When it comes to growing your own food, it’s always nice to do the least amount of work with the best return on your harvest. For many, gardening tasks are their source of exercise and stress relief.
But for others, there may be physical strain, a lack of time, or other reasons why they’d prefer not to spend countless hours in the garden, yet still be able to grow their own food source.
If you have ample room to grow various foods in your garden, then you might want to consider choosing some perennial crops to plant. These plants don’t have to be replanted each year.
What happens is, once you’ve harvested the produce from them, they will grow back in the next season. Usually, many crops people grow have to be removed from the gardening bed once the harvest is over.
You have to replant each year in order to have new produce growing. There aren’t as many options for perennial vegetables as there are for annual or biennial plants, but you can still use a portion of your growing space for them.
Asparagus is a popular vegetable with plenty of nutrients, and it’s one of the perennial options you might want to grow. Some asparagus plants have been known to provide a harvest for a decade or more.
Rhubarb is another perennial plant you can grow. With some plants, like this one, you won’t harvest it the first year, but can every year after until it’s time to divide the plant approximately five years down the road.
There are other benefits to growing perennial vegetables in your garden, too. For example, your garden will retain more topsoil without erosion when the plant remains intact.
If you love eating artichokes, then this perennial vegetable is one that will continue delivering for a long time to come. Some variations of onions, celery and cabbages will act as perennials for you as well.
The lifespan of every perennial plant will vary. Make sure you check to see if the plant needs a year to mature before harvest and then look to see if it requires splitting after a certain period of time.
Perennials will provide for you and your family for years without you having to go to the effort to replant and nurture new plants to maturity. Just make sure you continue to care for the soil and enrich is using compost or prebagged soil to give it the nutrients that it needs.
