A fast aromatic annual with crinkled purple or green leaves, picked all summer for wrapping, seasoning, and pickling.
Perilla frutescens · also called Perilla, Beefsteak plant
Windows are counted from the average date of your last spring frost.
One plant supplies leaves from midsummer to frost, and the flavor is nothing you can buy fresh in most markets. The red forms double as an ornamental in a mixed bed or a pot by the kitchen door.
A little history. A mint-family annual from East Asia, long grown in Japan, Korea, and China. Like its relatives it has a square stem and paired leaves, and it sheds seed freely enough to return on its own.
Press seed onto the surface and barely dust it over — light helps it sprout. Keep the top half-inch damp until seedlings show, which can take 3 weeks. Seedlings emerge in 7–21 days in warm soil.
Sow seeds ⅛ inch (3 mm) deep.
Either — a bed spot in sun or a roomy pot; needs about 8 in of soil depth. In containers: 3-gallon pot per plant, at least 10 in deep. Space plants 12 inches (30 cm) apart.
Water 2–3 times a week in hot weather; do not let plants wilt. Water when the top inch of soil feels dry. Aim for about 1 inch per week including rain.
Side-dress (scatter fertilizer along the row and water in) once mid-season. What to use: balanced 5–5-5 organic or finished compost. Go light on nitrogen.
Pinch the growing tip above the second or third pair of true leaves (the full-shaped leaves after the first rounded pair) to force branching. Snap off flower spikes to keep leaves coming.
It's ready when plants stand 8–12 in tall with several pairs of full-size leaves. Pick before flower spikes form, when leaves are broad and still soft. Pinch or snip individual leaves at the base of the leaf stalk, working from the top down so side shoots take over. Take no more than a third of the plant at one time.
Stand cut stems in a glass of water on the counter, or wrap dry leaves in a damp towel inside a bag in the fridge for up to 5 days. Leaves bruise easily.
Sow a second batch about 4 weeks after the first so tender young leaves are coming on as the first planting starts to flower.
Wasabi
Wasabi sulks in direct sun and wants cool, constantly damp ground. A row of shiso on the sunny side can throw useful light shade through the hottest weeks, though it is no substitute for a properly shaded, well-watered site.
Sweet Alyssum
Alyssum's tiny flowers feed hoverflies and small parasitic wasps whose young hunt aphids, and aphids are what cluster on shiso's tender growing tips. Sow a ribbon along the bed edge and let it bloom all season.
Nasturtium
Aphids often settle heavily on nasturtium before they find nearby herbs. It only works if you act: cut and bag the infested stems once they are loaded, rather than leaving a breeding colony beside the shiso.
Tomato
Strongly scented shiso foliage can help mask a tomato row from pests that hunt by smell, and the bushy plants fill the open ground under staked vines. Expect a modest effect only under light pest pressure.
Bush Bean
Beans bank nitrogen in their roots. Cut the tops at season's end and leave the roots in place, and the shiso you plant in that bed the following spring draws on it as the roots break down.
Fennel
Fennel roots release compounds that reliably stunt most garden vegetables and herbs, shiso included. Give it its own corner well away from the herb bed, where its flower heads still earn their place feeding hoverflies and tiny parasitic wasps.
Peppermint
Peppermint travels by underground runners and will thread through a shiso patch in a single season, making clean picking impossible. Grow it in its own container, or sink a bottomless pot to contain the roots.
Zucchini
Big squash leaves sprawl fast and will bury a knee-high herb by midsummer, taking the light and the surface water with them. Keep at least 3 feet between them, or put the shiso on the sunny side of the bed.
Easy-going — Shiso can grow almost anywhere in the rotation without a strict rest.
The pea and bean family, the cabbage family or the tomato family thrive in this ground next season.
A light feeder that takes little from the bed and leaves no lasting cover behind. Wait a year before growing shiso in the same spot, and follow it with peas or beans, a cabbage-family crop, or tomatoes and peppers.
Set your garden's location and every window above becomes a real date — then Verdie reminds you when it's time to sow, transplant, water, and pick.
