I spent 4 or 5 years building an annual vegetable garden with the intention of selling some of the garden produce. In that time, I’ve discovered I don’t like the pace of annual vegetable gardening. And I’ve began to consider slower paced options of fruits and perennial gardening. I’m interested to hear about others experiences and preferences.
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I prefer the perennials because of their fruits and the ones I have without edible fruit don’t need any attention besides occasional weeding and trimming.
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I agree with you. I grew my own vegetable plants for many years. I tried selling them but all in all I ended up giving most of them away to friends, family, and neighbors. It was too time consuming to try and sell them.
So I’ve switched over to perennials and fruit trees. More rewarding and less work and worry about working with annuals. They tend to be very temperature sensitive. IMO
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Switched almost entirely to perennials a few years ago and haven’t looked back. The annuals always felt like starting from scratch every year — perennials just build on themselves. Less stress too, you’re not racing against the season the same way.
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I mostly grow perennials but sometimes I venture out into annuals.
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I am mostly annuals; but starting to add some perennials. Some annuals are practically perennial here. Ie…Pigeon and Runner beans. Our potatoes are on their second season untended and growing very well on their own.
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I’m like you, OP. When I had a garden, I liked perennial plants. But weeds and pests took over. I gave up the garden and I’m all ‘perennial’ fruit trees now, except for a few boxes on the deck with basil, mint and some microgreens.
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I am a perinials guy. Specifically fruit trees. If I had more time in life I would mess with annuals but as it is I can barely keep up with the trees and they require way less inputs and time than annuals.
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I like both. I started with native wildflowers and branched out to perennial fruit, and now have a rather large annual vegetable garden. I love tomatoes too much to not grow a ton of them.
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I definitely prefer perennial gardening. It seems like my limited time is better spent with perennials. The only annual I really enjoy planting is hardneck garlic, likely due to being so hands off.
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I’m more on the line of just trying out a bunch of annual plants and seeing which ones are the most viable and easy to grow. Then eventually just having a short list of ones I’ll consistently grow every year. But having permanent plots for the perennials is a good way to get the most out of your dirt while seeing what you can scrape around the edges for a little extra xD
Because say you plant a tree or bush, you can likely get away with throwing some annuals around it to maximize the use of the space.
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Both
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I get way more satisfaction from annuals. Nothing like digging up a hundred or so pounds of potatoes, plucking tomatoes off the vine and making sauce, or gathering some hot peppers for a chili or poppers.
We grow fruit trees/shrubs and perennial herbs, too. But for the most part, it’s always a hit or miss(not the herbs mind you, theyre indestructible). Bad, too much rain, we got fungus damage, late frost reduced our yield. For me, it always felt like timing with care is everything for the perennials(spraying schedule, covering) whilst annuals its just being steady, watering, thinning, etc.
I’m not great at any caring for either… always distracted, but annuals with they’re short window seem to hold my attention better. We do always have a larger selection of perennials in the yard though, if we don’t do much with them on any given year, it’s never a big deal.
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The satisfaction part can’t be understated! There is something wildly gratifying (albeit egomaniacal) about looking out at jungle vegetable gardens and thinking, “all this was just a tiny handful of seeds a few months ago…”
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i wish my annual veggies would all reseed and become perennials.
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I let my simpson lettuce go to seed last year. It’s now everywhere in the yard; flower beds, cracks in the sidewalk, in the lawn…we’ve been eating it from everywhere but the sidewalk
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I’ve got a huge sweet tooth and hate bitterness so many commonly grown annuals just don’t appeal to me.
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Perennials for me, mainly fruit trees and bushes. The payoff takes longer but once they’re established the work per kilo of harvest is so much lower than annuals. I still grow garlic and a few other veg but the trees are where most of my attention goes now.
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“I am not going to grow any vegetables, I won’t have time for that this year.”
- Peyote, January 2026
I now have 8 kinds of cabbage, a lot of lettuce, parsley, garlic, red and white onions, leeks, potatoes, sweet potatoes, red and orange sweet peppers, red and yellow cherry tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers, spinach, 5 different melons, and 6 different chili peppers.
Next year, I try again to focus on fruit trees and bushes, herbs, and as annuals only the fruiting nightshades and melons.
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I think growers who become Perennial growers start treating annual gardening differently. You adapt your Perennial style to annual growing and it’s easier. Annual gardening can be intensive if you do it wrong and leave bare soil and deal with weeds.
I never hear people complain about the actual annual gardening. It’s just the issues associated with with it. Weeds are tiring, they get old quick. I think if you took weeds and weeding out of the equation lots of Perennial growers would come back to annuals too.
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