How to Grow a Perennial Salad Garden

Enjoy early spring salads from your perennial garden

Like most gardeners, you look forward to the first sign of spring so you can begin to work the soil in preparation for planting. Get a jump on the harvest season by choosing perennial favorites that you’ll be eating while your neighbors are still waiting for their seeds to sprout. With a little planning, you can have a perennial salad garden that begins growing before the ground is warm enough to plant other varieties.

Things You'll Need

• Salad burnett
• Orach
• Parsley
• Jerusalem artichokes
• Cilantro
• Chives

Instructions

1. 

   Plant salad burnett to add a tangy and nutritious taste to your daily fare. This perennial gourmet favorite survives winter temperatures below zero and comes back stronger and more prolific each year. Make sure to pick the leaves as soon as they appear since they become bitter the longer they remain on the plant.

2. 

   Enjoy orach, also known as mountain spinach, while the frost still covers the ground. Prized by the original pioneers for its hardiness, orach is good raw or steamed. Unlike salad burnett, orach leaves are tender even after the plant goes to seed in late summer. Characterized by its attractive purple leaves, orach makes your salad as pretty as it is tasty.

3. 

   Add generous amounts of parsley to your perennial salads and soups. Often used as a side garnishment, parsley packs a nutritional punch--it's full of antioxidants and vitamin C. Harvest the new leaves often to encourage vigorous plant growth throughout the entire season.

4. 

   Dig Jerusalem artichokes early in the season for a nutty-tasting addition to your salads. Not exactly a perennial, Jerusalem artichokes are the roots of a biennial relative of the sunflower that survives the winter under a protective layer of soil. Chop into small cubes and toss with your salad greens for a delicious addition that provides a natural source of fructose in your diet.

5. 

   Sprinkle a south-of-the border taste on your salad with a few cilantro leaves. Self-seeding, cilantro adds a distinctive flair to your salads. It is also popular blended into fresh salsas and Mexican dishes. Sometimes mistaken for broadleaf parsley, cilantro has a much stronger taste.

6. 

   Chop some perennial chives for your salad. Chives are available in both garlic and onion flavors. Grow some of each and you’ll notice them poking up through the soil as soon as the snow melts. For the best results, separate chive root clumps when the plants become large and unruly. In this way, you encourage vigorous chive production on established roots.