Three perennial crops worth planting once

Thursday, 4 June 2026

Cape gooseberries. Plant Cape gooseberry seeds indoors in late winter to mid-spring (6-8 weeks before your last frost). Transplant seedlings into the garden after all danger of frost has passed and night temperatures consistently reach at least 10C.

Edible perennials are a significant feature of the kitchen garden. These mainstay crops are planted once, bouncing back from dormancy to provide again each year.

Even if we get behind with our garden planning or are late to plant our annual crops, the perennials will continue to provide, giving us a backup plan if all else fails.

Out of all the perennials I grow, there are three that stand out as firm favourites, making all the difference in our garden and kitchen. The first is a sought-after delicacy that feeds us when most other garden produce is sparse, the second provides us with spicy flavour bombs which we add to our cooking, and the third offers up little trinkets of vitamin-packed deliciousness for much of the year.

Aby with asparagus. Prepare your asparagus beds twice a year: in late autumn or winter (to finish the current season and protect roots) and in early spring (to feed the bed and clear the way for new spears).

Asparagus is a crop that takes time, patience and significant preparation. However, once it is established, you will be wondering how you ever got through spring without it. I planted ours from seed, and the whole process from sowing to eating those first few spears was four years. I’m grateful we had the foresight to plant it back then, because now we can harvest a substantial amount of food at a time we need it most. We usually pick asparagus from August right through to November – a lean time in many New Zealand vegetable gardens.

Rocoto chili. Start Rocoto chili seeds indoors in September or October, and transplant them outdoors once the risk of frost has completely passed (usually November when the soil is warm). You could germinate in late July if you have a heatmat.

Asparagus isn’t the most typical crop to find in northern Buller; it usually thrives in the more arid eastern parts of New Zealand and loves sandy soil, not our heavy clay. However, our sunny hillside terraces allow us to build up each garden as we desire, and when preparing the asparagus patch prior to planting, we gave it plenty of drainage, added light sandy soil, and boosted it with lots of compost and nourishment – something which is imperative for most perennials, as apart from seasonal top dressing, this is the only chance you have to add goodness deep into the ground.

Another perennial which gives us masses of food each year is a wonderful chilli named ‘Rocoto’. As with a lot of plants from South America, this Peruvian native grows well in Karamea. In fact, when we first moved here, I couldn’t get over how many “tomatoes” were fruiting outside in winter; from a distance the plants – and the chillies hanging from them – do resemble tomato plants. This is partly due to the foliage which features large furry leaves, but also because of the blocky round fruit, which, after going through a few morphs of colour, finally turn fiery bright red.

The large high shrubs have a sprawling habit, and unlike traditional chillies, they are very fast growing. Although they do well outside, ours is indoors and takes up the prime spot at the western end of our tunnelhouse. Each summer it gives us lots of large spicy chillies, and then once it has finished fruiting in early spring, the entire plant gets cut right back in preparation for the next round. Unlike more tender chilli plants, this guy is forgiving; it doesn’t seem to matter how hard he gets cut back, he just ends up bigger and stronger each year. In the past, I’ve left him to his own devices, but because ‘Rocoto’ can get so big (unpruned, in the right environment, will see them get many metres high and wide), this summer I’ve been training mine vertically and cutting off any wayward growth.

Last but certainly not least is possibly my all-time favourite perennial, cape gooseberry. These fruits also hale from South America, and like the ‘Rocoto’, they have furry leaves, keen rampant growth and the will to thrive no matter how hard they get pruned. In our frost-free environment, we can harvest the round berries from summer right through to late winter, making it one of the most abundant fruits I grow.

The golden bite-sized morsels are housed in dry papery pods, and their flavour is uniquely luscious. At first bite, you get a sweet yet astringent burst of flavour as the berries pop in your mouth, with their slight sourness making them all the more refreshing.

Now in full transparency, I will admit they aren’t the most popular fruit we grow; my partner Brett is averse to the flavour, and although our children used to love going out and picking cape gooseberries when they were younger (unwrapping the little packages that the berries come in is a fun way to get the kids involved in the garden), my boys’ tastebuds have since changed, and they no longer enjoy eating them. However, this doesn’t worry me because it means that every bowlful I harvest is for me and me alone.

Depending on where you live, your growing climate will have its own set of edible perennials that will produce well, and what works for me here in Karamea might not be right for where you are based. However, once you’ve established which perennials grows best for you, you will have a set of reliable crops you can fall back on each year to fill the kitchen bench.