Interplanting Perennials with Annuals in the Garden

Interplanting Perennials with Annuals in the Garden

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It is still March. The last frost in NE Kansas is still over a month away. It is encouraging to see the perennials – walking onions, bloody dock sorrel, and plantain already prominent and harvestable in modest amounts. I plucked some Narrow Leaf plantain (perennial) and some mustard that overwintered and fed them to my chickens.

These pictures are from late April last year. The perennials are going full speed. I planted annual Black Seeded Simpson lettuce between them and had cut and come again lettuce throughout the Spring.

perennial garden
Perennial bed with hazel, walking onion, plantain, dock, lemon balm, horseradish.

Last year I converted some of my garden, the peripheral parts, into perennials, with annuals in the middle.

This is the same perennial bed as above, but in June. Goji berry, hazelnut, narrow leaf plantain (can be used in smoothies or to feed chickens), bloody dock, yarrow, walking onions, horseradish:

perennial garden bed in June
Perennial bed in June

The Benefits of Adding Perennials to Your Garden

Regular greens in my garden bolt quickly when it gets hot in early summer.

  • Options to augment those with perennial greens – dock, sorrel, lambs quarters, both narrow leaf plantain and a wider leaf plantain. Perennial are more bitter than annual greens. Dock  and sorrel have a slight lemony after taste.
  • Hazelnut, goji berry around the outside, walking onion, Solomon seal, plantain, dock, with annual lettuce in the middle. A mix of perennials and annuals.
  • Milpa garden or regular annuals in the middle.
Bloody dock perennial
Bloody dock sorrel – can be added to salad. Has a lemony taste.

perennial garden
Walking onions, bloody dock sorrel. What looks like grass is Narrow Leaf plantain, which can be fed to chickens or modestly added to a smoothie.
perennial garden
Hazelnut, goji berry around the outside, walking onion, Solomon seal, plantain, dock, with annual lettuce
landrace gardening

Landrace gardening is adapting crops to your land and climate, and then saving seeds, while also selecting for the best flavor, color, and pest and disease resistance.

Joseph lives in the high mountains of Utah – a mountain valley with cold air coming down out of the mountains, yet sun almost every day in the Summer, and low humidity. He grows for the farmers market and for himself and friends, and with a shorter season and these conditions he had difficulty growing warm weather crops.

Get Joseph’s book here.

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What I really liked:

  • The Backyard Forest Garden e-book
  • Agroforestry
  • Restoration Agriculture: Designing Your Perennial Farm presentation from Permaculture Voices by Mark Shepard
  • Permaculture Thorns, A Book About Trying to Build Permaculture Community, by Paul Wheaton.
  • Plus 2 books by Nicole Sauce.
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