5 Perennial Crops That Keep On Giving: Plant Once - Harvest for LIFE!

Are you tired of wasting hundreds of hours planting your garden every single year? It's crazy. You till, you sow, you plant, and then you have to do it all over again the next year. I was so burnt out. I love homegrown food, but honestly I felt like I was working for my garden, not the other way around. So I found a cheat code for gardening. I started transforming my garden with plants you only have to put in the ground one time. I'm talking about low maintenance, sustainable, and insanely productive plants. They build deep roots, which makes the soil better. And once they're established, they need less water, less fertilizer, and almost none of my time. Today I'm giving you the five perennial crops that give me a continuous harvest year after year with almost zero work. These are the plants that let you harvest forever. Let's do this. First up, I planted something that will literally feed me for the next 20 years. This is the ultimate gardening investment asparagus. This plant is a legend. You plant it once, and a good patch will keep producing food for 20 years. Think about that. One weekend of work for harvest that will last a generation. That is an insane deal. Getting started is easy. You plant one-year-old crowns in the spring. The most important thing is location. Asparagus needs all the sun and good soil. I spent an entire weekend digging the most epic asparagus bed ever, filled with tons of rich compost. It's serious work up front, but it's the foundation for two decades of food. But here's the crazy catch. You literally cannot harvest it for two years. You have to let the plants get established. In year three, you can finally start harvesting for a few weeks. From year four on, you get to eat it for six to eight weeks every single spring. Waiting for that third year was torture, but that first bite of homegrown asparagus was one of the There are some awesome varieties. Mary Washington is the OG, super dependable for beginners. But if you want to go next level, get Purple Passion. The spears are literally purple. They have more sugar, and they taste sweeter and nuttier. Plus, that purple color comes from powerful antioxidants. Once it's established, you just add mulch and compost once a year. It's that easy. Next is a plant for anyone who has zero patience. If you want to win right now, this is what you plant. Chives are probably the easiest edible plant you can possibly grow. It's basically a free food glitch. You can grow them from seed, but it's even faster to just buy a small plant. Stick it in a sunny spot in pretty much any soil, and that's it. Seriously, you're done. You now have infinite chives. I have them everywhere, in my garden beds, along paths, in pots. They just don't care. The flavor is a mild onion that goes on everything. I am constantly putting fresh cut chives on eggs, potatoes, salads, anything. It's an instant upgrade. And the craziest part? The more you cut them, the faster they grow back. It makes no sense. You have a never-ending supply from spring all the way to fall. But it gets even crazier. In the spring, it grows these awesome purple flowers. They look cool. They attract tons of bees to help your whole garden, and you can eat them. The flowers are edible. And every few years, if a clump gets too big, you just dig it up, chop it in half, and replant it. Just like that, you have more chives for free to give to all your friends. All right, this next plant is so powerful, it's actually dangerous. This thing is almost too good at its job and will give you mountains of food with zero effort. It's the Jerusalem artichoke or sunchoke. It's not an artichoke. It's a sunflower that grows giant edible tubers underground. These things give you a huge amount of nutty, savory tubers you can harvest all winter. The flavor is like a nutty sweet potato, and they're incredible roasted in soups or fried into chips. They survive anything. They're drought tolerant, and they will grow in almost any soil with full sun. But, and this is a huge warning, this plant is an enthusiastic grower. Some people literally call it invasive. If you leave one tiny piece of tuber in the ground, it will grow a new plant next year. I learned this the hard way. I planted five small tubers, and by year three, I had a 10 foot tall thicket and was harvesting buckets of them. Because of this, you have to plant them in a contained space, put them in a big raised bed, or install a root barrier 18 inches deep to stop them from taking over your entire yard. But honestly, having a plant that is trying this hard to give you more food is a pretty amazing problem to have. This next plant is one of the weirdest things I have ever seen in my life, and it's called the Egyptian walking onion. This is a must have because it literally plants itself. Instead of making seeds, it grows a cluster of tiny little onions called bull bills at the top of its stalks. When they get heavy, the stalk just flops over, touches the ground, and boom, the bull bulls plant themselves and start a whole new onion plant. Over a few seasons, the plant literally walks across your garden making more free food for you. How is this even real? These onions are basically indestructible. They survive freezing weather, making them super reliable. They're one of the first things to pop up in the spring, and you get three harvests from one plant. You can eat the green shoots, you can eat the underground bulbs, which are super spicy, and you can eat the little top set onions or just replant them to start a new onion army wherever you want. I started with a tiny clump of three plants, and now I have a giant patch that gives us onions all year round. I will never have to buy onions ever again. Last up is my secret weapon for infinite leafy greens. Forget spinach, forget kale, this is good King Henry, and you only have to plant it once. This thing is a total powerhouse. It's an old school plant that will give you tender leaves for years. It's loaded with vitamins A and C, and it tastes like a mix between spinach and asparagus. It's a two-for-one flavor combo, and its superpower, it grows in partial shade. All those useless shady spots in your garden, you can be growing food there with this. It pops up super early in the spring, giving you fresh greens before anything else is even ready. You can harvest the young shoots and cook them just like asparagus. As it gets bigger, you just keep cutting the leaves and cook them like spinach. This plant is an absolute champion. Its deep taproot pulls nutrients up from the soil, which helps other plants around it. Once it's in the ground, you just forget about it, and it will give you greens for years and years. For a dependable green you only plant one time, good King Henry is an absolute winner. And there you go, five incredible perennial crops that can free you from ever having to plant them again. I want to know which one of these you're going to plant first. Let me know in the comment section right now. I always read the guys are doing. Switching to these plants completely broke my garden. I went from working for my garden to my garden working for me. It's no longer a list of chores. It's an ecosystem that feeds my family with almost no effort. By planting things like asparagus, chives, Jerusalem artichokes, Egyptian walking onions, and good King Henry, you are building a more sustainable future in your backyard and saving hundreds of hours. If you're excited to create a garden that works for you instead of the other way around, smash that subscribe button. I've got way more insane gardening hacks coming your way. Thanks for watching and happy gardening.