What do you like to eat? I grow a yard full of tropical fruit like mangos, bananas, papayas, citrus, pineapples, muscadines, sugar apple, jackfruit etc as well as hardy stuff like peaches, figs, pomergranate, berries, herbs and veggies. This is the time of year that most veggies and herbs do the best, once summer hits its too hot.

My favorites are bananas. They are easy to grow, prolific and yummy. I am down to 10 varieties LOL.

Chaya is a lovely shrub that is perennial and used like spinach (must be cooked). Hibiscus acetosella reseeds every year, or may come back if the base is protected. Leaves are tart and great in salads. Rosemary is my favorite perennial herb. It makes a nice border plant around herb knot gardens. Actually, peppers, eggplant and tomatoes are perennials in their native habitat, but either they freeze or disease/nematodes get them here. I did have a Japanese eggplant live to the ripe old age of 3 years and a cherry tomato last 2 years. I suggest some of the tropical vegetables also. Here's a link to an article I wrote on tropical leaf veggies and at the bottom is a link to my friend's article on tropical root veggies, many of which are very ornamental.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tropical leaf veggies

Pigeon peas are perennial - unless you get a hard freeze. I covered mine and everything, and they are still toast. Alas.

But they form a nice hedge and live about 5 years under good conditions, and they are easy to replace when they start to fade.

Thanks Everyone keep those ideas coming!!!
@keiki ~ I eat everything!!!! lol and love trying new things.. i have peach, banana, grapes, mulberries, and a lemon tree

Sweet potatoes, broccoli, basil, fennel, chives, parsley, mint, in addition to those already mentioned.

Jamaican pepper bush.

Many edible plants (including brassicas especially mustards) are not perennial but are aggressive self-seeders and will perpetuate in the right conditions.

does anybody have or sell plants (cheap) for chaya?

Sorry I got little off topic before I got excited when you mentioned frut.

I can give you cuttings of chaya in the spring if you want. I personaly dont care for the taste, most people I know don't. I can also share pigeon pea seeds later on. Pigeon peas are very pretty and easy to grow but you will need quite a few. Truscifi that is smart using them as hedge. My peppers and eggplants usually do well for 2 years then they get tired and sad looking.

pnbrown I have never heard of jamaican pepper bush, I will have that one up.

Hi - chicories are perennial, seemingly - I have some from a packet I bought 2 years ago still growing & flowering - if you like bitter greens. & dandelion will perpetuate as well.

& I also grow 'perennial' arugula that lasts a long time & reseeds prolifically. I had 'dinosaur' kale that lasted through several seasons & grew a ridiculously long stalk, but I finally took it out to make room for other things.

Oregano, rosemary, most mints, garlic chives, Egyptian onions & sweet marjoram are also perennials in my garden. My marjoram is in a clay pot & is so many years old now, I can't recall when I planted it.

Some types of peppers have lasted a long time for me: aji dulce lasted 3+ years for me & aconcagua has lasted almost 2 so far. They are in containers - those in the ground don't last long - I suspect fusarium.

& don't forget figs - dead easy, mostly.

HTH

I was walking around the yard and noticed a few things that weren't mentioned here.

Lemon grass grows like a weed, great for tea or cooking.

moujean tea - I use this for tea only as it has a great scent and nice look in the garden. The leaves smell great.

Bay tree. I keep mine in a pot to control the size.

Allspice. I also grow this in a pot. I have yet to use this but do love the leaves and its fun to show friends.

Katuk - the new sprouts can be stir fried or added to salads. I eat the flowers out of hand while walking around the garden.

And black pepper.

Funny I grow many of the things Carolb mentioned but never thought of them. Can you tell me what egyption onions are and how they grow?

Egyptian onions are a.k.a. walking &/or topset onions - mine never produced the topsets (bulblets in place of flowers), but they did multiply @ the base. They look like extra big scallions & you can harvest the entire plant, or simply cut off the leaves & use those. I had them for a number of years until they finally died off.

This year I'm trying Welsh onions - somewhat similar, I understand, but not topsetting...

Top set onions......Egyptian walking onion

Here is a link that might be useful: Egyptian Walking Onion

Wow! Thanks.. Im now looking for walking onions plants, and katuk in addition to chaya!!

I just started some chives and evergreen bunching onion which i read is a perennial.. I also planted asparagus and artichoke to see how it does here

I found a pretty good list which i put on my blog for me to follow as well as to help others.. but it seems my main problem is trying to find these plants!! Looks like I will have to find local gardeners who grow it and hope for generosity!!

Here is a link that might be useful: Perennial Foods!

I have tried to establish walking onion (v. Catawissa) several times in central florida, they have not naturalized as they easily do here in new england.

I might have the name wrong on the pepper. In south florida we had a nice thriving one, very prolific. A Jamaican friend gave it us as a small plant.

Sweet potatoes ! With sweets so expensive in the store, and so easy to grow, people should nevef have to buy them once a bed of them gets going... just cut eyes from sweets and plant them, they take a lot of room when they start to runner but can be put back into the main area, they like the hotter weather and don't need rich soil, they take abt. 4 months to produce good sized tubers but they keep on producing, I have a bed in an out-of-the-way area and just keep digging them up, I leave the vines and they keep setting more tubers, and if not dug they keep getting bigger... what a bargain from a couple sweets! sally

Habanero pepper are easy and long lasting. I had one down in fort lauderdale, then moved to Orlando, it lasted for four years, finally got rid of it because no one but me eats it, and it produced too much.

I always thought of peppers as a annual, thanks! :) Also on the sweet potatoes Im excited because I have prepared a bed for the coming planting and pre-ordered a bundle of 25 plants from the local feed store!

A lot depends on how cold it gets where you are. I can grow okra as a perennial and it will produce year around, but much slower in the winter, tho less buggy. Most brassicas can be grown as an ornamental perennial here too, stalks can get to 5-6 feet. Sweet peppers can survive several years if you're not in a freeze zone, as well as the ornamental peppers in addition to the hot peppers. I second the vote on Rosemary as a great perennial herb.

Tom

LOL eqyptian onions (moving my arms in a duck like motion) walk like an eqyptian. Did they get their name from the song?

I googled jamacian pepper bush and found it is a common name for allspice. Thats the problem with common names different areas call things different names. I sure do enjoy the pronouncation of common names to the latin ones.

Anybody got Chaya (Cnidoscolus aconitifolius) they'd be willing to take cuttings from? Check my trade list.

I'm bringing some permaculture plants like what you're looking for to our garden swap coming up..Okinawa spinach, African blue basil, lemon grass, natal plum, dragon fruit pitaya, cranberry hibiscus, wild coffee..some others ..Here in Edgewater Fl. November 10th from 2-4pm at Menard May Park..you should come if you can!

Here is a link that might be useful: Edgewater Permaculture Society's website