I'm interested in perennial fuits and vegetables too. I grow thyme, Mexican oregano, and Mexican mint marigold that smells like anise. I like the plain old spearmint too for mint tea. Asparagus is an obvious one. Of course there are plenty of shrubs and trees that bear fruit and nuts for many years. A lot of things will be perennial if you live in the milder areas of Texas, like peppers and sweetpotato which I sometimes use for greens as well what they're normally used for. Chives and bunching onions are super easy and carefree.

Dill, chervil will reseed. So will Mats cherry tomato. I grow chives, bunching onions, Egyptian walking onions, mexican oregano, napales

texasflip,
Do you leave your sweet potatos in the ground through the winter? Do you mulch heavily? how do keep them from freezing? And most importantly do they stay healthy without rotting? What about in the spring do they just grow from tuber and keep growing or do you replant the slips?

wantonamara,
I just planted walking onions too. Are they growing well here? and what's napales?

Rosemary, oregano, thyme, mint, and marjoram are perennials as long as they don't get a hard freeze and rosemary shouldn't be bothered by any freeze you get in zone 9!

Basil reseeds itself for me. Most vegetables (and annual herbs) will give you viable seed if you let them mature before picking, but you'll get the best results if you pick the varieties that grow well here to begin with.

Arugula reliably reseeds. A few leaves are great in salads. It grows all winter, blooms with pretty flowers in the spring, reseeds and the small plants take off with cool weather. Many of the Asian basils reseed also.

Arugula flowers in spring ...

Here is a link that might be useful: Arugula ...

I am happy to know that basil reseeds I just boutht some seeds for next year. My salad mix I'm growing now has Arugulas I will let them flower. Thank you for the pretty picture for us to see.

in dfw:
violets (for salad), salad burnet (ditto), bunching onions, walking onions, french sorrel (but I don't use it much), garlic chives

swiss chard is going into its second winter, but expect that will be all for that

should have added elephant garlic

mint of course

maybe pigweee/amaranth? haven't grown this myself, so can't comment on tastyness and growing issues

kumquatlady

well, I don't really mean to let them overwinter. I usually let them take over in the summertime to keep the weeds down and they tend to come back in spots the next year, even if I try and dig them all up. The bigger roots rot in the ground but rooted stems that get covered up by dirt will often stay green and sprout again. Also, they seem to decline over a couple years so I think it's better to replant anyways.

Texasflip,
Thank you for answering my question. I am growing sweet potato slips for the first time and I've heard that SP leaves are edible so I sauteed few leaves and tryed it and it was good. Taste kinda sweet and pleasant. It will be a welcome edition to my kitchen garden for sure.

yeah, there are varieties just for using the leaves. You might find them being sold fresh at Asian markets, which you can propagate more from. The one I know of has very deeply cut lobes in the leaves.

Egyptian walking onions grow fine in my raised bed that gets a bit of shade. it died back in the heat of summer but is back nice and strong.

Napales is prickly pear.

Sorry to take so long answering your question.

Fennel is a good one also. I kept one plant alive for several years. The butterflies love to lay eggs on it. I used to cut it back in summer, because it would look a bit knarly. It likes a bit of shade too in the afternoon.