Edible Perennials: what are you growing?

We are excited to be planting more Edible Perennials  this year in our FamilyGardens!

Over the weekend we planted a few new things high- lighted in Green...the rest of the list we already have growing on the right hand side are some we are *considering adding* to our garden......what have you all planted? and is there anything that you love as an edible Perennial that I don't have listed below?.....we are trying hard to get as much Edible perennials as possible.

Edible Perennials in our Garden:   1. Artichokes 2. Apple tree 3. Asparagus 4. Blackberries 5. Raspberries 6. Blueberries 7. Cherry trees 8. Chives 9. Dandelions 10. Grapes 11. Honeyberries 12. Horseradish 13. Huckleberries 14. Kiwis 15. Lemon balm 16. Mints 17. Oregano 18. Plum tree 19. Peach tree 20. Rhubarb 21. French Sorrel 22. Rosemary 23. Sage 24. Strawberries 25. sun chokes 22. Thyme

*Considering adding* *Egyptian walking onions *fig tree *Good King Henry *lovage *minutina *paw paw trees *Pear tree *red veined sorrel *salad burnet

Happy Gardening
rose

Pineapple or does it get too cold there.

yolos wrote:Pineapple or does it get too cold there.

yummy Pineapple!! we would do in a heartbeat but its to cold here

hugs
rose

Re: a few of your new plants.

Supposedly, horseradish is best harvested in the fall.  We've been trying for several years to make good horseradish sauce, but haven't found a method that's as good as store bought.  If you find one, please let us know.

I'm sure you know that sunchokes reproduce like rabbits!  BEWARE!     I have some in a box on the ground, and that doesn't contain them.  It's been 5-6 years, and I don't remember if I used weedblock or anything else under the box.

We have two types of Rosemary.  One does great; the other is kinda sad.  I don't know if it's the variety or the different location that makes the difference.  They're both in native soil.

Swiss chard? I haven't heard of a 20 year old chard but I have seen 2 and 3 year old chard. Ruby or rainbow is so pretty.

Boffer no worries with the sun chokes....we planted them in a container as far as the horseradish I will keep ya posted on how it goes after harvesting thanks for suggesting us to harvest it in the fall!!.....interesting about the Rosemary, as the one we just planted is replacing the old one that we lost year before last in a cold snap I did not know there were more then one type of Rosemary

Sanderson....I didn't know swiss chard would go for a second year like we have found with kale, parsley & celery....that's good to know

Happy gardening
rose.....who gives thanks to Boffer for taking care of her crazy post with all the weird spacing!!

what your goal with edible perennials?

Medicinals, teas...

AtlantaMarie wrote:Medicinals, teas...

interesting, medicinals. any success? I haven't tried it from that point of view. Teas, yes.

has55 wrote:what your goal with edible perennials?

Great share, Has!

Thanks!

Lol! Well, if I could remember to pick things while in bloom, etc., I'd probably have some success!

Berries. So far raspberries and strawberries.

after relooking at the video on edible perennials, I realized my understanding of cover crops was incorrect for SFG beds. I can achieve my fungal bacterial ratio with edible perennials and continue my no-till SFG. the list from "I am organic" channel said herbs can be used. also many of the edible perennial mention in the above video. I been observing my herbs in my herb garden bed to decide which one to grow the square foot garden bed to develop biomass underground( like gardeners) instead of on top ( like farmers)and keep my mycorrhizae fungi going and increasing the release of nutrient thru biological activity. Also get maximum growth from my plants.I needed to avoid something that not too invasive, such as mint( goes in a bed by itself). 

my herb bed under study 




types of plants that would benefit from mycorrhizae fungi



better clarification of using perennial in our SFG. in this case it will be some nonedibles, but mostly edibles perennials per Dr. Ingham. it's the biological part in the info below. we are actually doing it in SFG, but this may give better understanding what going on underground in the soil food web.

 Here is a suggestion: Instead of annual cover crops,(like farmers do) grow a mix of 25 or more perennial cover crops that are short for our garden. Perennial, so you only buy seeds once, possibly planting fall germinating plants once and spring germinating plants once, and then they seed themselves for the next several hundred years. Perennial, so you don't have to disturb the soil to plant them each year. Stop killing soil life! Short plants, but plants that cover the soil surface so the soil surface is protected throughout the ENTIRE year. You don't harvest these plants in the spring time in order to plant the crop, you till up furrows or make holes like is SFG where you plant your seed, but the rest of the soil is left untilled. LIKE IN SFG


 
 The cover crops being used aren't really the right ones( they'er for farmers, not SFG). So step back, and think about why we plant cover crops. So... you need to reduce erosion by protecting the soil surface, out-compete weeds, maintain the sets of organisms in the soil, give the organisms the foods to help maintain soil structure, increase OM (Organic Matter) in the soil (which means you have to have the right sets of organisms to do decomposition or the plant material just sits there). But the plants that are currently used for cover crops emphasize ABOVEGROUND biomass, not BELOWGROUND for SFG beds. Also, the current cover crops are ANNUAL plants, which means we have to disturb the soil TWICE a year to plant them and to harvest and till the aboveground biomass into the soil to hopefully make soil organic matter. Most, if not all the benefit from growing those cover crops is lost because the biomass is produced ABOVEGROUND instead of in the soil. You have to buy seeds every year. And the soil is disturbed twice each year, on top of the disturbance involved in planting and harvesting crops, and possibly tilling to kill weeds, thus killing many of the very organisms that need to be protected. most of us do the no-till/disturbed the soil method, even if we add amendments or compost.

You can see why you want to choose short plants . you don't have to then go out and disturbed the soil to get rid of the weeds, so there's less damage to the soil again. The short cover crop doesn't interfere with your other plants. just make sure the short cover crop is shorter than the regular plants or non competive.  The perennial plants supply nutrients to the soil organisms, who make the enzymes to pull N, P, K, S, etc. from the rocks, pebbles, sand, silt, slay and organic matter., compost So the criticism of the cover crops taking nutrients away from the regular crop is a lie, or, is true only if farming in dirt, not soil ( in SFG-soiless). If decent sets of microbes are NOT present, then yes, cover crops will compete with the crop and nothing will grow well. But with proper sets of organisms in the soil, nothing will be nutrient-limited. Make sure the balances of microbes are correct, to control the balance of the different forms of nitrogen. Make sure that will be correct for the plant you want to grow.  
mycorrhizal fungi.
Remember that all these plants should be connected below ground by mycorrhizal fungi. Thus, all plants are healthy or all are sick if they don't have the mycorrhizal connection. So, planting into summer cover crops won't work if the squares you plant the garlic into aren't prepared. All of that non-decomposing cover crop plant material in between the strips/squares you turn over  will be a real problem, so you have to get the right biology into the soil to do the decomposition. And why make biomass aboveground that is then a problem to get it to decompose and get into the soil? Plant things that will make ROOT biomass, not aboveground biomass. If you have plants that grow mostly roots, way deep, then you don't have to do the work to till aboveground plant material into the soil. (in SFG, we may apply some above ground like comfrey leaves or , we apply compost. but we can benefit from the perennials doing some of the work for us.) And when you till anything into the soil, you kill the very organisms that you need to do the work for you. When you harvest garlic, or any root crop, you do have to dig them up. BUT ONLY the strip/square that they are in, not the entire bed. Yes, you have to mark your rows/square, but really, that's not difficult, when you consider all the other reductions in work you get from letting the organisms do the work for you. So think about this, and as you do, I'm sure other questions will arise. So ask again, but try to incorporate this different way of gardening into everything you grow -- strawberries, garlic, tomatoes, whatever.