The best things come to those who wait, and that is especially true for these perennial, edible plants.
Even though you may not get the short-term gratification of harvesting a vegetable crop the same year you plant it, these perennial food plants can have long life spans and produce year after year once fully established.
Spring is a great time to plant herbaceous perennials, trees, and shrubs. This gives them a whole growing season to establish their root system before winter. Plant a few of these perennial food plants in your vegetable garden or home landscape this spring, and your patience will be rewarded by years of bountiful harvests to come.
1. Edible figs (Ficus carica)
A favorite early fall treat, these delicate, sweet fruits do not ship well and cannot be sold fresh at most grocery stores.
Luckily, there are several cold hardy varieties of figs that can grow well in our area. ‘Chicago Hardy’ and ‘Brown Turkey’ are two of the most popular.
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These large shrubs are also vigorous growers, and you can expect a decent harvest of fruits even in their second growing season. You can also grow edible figs in large containers and overwinter indoors.
They are easy to propagate from cuttings and grow well in any well-draining, even moist, sunny area. To increase winter hardiness, plant figs on the south sides of structures and apply mulch to the roots in the fall.
2. American potato bean (Apios americana)
Also called groundnut, this perennial vine is native to much of the eastern United States including Missouri.
It produces showy clusters of reddish-brown flowers in summer and seedpods with edible beans in early fall. But the beans are just the beginning.
This twining vine produces fleshy tubers with a taste and texture similar to potatoes. Harvest these tubers in fall and store them for months in a cool, dry place similar to other root vegetables.
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It’s best to let the plant get established for a year or two before harvesting the tubers. This vine is vigorous and has the potential to spread somewhat aggressively. Keep it in check by harvesting the tubers and beans, growing in an enclosed area, or allowing it to naturalize.
3. Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis)
Harvested in spring, asparagus spears are the immature leaves of the asparagus plant.
Fully expanded, the airy fronds can reach 3-4′ tall. The spears emerge from a robust, perennial rootstock, and it’s best to not harvest heavily from an asparagus plant for 2-3 years after planting, as tempting as it may be.
You can harvest a few spears during this time, but it’s best to go easy on them. This allows the plant to get fully established before more intense harvesting limits its resources
Asparagus are usually sold as bareroot crowns and are planted in spring. Choose a sunny, well-draining spot in your vegetable garden where the large fronds will not shade out other sun-loving veggies. ‘Jersey Knight’ and ‘Mary Washington’ are two good selections for the St. Louis area.
4. Wild plum (Prunus americana)
One of several species of plum native to Missouri, wild plum (sometimes called apricot) is a small tree or large, multi-stemmed shrub that thrives in a variety of habitats including rocky woods, old pastures, and along streambanks or hedgerows.
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The showy, white flowers bloom in spring, followed by small (1″ diameter) fruits that ripen from green to red from mid-summer into early fall. The flowers are an important early nectar and pollen source for insect pollinators, and the fruits are loved by deer, grouse, squirrels, and other wildlife.
If you can get to the ripe fruit before the wildlife, you can harvest and eat the fruit fresh or dried, or process it into jelly, jam, or preserves.
Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus)
Also called sunchoke, this perennial sunflower is native to much of the Midwest including Missouri.
It’s a large plant that can reach 6-10′ tall and bears showy, yellow flowers from late summer into fall. As the scientific name would suggest, this plant forms fleshy tubers that you can eat roasted, fried, or mashed.
For better or worse, the tubers spread vigorously and the plant can be considered somewhat weedy. Similar to American potato bean, it’s best to plant sunchokes in a fully enclosed bed, woodland edge, or naturalized area where its spread will not cause problems.
Justine Kandra | Horticulturist
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