Plant No-Pamper Perennial Crops

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Stalks from a strawberry rhubarb patch where the flowers have begun to develop on top of the plant.
Stalks from a strawberry rhubarb patch where the flowers have begun to develop on top of the plant.
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Cultivating your own dandelions is easy and one of the most rewarding perennial crops because the leaves, crowns, and roots of a dandelion may all be eaten.
Cultivating your own dandelions is easy and one of the most rewarding perennial crops because the leaves, crowns, and roots of a dandelion may all be eaten.
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Washed and bundled asparagus spears, just like you can find at the market, only these came from a homesteader's garden.
Washed and bundled asparagus spears, just like you can find at the market, only these came from a homesteader's garden.
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Bamboo shoots are delicious if picked (soon after they push up through the ground) and added to salads or sauteed in butter.
Bamboo shoots are delicious if picked (soon after they push up through the ground) and added to salads or sauteed in butter.
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A bed of Egyptian onions which produce little bulbs that can be harvested year after year from the plant's tall stalks.
A bed of Egyptian onions which produce little bulbs that can be harvested year after year from the plant's tall stalks.
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A crop of tubers produced by Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes) is very plentiful since they have a tendency to take over gardens.
A crop of tubers produced by Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes) is very plentiful since they have a tendency to take over gardens.
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The common day lily is usually only planted as an ornamental, but as the Chinese and Japanese know, its shoots, buds, flowers, and tubers are very edible.
The common day lily is usually only planted as an ornamental, but as the Chinese and Japanese know, its shoots, buds, flowers, and tubers are very edible.

Thanks to today’s escalating food costs, shortages and the growing concern over the multitude of chemical additives now found in supermarket produce, gardening is booming as never before. Perhaps you’ve joined the “homegrown is better” movement yourself.

But have you graduated yet from a total preoccupation with annual vegetables — carrots, corn, radishes, beans, etc. — that must be planted and laboriously tended every year? If not, it’s time you moved on up to some perennial crops such as asparagus, rhubarb, dandelions, bamboo, Jerusalem artichokes, Egyptian onions and other lilies (onions, you know, belong to the lily family) such as the day lily itself.

Growing Asparagus

Asparagus, in the opinion of many people, is the “choicest of the choice” of all the spring vegetables. I’ll agree with that. But what I really like about the plant is the fact that — once established — an asparagus bed will just keep on filling your plate with its early spring spears for 20 years or more!

This perennial thrives best when grown in areas where the winters are cold enough to freeze the ground to a depth of at least 5 inches. Roughly, that means anywhere in the continent from upper Georgia north.

  • Published on Mar 1, 1978
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