Plants

15 Productive Plants That Are Evergreen and Suited for the Temperate Climate

For me, this year has been full of exciting information about the temperate climate. Having spent most of my permaculture life in Central America, moving to North Carolina has had me say goodbye to many old favorites and marvel at a host of new possibilities. It wasn’t until November, however, that I realized just how naked the forest and garden would be due to the cold.

I’ve spent quite a lot of time thinking about cold weather crops and cold frames for year round production, but until recently, I’d thought more along the lines of food in the winter rather than appearance. While the revealed vistas are often incredible, the collection of bare branches—kind of like a skeleton forest—really made me recognize the need to include evergreen plants in temperate designs.

So, I’ve done a bit of research and built myself a starter list for what might work where I am now: USDA Zone 7a or Köppen Classification Cfb. To my delight, there is a lot to choose from, plants that are both productive and evergreen.

Photo: Courtesy of Denise Allen

Culinary Herbs

Culinary herbs are great on so many levels. They have huge health benefits, with lots of anti-oxidant and medicinal qualities, and they usually smell and taste great. Many are also perennial, which means they provide stability in the garden. And, just about all of them are great for repelling and/or distracting pests and attracting beneficial butterflies and bees. It turns out that a good lot of them are evergreen as well.

Rosemary is suited ideally for the Mediterranean temperate climate, which immediately signals that’s also equipped for drought and sea air. It won’t withstand much below freezing, but it grows well as potted plant. For really cold spots, it can be moved indoors.

Lavender, though more revered for scent than flavor, does actually have edible varieties that are sometimes used in desserts. Even without using it as food, it’s a beautiful evergreen plant that repels pests and attracts beneficial insects, as well as provides soothing aromas. It makes a great hedge. It’s also a bit hardier than rosemary.

Sage may be one of the more underrated herbs. It is the crux of holiday meals, and it also makes absolutely fantastic tea. It, too, is evergreen. There are several varieties of sage to choose from, and the lot of them provide lovely flowers that attract bees, as well as some that entice hummingbirds.

Thyme is yet another classic culinary herb that survives the winter without loosing its rather tiny leaves. Some varieties of thyme work as a hardwearing groundcover, and a few types of creeping thyme (Thymus praecox) and lemon thyme (Thymus x citriodorus) are edible as well.

Bay leaf is wonderful herbs for adding depth to dishes, especially those stews, soups, and pots of stuff we like to have in the winter. It also provides green in the wintertime garden. This is yet another Mediterranean plant. It’ll survive into USDA Zone 8 but will need to come inside (it works as pot plant) in environs colder than that.

Winter Savory (Satureja montana), not to be confused with the annual summer savory, is a semi-evergreen, which was a new term for me. In essence, it’s a group of plants that function somewhere between deciduous and evergreen, but more or less maintains leaves for the entire year. This herb is often substituted for salt and pepper.

Photo: Courtesy of Barry Caruth

Vegetables

One of the scariest parts of transitioning from the tropics to the temperate climate is that, suddenly, vegetables don’t just grow year-round, at least not for the most part. While cold frames and cold-tolerant species have opened the door to extending the growing seasons through the winter, it’s exciting to learn that there are even some possibilities for evergreen veggies that’ll keep the uncovered garden green.

Sorrel (Rumex acetosa) is a perennial, evergreen (up to Zone 6) leafy vegetable that is suggestive of spinach but with a nice lemony flavor about it. Like kale and spinach, it does have plenty of oxalic acid, so it can’t be eaten pounds at a time. It tastes better in the spring and fall and bitter in the summer.

Artichokes, globe not Jerusalem, are native to the Mediterranean climate and perennial evergreen plants in those circumstances. They produce an abundance of vegetables to eat, and though the leaves do die back in colder spots, in some temperate areas they’ll hang on through the winter. They are a really pretty, productive plant to have around.

Photo: Courtesy of the Bureau of Land Management Oregon and Washington

Berries

Perhaps the crop I’m most excited about with regards to the temperate climate is berries. They were around in the tropics, but not with such diversity and flavor. I’m really pleased to have blueberries in my life again, and I’m very excited at the prospect of berry hedges dividing gardens and bordering food forests. And, now I’ve found out there are some evergreen options.

Lingonberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea) shrubs are extraordinarily cold-tolerant and like to hang out in those Scandinavian countries. The plants stay relatively low, no more than 30 cm high, and they produce a tart, edible berry. They like soil conditions similar to blueberries. They are a late fruiting berry distantly related and similar in appearance to the cranberry.

Sunshine blueberry (Vaccinium ‘sunshine blue’) is another new, exciting plant for me and another semi-evergreen (from Zone 5 to 10) on this list. They are a more compact variety, only reaching about a meter high and wide, and they produce small berries once established. This plant is said to tolerate heat a little better than other varieties.

Evergreen Huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum) is yet another berry bush that’ll provide something to eat as well as something green to look at in the winter. It’ll grow from Alaska to California and is close enough in appearance to blueberries that it’s not difficult to mistake the two. Huckleberry works in the sun or shade, grows as a hedge, and attracts wildlife.

Photo: Courtesy of Tassos Sakilas

Fruit Trees

I wouldn’t have guessed fruit trees as an evergreen option here, but there are a few potentially stout enough to hang onto to their leaves. They’ll offer some interesting experimentation if nothing else.

Pineapple Guava (Feijoa sellowiana) does not sound like a fruit tree one is likely to run across in the temperate climate, but they survive in Zones 8-11 in the ground. They can be grown in container elsewhere and, at just a couple meters tall, are easy to move. Apparently, they are beloved as a deer-resistant plant.

Strawberry Tree sounds more like something from a cartoon or Dr. Seuss book, so it’s even more wonderful to learn that they are very much real and, in fact, evergreen. There are several varieties, but Arbutus unedo, provides late autumn flowers and fruit. Unfortunately, the fruit is known to leave a bad aftertaste.

Japanese Plum Yew is respected for being very versatile with regards to sun and shade, drought-tolerant, and evergreen. The low-growing, spreading variety (Cephalotaxus ‘prostrata’) comes highly recommended and is said to resemble a large fern. Note: Yew trees, in general, are quite dangerous to eat, so take caution to get this one right.

Photo: Courtesy of Rick Wagner

Bamboo

Bamboo plants often get put only into tropic plant lists, but there are plenty of cold hardy bamboos (Fargesia denudate/robusta/scabrida) to grow in temperate climates. Running bamboo tends to be invasive and require some serious cordoning off; however, large clumping bamboos can be very useful. Though not many are edible, they are super handy plants on a homestead.

To be honest, I’m relieved to discover there are so many useful evergreen plants available for my (and my wife’s) upcoming garden designs. We will definitely be sure to dot the landscape with productive evergreens so that winter still has some of the color and life that we enjoy so much. Of course, we’ll likely be looking at it more often through a window from the confines of warm house, but I’m sure the greenery will inspire a few blustery walks as well.

Helpful Sources:

https://www.onegreenplanet.org/lifestyle/evergreen-herbs-to-include-in-your-garden/

https://www.hipchickdigs.com/2016/03/favorite-edible-evergreens/

Header Image: Courtesy of Dan Keck

Jonathon Engels

The financially unfortunate combination of travel enthusiast, freelance writer, and vegan gardener, Jonathon Engels whittled and whistled himself into a life that gives him cause to continually scribble about it. He has lived as an expat for over a decade, worked in nearly a dozen countries, and visited dozens of others in the meantime, subjecting the planet to a fiery mix of permaculture, music, and plant-based cooking. More of his work can be found at Jonathon Engels: A Life About.

17 Comments

  1. I live in Italy, Marche where it can be quite cold.
    Rosemary can take quite a lot of cold and snow too.
    I would also recommend the following evergreens:
    – mahonia or barberry (berries)
    – pittosporum tobira
    – Chinese capernifolia (delicious scent in winter)
    – pistacia lentiscus
    – teucrium fruticans
    – lonicera fragrantissima
    – viburnum x bodnantense

  2. I have a micro climate on my 4 acres in SE Arizona.
    It can go down to 10 degrees at night in winter.
    I protected my 7 pineapple guavas the first year and had minimal frost damage. After that they were on their own and are doing just fine. And boy do they taste good!

  3. Hello: I have a farm in Nicaragua and have been trying to move towards permaculture for some time. I would love to connect with you and learn more about your experience in the tropics.

    Thank you,
    Yvonne

  4. In my zone eight I have an evergreen hedge of Eleagnus ebingiae and a couple of goumi bushes mixed in there. They are definitely evergreen to N. Louisiana. I don’t make jam with their berries but the birds love them.

  5. Hi Jonathan,
    In what part of North Carolina do you live?

    I’m in Concord, I teach Permaculture and do design and installation work here. I’d love to connect sometime.

    1. I’m currently in Surry County, near the border with Virginia, about half an hour drive from Mount Airy.

  6. Having lived and farmed in NC for over 20 years, you name some varieties that will work, but with effort. You left out the workhorses of zone 7A that usually overwinter even outside. Swiss Chard, kale, collard greens, even beets. Native persimmons fruit here well into the winter.

  7. Enjoy your Articles and Comments.
    You mention a lot about American seasons etc. To get the right perspective can you adopt seasons in other Countries like Australia. 6 states and 2 territories for the growing of plants and vegetation. In particularly, Tasmania weather patterns and cool zones.

  8. Hello, I am living in the border between poland and Belaruss and here the climate is far away from beeing warm in winter and the growing season is quite short and here I have plenty of plants, bushes and trees to compose my garden. If one wants to limit himself to perenials that are useful in a cold climate here follows a short list of what can exist: Araucaria araucana, Arctostaphylos ssp., Buxus sempervirens, Calluna Vulgaris, Chrysolepis sempervirens, Cytisus ssp., Empetrum nigrum, Erica ssp., Genista ssp., Hedera helix, Hippophae rhamnoides, Juniperus communis, Musa basjoo, Myrica gale, Myricaria germanica, Pinus mugo, Rhododendron ssp., Taxus baccata, Torreya nucifera, Trachycarpus fortunei, Ulex europaeus, among many others. Cheers!

  9. Just a note about the Arbutus berries. When consumed in larger quantities they have some kind of toxicity. I got very sick after eating a few dozen of them. I vomited a lot and slept for most of 36 hours. Felt like having a really bad viral infection. Possibly cooking would help. I don’t really want to try it personally.

  10. If you can get feijoa they are amazing, delicious autumn to early winter fruit and are great fir hedging!

  11. Strawberry guavas, loquat and some cold tolerant varieties of avocado do well in my garden. I get temperatures from -4 to 45 degrees C.

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