October already and still no frost but now that we are getting near the end of the gardening season, it is worth a look at some garden plants that are perennial and don’t need to be planted every year. The first I would like to mention is one that I saw on a few places along the roadside when I went apple picking and that is asparagus. This time of the year they just look like wispy ferns, something you might see in a floral arrangement, but come spring they will push up those delicious spears. 

They do this every year without fail and they require very little care, hence the reason I saw some growing in the ditches along county roads. Asparagus likes sandy soil and it can tolerate road salt which is why it can grow well in the ditches. Back in the nineteen eighties my grandparents in Liberty had a row of asparagus that grew just off the edge of the street they lived on. In fact they got more asparagus from that row than they did from their garden in the backyard. No one knew where the asparagus had come from, it certainly didn’t get planted there on purpose, but it came back every spring for about fifteen years. Asparagus, like corn, wants a high nitrogen fertilizer as it is the stems that we are interested in, so if you have a patch of asparagus you can use just a little plain lawn fertilizer on it over the course of the winter. That way the fertilizer will get down to the roots by early spring when the asparagus starts to sprout. 

Another perennial favorite in country gardens is rhubarb. Rhubarb comes back every year and a typical rhubarb patch will grow over time by itself. The rhubarb crown (root) itself will grow larger, but in some years the plants will spike a flower stalk instead of the typical leafy plant that everyone knows. When this occurs just let it run its course and the rhubarb will set seed that will expand your rhubarb patch. The rhubarb roots do have some old time medicinal value but today we only use the stalks. The leaves of the rhubarb have high levels of oxalic acid and are toxic and should not be used. This is why the deer and woodchucks will usually leave rhubarb alone as well. Garlic is somewhat perennial with a little help. 

When you harvest your garlic in the fall, take one garlic bulb apart and plant each of the cloves so that they will be your garlic the following year. There are many herbs that are perennial as well and make great additions to any garden or landscape. There are multiple varieties of thyme that are perennial, that flower and can be used as groundcover. Silver thyme, red flowering thyme, pink and white thyme all come back year after year. Most of the time they don’t even die back if we have some snow cover to protect them. Sage is another well used herb that is perennial. Common, tri-colored and purple are some of the most used varieties in the area. White sage (ceremonial sage) is not winter hardy in our area and although we do get it from time to time in the spring, it is very hard to find in the northeast. 

Both common and garlic chives are perennial and they can add flair to any meal and their purple blooms in summer can be quite spectacular. So even though the gardening season is quickly coming to an end, there are a few plants that you can think about adding to your garden next year for the first and last time.