If you’re used to growing only annual vegetables, or decorative perennials, you’re missing out on a whole world of easy to grow foods that can pack a huge amount of nutrition into your garden, while complimenting and even helping your vegetables grow. If you already have the perennial itch, like me, below are some favorite perennial companion plants for vegetables based on the highest nutrition for the lowest amount of work and inputs.

2. Good King Henry (Chenopodium bonus-henricus); the No Work Greens:

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This forgotten perennial salad green was grown for hundreds of years, before our culture’s single-minded obsession with annual food plants began. It prefers fertile, moist soil (compost and mulch heavily first) with part shade. They can be directly seeded in the garden when the soil is warm – just make a line in the mulch to expose the soil a little (not completely) and plant seeds about 3 times their thickness deep, as with most seeds. This plant does not like to be transplanted, but is otherwise very tough and easy to grow, growing in most soil types and conditions.

5. Hazelnuts (Corylus species); Easy and Packed

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Hazels are a vigorous shrub that produces the well known, delectable and highly nutritious nut. Their nuts are high in important nutrients and minerals like Thiamin, Vitamins B6, C, E, K, folate, iron, magnesium, potassium, zinc, manganese, and a ton of other things! They make an excellent wind break companion plant for the vegetable garden, which can dramatically boost plant growth, since wind breaks are associated with a 6-44% increase in crop yield. Consider planting them at the edge of the garden in a line with plants spaced 3 feet apart, on the side that your main cold season winds come from. They require full sun, and well drained, nutrient rich soil. Many people grow hazelnuts as a tree, but most varieties are actually naturally shrubs, and this would be the best form to grow them in as a wind break, while also making it easier to harvest their nuts (since they’ll grow outward instead of upward). For higher production, however, you can plant them closer to 6-8 feet apart. You can shape them easily by pruning them while they’re dormant, and if you have a lot of squirrels where you live, you might want to take steps to keep the squirrels at bay.

7. Angelica, Lovage and Other and Allies Umbels (Apiaceae family); Bringing Beauty

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These plants bring a distinct beauty to the garden, while also offering food and medicine to you, the grower, and food to an important insect ally to boot, the small but helpful parasitic wasp. These little guys lay their eggs inside garden pests like beetles, flies, scales, caterpillars and aphids, which are then eaten from the inside out by the larvae… gruesome but effective.Some uses of members of the family include Angelica’s use as a blood tonic for women and Lovage’s use as a wonderful celery flavored addition to soup. Most of the plants can grow in dappled shade or full sun, and prefer deep fertile soil.

9. Sunchokes (Helianthus tuberosus); the Fast Growing Potato Alternative with Flowers

Also known as Jerusalem Artichokes, Sunchokes are a large plant that dies back to the ground after a freeze, concentrating their energy in their unique and delicious roots, which are best dug up in the fall, early spring before they emerge, or even in the winter if you mulch them heavily enough that the ground doesn’t freeze. This sunflower relative is super aggressive and spreads by root, underground, so it might be best to grow them in their own garden plot. I recommend starting off eating just a little, and then working your way up, since, similar to beans, your body must become used to digesting them. They require full sun, and a deep, loose soil to make for larger roots and easier harvesting. There are now varieties that have smoother roots, which makes them much easier to clean, so look out for these types especially when ordering the roots.

There are many other perennial edibles and medicinals you can grow among your annual vegetables as well, most of which will compliment them nicely.

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So this spring when you’re planning what to grow in your garden, consider branching out into perennial companion plants. Contrary to popular belief, they are not more work in the garden, and they’re easier to get started with than you might think. In fact, most perennials are less work, with fewer nutrient and water needs, not to mention only having to plant them once! Just be careful to watch what you’re eating, as some perennials have relatives that are not edible. Tell us what you think of our list of vegetable garden companion plants in the comments below, share any of your favorites we missed, and please share this article if you enjoyed it.