Perennial fruit and vegetables: plant once, harvest for ten years

You plant an asparagus crown in March. Two years later, it gives you asparagus every spring, for about twenty years. Perennials all work a bit like that. One planting, a season or two of patience, then harvests that come back on their own. This guide goes over eight perennial fruits and vegetables with the year of their first real harvest, their lifespan and the care of each year.

The eight perennials in one table

The lifespans come from the sheets of the RHS, the British horticultural society. Its climate is close to that of Belgium and northern France.

The catalogue and the RHS do not always say the same thing. For the strawberry, the catalogue gives a spring planting. The RHS prefers August or September, for a harvest the following summer. The plant then has time to settle in before fruiting. For the grapevine, the RHS plants it dormant, from November to early March. Outdoors, it judges early spring better. The catalogue says April.

Perennial vegetables: patience first, then nothing to sow

Asparagus: two years of waiting, twenty years of harvest

Plant the crowns in March, 30 to 45 cm apart, in rows 45 cm apart. Harvest nothing for the first two years. In the third, cut for about six weeks from mid-April. In the following years, about eight weeks. A well-established plant lasts up to 20 years, according to the RHS.

Artichoke: a harvest from the second summer

Plant in late spring, 75 to 90 cm apart. In the first summer, cut the flower stems so the plant settles in. You harvest from the second summer, in June. An adult plant can give up to 12 heads a season. After four to five years, the clump wears out. Renew it with its own offsets.

The guide Planting an artichoke offset details winter protection.

Rhubarb: the easiest of the eight

Plant the crowns between November and March, 75 to 90 cm apart. An adult clump is 1.50 m wide. In the first year, pick nothing. In the second, take a few stalks. From the third, harvest from April or May to the end of June, never taking more than a third of the stalks at a time. Divide the clump about every five years. It lives ten years or more.

The leaves are not edible. They contain oxalic acid, which is toxic. The stalk contains too little to be, according to the RHS. Put the leaves on the compost. To get pink stalks from late winter, read Forcing rhubarb under a bucket.

Soft fruit, quick to produce

The raspberry: choose your type

There are two families. The summer-fruiting type gives its raspberries in summer, on last year's canes. Its first harvest comes in the second summer. After picking, cut to the ground the canes that have fruited. Keep six to eight young canes per plant. The autumn-fruiting type fruits from August to October on the year's canes. It therefore gives from the first year. In February, you cut everything to the ground.

Plant between November and March, out of frost, 40 to 60 cm apart in the row. Do not replant where there were already raspberries. Well looked after, they give for about ten years. For everything else, read Raspberries, autumn-fruiting or not.

The strawberry: three or four years, then elsewhere

A strawberry plant produces well for up to four years. The RHS advises replanting every three or four years in a different place, to avoid a build-up of diseases. No need to buy. At the end of summer, root the runners in pots, next to the mother plant. Cut them off once they have taken. The detail is in Choosing and renewing your strawberries.

Grapevine, fig and olive, southern fruit in the north

These three grow in Belgium. Their fruit does not ripen every time.

The grapevine

Plant against a south-facing wall, at least 20 cm from the foot of the wall. The RHS asks for patience. Remove all the flowers for the first two years. In the third, leave about three bunches, then five in the fourth. After that, the vine produces fully. Prune every winter, at the start of dormancy. In the UK, the RHS judges that table grapes often need a greenhouse, except for varieties chosen in a very warm spot. The guide A grapevine in the vegetable garden says which ones.

The fig

Choose the warmest wall, south or south-west. The RHS advises restricting the roots in a pit 60 cm wide and deep. Line it with slabs on the sides and keep a draining base. In a cool climate, only one generation of figs ripens. These are the little figs the size of a pea, formed at the tips of the branches in late summer. They get through the winter and ripen the following summer. The others rarely ripen outside. At the end of summer, remove any fig bigger than a pea. The guide Fig tree north of the Loire goes further.

The olive

It grows in Belgium, but olives stay rare. The RHS reserves the open ground for very sheltered town gardens. Elsewhere, it advises a 30 to 35 cm pot, brought in out of frost in winter. Olives sometimes come after a hot summer. They need preparing before being eaten. In Liège, Oli has an olive tree grown from a cutting taken from a tree in Sicily, about five years ago. It grows. That is already a lot. The guide Olive tree in a pot or in the ground details its limits.

Where to put them in the vegetable garden?

A perennial occupies its place for years. Put it on the edge or in a bed of its own, never in the middle of vegetables that rotate every year. Asparagus stays in place 20 years. Rhubarb is 1.50 m wide. Also note where they are. Add your perennials to your vegetable garden in the app. You will find their planting and harvest dates for your region. Start here.

Photo: Mister R, Unsplash