A perennial leafy green that returns each spring and yields edible shoots, leaves, and flower spikes across a long season with minimal fuss.
Blitum bonus-henricus · also called poor man's asparagus, mercury goosefoot
8–10 weeks before last frost; seeds need a cold, moist period of 4 weeks to break dormancy.
6–8 weeks before first fall frost to allow natural cold stratification over winter.
Once established, a single planting produces harvests for a decade or more with little intervention. The young shoots are used like asparagus and the leaves like spinach, giving two distinct crops from one plant.
A little history. Native to central and southern Europe; naturalized widely in Britain and North America. A perennial member of the goosefoot family, it was cultivated as a pot herb across Europe from at least the medieval period, documented in herbals from the 16th century onward.
Sow shallowly; seeds need light to germinate. Keep the top quarter-inch moist but not waterlogged. Expect slow, uneven emergence. Seedlings emerge in 14–30 days in warm soil.
Sow seeds ¼ inch (6 mm) deep.
Water deeply once or twice a week during dry spells; established plants are drought-tolerant but produce better with consistent moisture. Water when the top 2 inches of soil feel dry to the touch. Aim for about 1 inch per week including rain.
Side-dress (scatter fertilizer along the row and water in) once in early spring as shoots emerge, and again after the main leaf harvest. What to use: well-rotted compost or a balanced organic fertilizer; this is a leafy crop and benefits from moderate nitrogen.
Pinch out flower spikes promptly once you have harvested the tender young ones as a vegetable; allowing the plant to set seed exhausts the crown and reduces leaf yield the following year.
It's ready when harvest young shoots in the second year onward when they are 4–6 inches tall and still tightly furled, before leaves fully open. Leaves are ready once they reach 2–3 inches across but before they toughen. Snap or cut shoots cleanly at the base with scissors or a sharp knife. Pick individual leaves from the outside of the plant inward. Never remove more than one-third of the plant's foliage at any one harvest.
Use fresh within 2 days; store loosely wrapped in a damp cloth in the refrigerator. Leaves wilt quickly — harvest just before use when possible.
Cut stems back to ground level after the first hard frost. Apply a 2–3 inch mulch of straw or leaf mold over the crown; remove it in early spring as new shoots emerge. Crowns are reliably perennial once past their first winter.
Spearmint
The strong scent of mint can help hide this crop's leaves from aphids and leaf miners that locate hosts by smell. Sink the mint in a bottomless pot or a separate container alongside the bed, since its runners will otherwise overrun a permanent planting.
Chives
Chive foliage carries a sharp onion smell that often reduces aphid landings on nearby leafy greens under low pest pressure. Being perennial itself, it can hold a permanent edge to the bed without needing yearly replanting.
Strawberry
Strawberries feed in the top few inches while this crop draws from a deep taproot, so the two rarely fight over water or food. The strawberry mat also shades the soil surface around the crown and keeps weeds down between spring shoot harvests.
Comfrey
Comfrey's long flowering season draws in hoverflies and tiny parasitic wasps whose larvae work through aphid colonies. Set it three feet or more away — its taproot is a strong competitor — and cut the leaves two or three times a season to lay around the crown as mulch.
Spinach
Both belong to the goosefoot family and host the same downy mildew and the same leaf-mining flies. A permanent crown grown beside annual spinach carries those problems from one season into the next instead of breaking the cycle.
Beet
Beet and chard share this crop's family, its leaf miner, and its leaf spot and mildew problems. Keep beet rows well away from the perennial bed so the standing crown does not act as a year-round reservoir for those pests and diseases.
A perennial — it holds its spot for years, so it sits outside the annual rotation.
This is a permanent planting, not part of an annual rotation — leave the crown undisturbed and there is no family gap to count. It feeds moderately and gives little back, so top the bed with compost each autumn. If you ever lift and retire it, sow peas or beans in the vacated ground.
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