Edible Garden Tour 2021| Perennials and Annuals

Hey Frenns! It’s been a great time prepping the Garden and now I can exhale and give a tour. This year, I focused more growing perennials than annuals. I even added some perennial fruit/herbs. 

For those who do not know: perennial is a vegetable/herb/fruit/flower that comes back every year. It will grow then go dormant and then come back in the new season. Annuals are flowers that only last one season. This year it was important for me to invest in some flowers that would give me some return on my investment. But also, some that will fulfill my instant gratification need for flowers to look pretty NOW!  

Flower bed is as follows: 

• Creeping Jenny (perennial) 
• Hosta (perennial) 
• Parsley (an herb and so far…perennial) 
• Blue Waterfall Campanula – perennial 
• Asian Lilly (various varieties)- perennial 
• Fuchsia Flower 
• Purple Heart (annual) 

I’m excited about this flower bed. I started it last year, and decided to invest more in adding perennial flowers. I was kind of on the fence about whether I would purchase annual flowers or perennial. The advantage of perennial is that they come back year after year but they don’t “look” like much for a few years. LOL If you want instant gratification- annuals are the way to go. So I decided to continue to add purple heart. They attract a lot of pollinators and they look so pretty. I know in some regions purple heart are perennial- but it cannot survive midwest winters so it’s an annual here. 

Vegetable garden bed(s):

This year for my vegetable/herb garden I decided to add a few items that I’ve never grown before but also keep some trusty ones as well. I didn’t grow as much as I have in the past but I do have a lot of varieties of the same type of vegetable. And left some alone. Every year I grow pumpkins. And as much as I wanted to grow them again (they’re so rewarding once they finally grow) I wanted to give sugar baby watermelon a try. I’ve been trying to grow watermelon for about 4 years. And every year- NOTHING. Or I’ll grow something then the squirrel take over. LOL More about squirrel deterrents later. So the large fruit I’m growing this year is watermelon.

I was so happy my grapes made a return this year. From what I’ve heard the first year is just vines (which Is what I had last year) and leaves. The second year I will get grapes and they won’t be very tasty. Then next year is when they’ll be full grown and continue to return. I lost my strawberry from last year so I planted them again. They will thankfully return. My blueberry from last year came back (well one of them did)- so I planted another bush to go along with it. What also came back from my garden was the mint and chives. I will be honest- I regret not potting the chives but they are so pretty in the garden. I am growing so many cucumber I will have pickles for days (you’re welcome!).

The full list of what I’m growing is as follows: 

• Tomatoes (5 different varieties) 
• Cucumbers (Yes, Pickles are on the way). 
• Kale 
• Collards 
• Purple Cabbage 
• Purple Hull Peas 
• Sunflowers (different varieties) 
• Corn 
• Watermelon 
• Okra (green) 
• Jalepeno Pepper 
• Habanero Pepper 
• Sweet Banana Pepper
• Serrano 
• Red Okra 
• Broccoli 
• Beets 
• Grapes (this is my second year and they are coming back). 
• Strawberry (perennial) 
• Lemon Balm (perennial) 
• Dill 
• Blueberry (perennial) 
• Mint (perennial) 

This list may seem like a lot but believe it or not I am growing less than I usually grow. I really wanted to add some various peppers and take advantage of some containers. I was able to create more gardening space in my bed and leave that for the many cucumbers. 

It is my intention to give a more comprehensive blog post dedicated to each flower/vegetable/herb educating you about each one. And showing it’s growth. 

Tell me in the comments what you’re growing in your own garden!