I have also had some luck overwintering lettuce. I bought the Yankee Hardy lettuce blend from High Mowing and have been able to overwinter it about 50% of the time.
Red Russian Kale can also be overwintered fairly easily.
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You are on the right track with alliums. I’ve planted a few rounds of ramps, and while they seem to at least not be dead, they don’t seem to multiply very quickly.
What has worked great for me that is edible this time of year:
- perennial green onions (welsh/regular and egyptian)
- chives
- perennial leeks
- perennial sterile Sorrel
- perennial (sylvetta) arugula
- annual garlic
These are all out early and are excellent eating. My music garlic is already big enough to eat green. If you eat it early, the leaves are edible and delicious roasted with salt and olive oil.
Here is my little sorrel patch, with perennial leeks in back.
Here are some of my green onions.
The arugula is visible just coming out near the wall now, still pretty small this time of year.
Other ones that can be eaten that have not been less good:
-
sea kale. Big enough to eat this time of year but not that good. People say you should blanch it by covering, which I have yet to try. Pretty plant with great flowers anyway though so I have not removed it.
-
horseradish. Leaves are already big enough to eat, but I don’t find them to be great eating. Plus it is hard to eradicate if you want to move it or put something else where it is. Neat looking though. Mine are putting on some flowers this year.
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I think I got my bulbs on eBay; I’m not sure though, I remember something about having to wait until fall. It’s been a few years.
There are lots of people selling seeds on eBay, from various parts of Europe. Seeds are inexpensive but don’t have the best sprout rate and take a couple of years to establish harvestable plants. If you grow from seed they seem to sprout best if they overwinter in the ground; I’ve tried indoor stratification without luck.
I’ll see if I can find a record of my bulb source.
Those are great looking green onions. Any idea were you acquired those?
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Ok, I found my email receipt. Looks like I got my allium ursinum/ramson bulbs here:
Not to keep beating a dead horse, but those are dandelion, not thistle, in that photo.
Picked and ate a huge bowlful just like them on Tuesday… they’d been growing unpicked for the two weeks I was gone to Greece… were pretty bitter, so I weed-whacked them back to the ground to re-grow.
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Yes. They have creepy roots to spread themselves
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I second the honeyberries, i was picking berries late march-early april in zone 7
i went with boreal beauty, boreal blizzard, solo and maxie
it is only my first year so i didn’t have much berries but maybe i can provide more experience next year
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Thanks! I’ve planted a number of varieties there including:
- evergreen
- guardsman
- ishikura
- he shi ko
Not sure which ones have survived to be the ones in the picture.
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I like walking onions! They are very good right now, here in zone 4/5. What about fiddleheads ?
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prelude red raspberries are ready by late june up here. bet in 3 zones warmer they would be ready pretty early. honey berries are the earliest crop here also. the japanese strain honeyberries produce a little later but also take the heat better. dont think the canadian or russian ones would survive that far south. rhubarb is almost ready to pick here but i don’t know if it could take z7 heat. maybe shaded in the afternoon it would make it.
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i higghly doubt fiddleheads would make it that far south. they like the cold.
Thank you!
Someone might have mentioned them, but we are picking a few strawberries already. Our Earliglow variety is just starting to ripen up. I picked about 5 today, the most so far. It’s been raining a lot this week, so that may have slowed down the ripening, but I expect a lot more as the weather dries out and the sun comes out.
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I was hoping we could grow some edible fern heads, tho? I know my ferns are up and growing, so I was going to look into ones known for eating. I know a guy who said you can eat any fern heads, but I don’t think I’d trust that!
I’ve only had them in Indian food, so I bet those would grow in the South 
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Ostrich fern grows fine here in part sun…
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I did notice a couple of strawberries plumping up and starting to turn white–the prelude to red.
My three year old happily eats them green! She does the same with cherries. I keep telling her they will taste a lot better if she leaves them on the tree to turn red…but three year olds are not known for patience. It’s funny because she can be super picky about food at the dinner table–but if it comes from the garden it is all good. That’s a reason to garden right there!
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I planted a loquat in Charlotte NC about a dozen years ago…didn’t stick around to see how it fared.
It was gifted to me, and I planted it in the yard of a friend at the time. But, I suspect in 7b or 8a, it would fruit successfully some years.
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