A productive cool-season edible Brassica (a wild-cabbage cultivar in the Acephala / non-heading group, alongside collards). Upright blue-green strap-shaped leaves with strong kitchen-garden value and ornamental texture; grown as a cool-season annual or short-lived biennial.

A clumping perennial onion-relative forming dense grass-like tufts of hollow tubular leaves + globular lavender-pink flowerheads in late spring. Edible leaves + flowers; among the easiest perennial vegetables for beginners. Globular flowerheads are major early-season nectar sources for honey bees + native bees.

A biennial Mediterranean herb in the carrot family (Apiaceae) grown as an annual for its leaves. The garden 'parsley worm' — caterpillar of the black swallowtail butterfly (Papilio polyxenes) — feeds exclusively on Apiaceae foliage; planting parsley is among the simplest ways to host a multi-year swallowtail population. Flat-leaf (Italian) selections have stronger flavor than curly selections.

A rhizomatous, upright herbaceous perennial of the mint family, most commonly grown as a culinary or medicinal herb and as a ground cover. A natural hybrid of watermint (Mentha aquatica) and spearmint (Mentha spicata), it carries fragrant rounded-to-lance-shaped toothed leaves on square stems and showy pink flower spikes in mid- to late summer. Native to Europe, it spreads aggressively by rhizomes into an attractive ground cover and rarely sets seed, so it is propagated vegetatively and is best confined by a soil barrier (Missouri Botanical Garden PlantFinder).

A tender perennial herb in the aster family (Asteraceae), grown for its remarkably sweet leaves — per the Missouri Botanical Garden PlantFinder the foliage contains glucoside compounds and tastes notably sweeter than sugar with no calories, which is why it is also called sweetleaf. Native to Brazil and Paraguay, it forms weak, floppy stems to 1-2 feet tall clothed in oblong, toothed leaves, with small showy white flowers in July and August. Winter hardy only in USDA zones 10-11; across most of North America it is grown as an annual or overwintered indoors, and leaves are best harvested before flowering.

A cool-season Asian leaf vegetable grown for its loose, non-heading rosette of dark-green leaves carried on broad, juicy white stalks — the spoon-shaped petioles that distinguish it from heading cabbages. Missouri Botanical Garden PlantFinder records that the group spans varieties from 3-4 inches to 24 inches tall and is edible at every stage, from seedlings to small immature heads to large mature heads and even while flowering. The stems are mild and juicy while the leaves carry a cabbage-like flavor; like other brassicas it tolerates light frosts but bolts in summer heat.