about this a lot here on the channel, but I am a super fan of artichokes. They're kind of like a thistle. They're in fact are a thistle that decided to be edible if you harvest them at the right time. That would be when those flower heads have really not been fully developed. They're not open. But what you're seeing here is artichoke coming back from this prior season. What I do every single season is I chop these down in about August, September or so. If you're in a cold climate, you throw some mulch on top. That protects the underground structure of the plant and it will start coming back. Now I'm in a more mild climate, so you're going to see my artichoke come back in the fall like they are right here. But if you're in a colder climate, this type of growth pattern you'll start seeing in next spring. You just need to cut this down and make sure that you actually cover it up with a good amount of mulch. Otherwise the frost and freeze could get down to the part where it actually kills the roots. So you want to avoid that. This setup here is actually watered by my gray water system coming out of my laundry machine indoors, which we covered in depth over on my Epic Homesteading channel. Really fun install. Not really a perennial plant, but definitely a perennial source of water. When you think of beans in the garden, the first thing that I personally think of is a green bean. Something you plant in the springtime, you harvest for a couple months, the plant dies back and then you're done for the season. But what if you could grow beans that are actually perennial and grow through a very long season? Well, right here I have the Scarlet Runner bean. This is a unique bean because it produces a tuber underground that will actually survive over the winter period and come back in the spring, especially if you are in a mild climate. Now the thing about this compared to like a standard bush bean is it does need a trellis. This is actually where I grew them this year and it can grow like 14 plus feet tall. So you definitely are going to want to support it, but it is very prolific, very delicious, and it is also more cold tolerant than a lot of other beans you grow out there. Now as an added bonus, they're one of the best attractors for hummingbirds, absolutely loved by pollinators, and the beans themselves are delicious. So give them a try. They might not be perennial in every single climate, but if you're in a nice mild climate, expect them to come back year after year. It's funny that we're even talking about this plant here because Kevin has made fun of me for years asking me, when am I going to get rid of it? When am I going to get rid of it? I'm like, bro, it is a perennial. There's no reason to get rid of it. And it is right here and it's my tree collar. Now this is a very interesting plant because you don't actually find it in seed packets very often. It barely goes to seed. It is something that you actually produce from cutting. So right here, I have one that I air layered, put into a grow bag, and I might sneak this into Kevin's garden so that he could have his very own tree collar. But the main thing I'll say about this is that it is prolific. The leaves are a little bit tougher than most of the greens that you will eat, but in the winter time, they get very sweet and soft. And then they are so good in stews and soups where the greens will soften, but still retain that texture, making them much more interesting to eat and whatever it is you're cooking. And since it's a perennial, you don't really have to do anything to it. Just keep harvesting it and it's going to keep growing. This next one is a bit mysterious because the name is quite deceiving. You would think by its name, it would be related to the artichoke. But in fact, the Jerusalem artichoke is closer to a sunflower type plant than an artichoke at all. But it's known by a more insidious name and I can confirm this, unfortunately, through firsthand experience as the fartichoke. It is true. If you eat these little tubers, that's how they grow tubers underground, you can sometimes have a bit of a gastrointestinal reaction. I find it's mostly due to the way that they're prepared. There's plenty of ways to do it. They're a nutritious, starchy crop that honestly, the reason why I'm sitting next to this beautiful raised bed, I would not recommend putting in ground. They multiply like crazy. If you've ever grown potatoes, you know, you miss a potato or two, you're fathering a couple of potatoes or mothering them in a few months because they're going to come up. The same with the Jerusalem artichoke. It's just that they're much smaller. So you're almost guaranteed to miss a few and they'll spread like crazy. So I really recommend putting them in a container, putting them in a raised bed. And as far as preparation goes, Jacques is a bit of a chef and he brought over some Jerusalem artichoke shaved chips and I have to say, I scarfed them up and there was no farting. We've got a big old tray of onions here of all different types, but the suggestion I'm about to give you isn't in this tray. In fact, I'm talking about something called the Egyptian walking onion. It's a really, really cool variety of allium. And the way that it works is it'll produce, bulbs are set sort of at the top of the onion, which will then get weighed down, fall and thus creep through a garden. So it'll kind of grow up, bulbs fall, creep, and then it keeps repeating that cycle. That's why it's called the walking onion. And that's why it's sort of a perennial plant in most climates. Now, the thing I'll say about it is you can use them just as cutting onions, like green leafy onions, or you can grab some of those bulbs off. But eventually it will start to get a bit unruly. So what you'll want to do is kind of rip out clumps. I would rip the clumps out when I'm going to harvest it for those bulbing onions to bring it back down to size. And I wouldn't let it walk all over the garden, but I think it's a really fun plant that still gives you that delicious joy of growing an onion, but in a more unique way. My next pick are these GCs, these garlic chives. They are technically perennial, although in a colder climate they might frost over. But you can protect them. And alliums tend to be, at least these types, tend to be a little bit more tolerant of frost. But the real perennial pick that I'm talking about here is called the Welsh onion or the perennial bunching onion or Allium fistulosum. It is a non-bulbing onion. It kind of grows as almost like a baby leek type of look, but the way it's perennial is by division. So some crops are perennial because they simply don't die off in the winter, like a fruit tree hopefully. But some basically just keep propagating themselves out and they grow in these sort of bunches. It's usually used for the sweeter green tops, kind of like a less oniony onion. I think it's a cool plant. I've not personally grown it in this garden. This is kind of maybe the closest I'll get or even just a standard bunching onion, but the Welsh onion could be one to look at. And honestly, I'm kind of into the idea of onions on the sweeter side. I love to caramelize them in the kitchen. So if the top is like that, consider me intrigued for next season. If you're like me, you're a fan of having easy, convenient greens that are always ready in your garden. And one of the best plants out there is a perennial and it's called sorrel. And this is what it looks like. It's a lemony sort of zingy green, wonderful in soups. You can even make a green borscht purely out of the sorrel. But this thing is crazy. It just wants to grow. In fact, it grows so much that most of the plant ends up getting chopped and thrown into my compost bin and it still comes back roaring. In fact, if you look down here, you'll see that it is actually a combination of multiple plants. It's like a hundred different sorrels individually growing in clumps and it is super tasty. It grows in a wide variety of climates and it is one of the most low maintenance greens I've ever grown. Have you ever eaten a celery leaf and thought, oh, I wish it tasted like four times as intense as that. Well, you're in luck because lovage or lavage or however you want to say it is exactly that. It is basically a perennial celery that is amplified to the max. I've tried a couple of leverage leaves, raw and fresh, and I'll tell you this. It is quite the experience. Now, one thing I'll mention about it is very prolific when it grows, it does great in raised beds. It's similar to sorrel where it kind of clumps and lumps and continues to get bigger and bigger and bigger. So make sure you do like the taste of celery as your starting point. If you're ever going to love lovage, don't you wish potatoes were perennial? So you could come out and harvest infinite tubers, delicious earth apples every time all year round. Well, you can't, but there is something called the American groundnut, which has also been called the potato plant. This is something that produces beans and tubers that are both edible, and both of them are super protein rich. In fact, the tubers themselves have three times the protein of a regular potato plant, and it is perennial, and it has been grown all throughout the Northeast. It is something people have survived on for thousands of years. In fact, this is something I've never heard of before, and the fact that it's called a potato plant or an American groundnut has got me really excited. I'm going to find some, I'm going to add it to my garden, and hopefully next year I'll be harvesting beans and potatoes from the same plant. I'm chilling under the peach tree that Jacques planted, but I'm not talking about the peach tree. I'm actually talking about these strawberries underneath. Traditionally, a lot of gardeners will grow strawberries in maybe a green stock garden, which by the way, during our Black Friday sale, which is going on right now, almost everything on our store is 25% off, including those. So go check that out. But it's good in the ground too. It's good in a raised bed. Strawberries are very versatile. Now, are they a true, true perennial, as in they'll last for decades off the same plant? Technically no, but not all plants that are perennials really act that way. Like a peach tree, of course, is going to stay there. What strawberries will do is they'll throw these things out called runners that will then creep and continue to expand the bed. You'll actually see one right here. This guy's kind of like saying, Hey, I want to come out here and colonize that area. So it's a good way to let that patch expand. You'll find that strawberries are good for about two-ish, maybe three years per plant. But every single season, all those plants will throw out new runners, which you can either let spread or you could even cut this off and root it and then bring it back for the next season. So technically you'll have the same strawberry crop year after year, even though it's not the exact same plant. Now, the other thing I'll say is you really have to choose between two paths with strawberries. You've got your June-bearing strawberries that are larger. And of course they mostly come to fruit in June. Then you've got your Everbearing strawberries that'll fruit maybe two, maybe three times a year. They're a little bit smaller. I tend to prefer the Everbearing. That's just my preference. My climate also tends to support strawberries for longer parts of the season. Whereas if you're maybe in a colder climate and you just want to cluster those big old juicy straws, I might go with a June-bearing. And this planting idea, what's called sort of a guild technique in the permaculture world, is a great way to do it. But like I said, you could do it in containers, in a raised bed, in a greenstock garden or in the ground. I bet you think you know what my next suggestion is because I'm walking by these dragon fruit, which technically are perennials, especially if you bring them indoors. But I'm not telling you about these because I've made 12 videos on them. So you should probably just go watch those. What I am going to talk about is something I've struggled to grow a little bit. Secret. Secret's out. But it's raspberries and blackberries. In my climate, it's possible. It's just a little bit more challenging. But in most climates, especially in the US, I dare say that if you don't have raspberries and or blackberries in your garden as a perennial, you're really missing out on maybe one of the super foods and super fruits in a perennial garden. So the thing about them is they will spread like crazy. And there are some intricacies in growing them. There's things called primocanes. There's things called floricanes. You got to prune them a certain way. If you prune off a certain cane, it's not going to fruit in the right way. We've made a couple of videos on caring for them in detail. But all I really want to get across to you is get them in the ground. A two-wire trellis is probably the way to control them. Because trust me, I've been in the creeks up in Northern California. I've seen how crazy they can get. And of course they are spiky. So you do want to get them a little bit more controlled. But honestly, especially if you have children or anyone who really enjoys the experience of getting out in the garden and picking, it is one of the most rewarding perennial fruits you can grow. You've definitely heard of this next one. It is a delicious berry. Sometimes small, sometimes large. A staple in breakfast, whether it's in granola, yogurt, or pancakes. And it is the blueberry. Right here, I have a high bush type. There's high bush and low bush. In San Diego or warmer climates, we tend to grow the high bush, which is a taller plant. Here's one. I've got another one right behind me. And they tend to also produce those larger berries that I personally prefer. But in Maine, where I was very recently, they have all low bush types. They grow right on the ground, like a green carpet. And they produce those really tiny wild blueberries. They make absolutely delicious pies and preserves. Now, the only thing you really need to know about growing blueberries at home is that they do best in containers because they need acidic soil. They don't prefer acidic soil. They absolutely need it if you are going to get any fruit. So make sure you get that in a container with acidic soil and acidic fertilizer, and you'll be harvesting hundreds of dollars in blueberries in no time. Whenever I would visit Bulgaria as a child, the first thing I always demanded was a glass of Budavinka, which is actually a soda made out of the black currant. So when I became a gardener, I knew I had to grow it in my garden. And right here, you could see what remains of the plant. Because in fall, it does drop its leaves. But I did get a handful of delicious currants this year. Now, they're not a berry that you eat straight off the plant. They tend to be a little bit more tart. The skin and seeds are in there. So they're great in jams, jellies, pies, and drinks. And the thing that really makes it unique is that it is an understory fruiting plant. So it can survive in part shade while still fruiting. In fact, I have it underneath this big pomegranate tree here. And I still got a multi-handful harvest of delicious black currants, but they don't just come in black. There's also white currants, red currants, and they all have their unique flavors. So give them a try and shove them under one of your tall trees. If you're feeling a little silly and you want to get a perennial in the garden, I recommend the gooseberry. It's actually a prolific plant. There's two main varieties, but honestly, either work. They're cold hardy down to zone three. So for us, it's not as common to see them out here on the West coast, especially in Southern California, but you'll see them all over the East coast in a lot of colder climates. And if you're looking for a perennial that does well in the cold, this certainly is one. Now what I'll say about is they can be a little spiky. So you gotta be careful about that. You'll make sure you prune them really delicately and carefully, but you do need to prune them back. And they typically are not eaten fresh. They're typically like other, you know, currants, things like that, processed down into jams, jellies, pies, that sort of thing. But I think they're one of those things that if you have a climate to support it, it's almost mandatory to put in because you don't have to eat it. Remember with these perennials, you can use them as landscaping, ornamental or style sort of plants as well, with the added benefit of being able to eat from it. I'm stoked to talk about this next one because after about three or four seasons, I feel like I've finally gotten the hang of growing grapes, which is what you see here. It's a flame seedless grape variety. The variety is going to be highly dependent on your zone. So I won't give any specific recommendations. But over on our Epic Homesteading channel, which is our side channel where I talk about life here in my backyard homestead, chicken care, baking crazy bread with Jacques, which you should go subscribe to, we did a whole build on this grape trellis. And that's really the rub with grapes. It's high maintenance to set up, but after that it's kind of smooth cruising. There's some pruning you have to do. There's definitely some care throughout the season, but it's really mostly getting the grape trained up onto a trellis system that you design. So what you want to do, you plant your grapes maybe eight feet apart or so on a big old wall like this. And you can run sort of wrapped wire or anything straight across that's set off from the wall just a touch. I did it in three tiers. So there's one here, one here and one here. I have the grape vine come up and spread across all of these. And then I just let it rip. And I have to say this year I got maybe five to seven huge clusters of this flame seedless table grape. And it will come year after year and only get better over time. You might be thinking, Kev, come on, I see a peach here. I see a fruit tree. It's pretty obvious perennial. Skip, skip, skip, skip. No, I'm talking about dwarf or columnar fruit trees. Of course you could grow something like this that Jacques got in his garden. It's a quad grafted peach. That's actually a great perennial. But for those of you who are in smaller spaces or you just want a little bit more variety and less overall height, I would say a containerized dwarf or what's called a columnar fruit tree. That would be a tree that's really more growing upright in its habit. And it can grow in, let's say a 30, 40, 50 gallon container with some great mix and still produce really well. A lot of people, myself included back in the day, I would have loved to have an apple, pear, peach, plum in a container when I was living in a smaller space that came back year after year. So this world is less one singular pick and more a world to explore for both the fruits to your taste, but also to your climate. Over the years, I've become a super fan of a very specific type of fruit that usually is honestly not that good when you buy it in the grocery store. And that is the guava. Now, most of the guavas you see are those white kind of Mexican guavas that smell like something, but don't taste like much. Now right here next to me is the pineapple guava, AKA the fioja. Now this has a very unique sort of flavor. It's almost savory minty banana, like pineapple, like of course, and it has a wonderful texture that you could just scoop right out of the fruit. Now, one of the things that makes this guava unique compared to most others is that although it is technically a tropical, this guy could even withstand a little bit of frost, making it more adaptable to a wider range of climates. And it does wonderfully in containers or in ground. Now, when you do harvest these, the fun thing about them is that they kind of look like a stout banana. You cut the top off, you could squeeze it or just scoop it out with a little spoon. And it's such a delightful treat. I look forward to it every single year. This fruit is one that's taken me a little bit to master, but I dare I say, fingers crossed, that I've done a pretty good job over the last season or two. I'm talking about pomegranates. I have two varieties here, parfianca and wonderful, both absolutely delicious. Wonderful, probably the more common variety. Although if you're in a cold climate, there is a cold tolerant pomegranate that will go down to zone six. It's one that we offer on our site. We'll ship it directly to your door if you can't source it locally. But pomegranates to me are, first of all, one of the more nutritious and beneficial fruits that you can have for human health. There's so much good stuff and compounds inside that pomegranate aril, which most people call the seed, but it's that little gem that you bite into. And also pomegranate juice. I have it a few times a week at least. It's such a simple plant to grow once you understand how to care for it. Lot of sun, lot of heat, doesn't want wet feet. It's really accustomed to growing in pretty arid climates. And then you just want to prune it down so that it's not super, super tall and hard to get into. There's crazy spikes on these guys. So you don't want it all over the place. We just prune this down from about eight or nine feet down to my height around six feet plus or so. And it's going to be really easy to work with. When the leaves die off, that's when you get into the internal structure of the pomegranate and you start pruning out dead, diseased or damaged branches. Or unlike most fruit trees, you'll actually prune it down to more than one trunk. It grows like a bush or tree. I recommend the bush. Three to five stems. Once all these leaves fall off, you're going to have beautiful, juicy poms. This next one is pretty obvious and it's also one of Plant Daddy Kev's favorite plants, let alone perennials. But in fact it is a perennial. Of course I'm talking about passion fruit. Here is an unripe one. This is a green little passion. We're going to let that one go for now. There's hundreds. Money does grow on trees. This is a more ripe one. It's purple. The passion fruit variety I'm growing is called Frederick. I'm going to cut it open and give you a little sneak peek, make you a little jealous. It's okay. Don't be mad. Look at that. Just dripping out. I might even give it a quick... The tartness, the delicious flavor, the sweetness if you harvest it at the right time, but also the prolific growth of the passion fruit. T-posts, chicken wire, some twine, any kind of trellis. It will go absolutely crazy. You need to cut it back pretty seriously over the course of a season as it will fruit on new growth only. So like this vine right here will not make passion fruits next year. You might as well cut it off. This is our second planting. It's mostly because it got too insane. I had to cut it back and we decided to replant for the next season. But it is a true perennial and you can grow it in lower zones than you think, especially if you buffer it up against something that will capture heat. Maybe like a dark stone wall or even a cinder block wall or something like that, that can push some heat out into this as the temperatures come down in the evening, but also throughout the season. What if I told you there was a tree that literally tells you when spring arrives because it starts to bloom once the ground thaws. I am speaking of the serviceberry, aka the harbinger of spring because as I said, as that ground begins to soften and thaw, that is when that tree will bloom, which is a perfect signal for gardeners at home to start working in their yard. Now the other thing that's great about it is that it can't be grown as a pure ornamental, but the berries are edible. You just have to process them to cook them down into something useful. But if you don't eat them at all, that's totally fine because birds and native wildlife absolutely go crazy for serviceberries. And for an added bonus, this tree provides beautiful colors in the fall as well. So from spring to fall, it is going to give you everything you need and also tell you when to get started in your garden. If you've had the experience of wanting delicious leafy greens in the middle of summer, but where your gardening is just too hot for those plants to survive, well don't worry because there are four perennial spinach-like plants that could suit your needs. The first one is probably one you've heard of, malabar spinach. It produces these crazy purple berries. But the only thing I'll say about this one is that it loves the heat, it loves the humidity, and you don't want to eat it raw. It's a little bit slimy when eaten fresh, but when you cook it down, it is a perfectly delicious green that is used in all sorts of different cuisines. Next up we have longevity spinach. This is a low-growing leafy green that doesn't handle frost at all, but as an added bonus, you can eat it fresh or cooked. So give that one a try as well. It's not going to climb up a trellis like the malabar does, but it is perfectly good for filling in lower spaces in your garden. If you want a green with a little bit of extra color, there's the okinawan spinach. What makes this plant so interesting is it has purple backing on the leaves, it is bushy, it is eaten fresh or cooked, and of course it is something that will take over the garden if you're not careful. So make sure you're constantly harvesting or pruning it, and once again it is not tolerant to any frost whatsoever. And then finally we have the tree spinach aka chaya. This one is really cool because it actually grows vertically and it produces a absolute ton of leaves. And whenever you're done with the season, all you have to do is pollard it, which just means you're essentially cutting it down to the trunk level. It'll send up a bunch of new growth and it'll provide another giant bounty of leafy greens that you do have to cook. This is not one that you could eat fresh. So there are four heat-tolerant greens that might replace spinach in your garden. I just remembered that there is a shade-loving tree that tastes like peas, and it's something that is only grown in hot climates. So if you're looking for something akin to like that spinach replacement, this is one that you could eat the leaves, but you could also eat the shoots. And peas don't generally grow in warmer climates, so this might be a good substitute and it's called katuk. One of the great things about this plant too is that although it can't tolerate frost, it does thrive in some shade. And if you're in a marginal climate that does get a little bit cold, you could plant it along something like a fence where you trap a little bit of heat. And that way you can eat the roots, the shoots, the leaves, and you will have a delicious shrub that tastes like peas. This next one I became familiar with actually from the health benefit or maybe even the supplement world before the gardening world. And then I met someone who was growing it at a farm level. And of course I'm talking about moringa here. I call it the nutrient tree. Moringa powder is used in all sorts of different health concoctions. I'm certainly not a doctor or dietitian or nutritionist, but I've tried it before and it's pretty good. It's also a quick growing plant. It grows actually in fact sometimes too quick. You've got to prune it back pretty actively to keep it contained instead of letting it go crazy. And if you really like moringa, well you're in luck because it likes you back. It's not too hard to root from cuttings. You can give it to your friends. In fact, the farmer that I had met, that's pretty much how he propagated his whole farm of moringa. He kept chopping the cuttings up, sticking them in the ground, growing more and more and more. So it's a fun plant as a perennial if you want to use the leaves or just have in your garden as something to beautify the space. I don't know about you, Kevin, but that was quite the interesting list of perennials. I'm going to be adding the groundnut as soon as I could find it to my garden. And we do carry a lot of these perennials as seeds or live plants on our store. But not only that, we also have our Black Friday sale going on, which is 25% off raised beds, 25% off seed starting, and a whole bunch of other things on sale. So definitely check that out. And if you're still into annuals, I'll confess, I like them a lot. I am a lover. Even though I'm throwing some perennials in the garden. You can check out our newest seed varieties for 2026, support botanical interests. We have 22 new ones in this video. And until next time guys, sun's getting low. Good luck in the garden and keep on growing.