Hardy Crops for Spring

Ok, so spring is basically here, even if the weather doesn't show it.  No need to worry we'll take care of those garden blues (or should I say greens?).  Right now many of you are probably wondering when you should start planting your vegetable garden.  Really this is a two part question, when and what are both important questions to answer for a successful spring start.

Since this time of year is so full of surprise snow storms and cold nights we enlist the plants that thrive in the cold weather, or hardy plants.  My incomprehensive list of these plants includes:

Broccoli
Head & Leaf Lettuce
Spinach
Radishes
Onions
Peas
Kale
Leeks
Carrots
Beets
Turnips
Kohlrabi
Swiss Chard
and a bunch of herbs & flowers

Now before you go out and start sprinkling spinach seeds on your snowy garden patch (which will work believe it or not), let me explain a few things.

First off, you need to know how bad it really is out there.  So get on your favorite weather website and check the historical data for your zip code.  I like to use www.weather.com which gives me the average.  What you're pushing for is the time of year where the nights don't drop below freezing.  Now if you're like me you can probably push it a little further, say 30 degrees, by protecting your plants with row covers, plastic containers, a sheet or some mulch.  A word of caution: don't be surprised to get a night so cold that it kills everything off, this is a risk you have to take.

Once you have your timing down, you can get an even bigger head start by starting plants inside.  Just look at your packet of seeds to see the average weeks before the last frost you should start your plants. Grow lamps or a nice sunny window work great for this type of endeavor.  I bring this up because even though hardy plants are cold tolerant they don't exactly grow well when the temperatures and weather are simply too extreme.  Some of the best plants for transplanting include broccoli, lettuces, onions (from seed), spinach and most herbs. These are the ones to start first, as in now, like today. Other plants don't transplant well: carrots (or any root crop for that matter) and peas definitely fall under this category so don't bother.  Putting transplants out at the right time and in the right way is something we'll cover tomorrow.

Once you've got your transplant worthy seeds in a cozy spot on the window sill you can start looking at these other aforementioned plants.  Peas and radishes and the root crops should go in the ground once you've had a chance to get your soil worked.  That means that sunny warm weekend that you had nothing planned for is now full. Peas need a trellis so plan for that. Do not delay on this because even though it may be a few months to get peas, the vines grow tall, fast. Radishes are one of my favorite crops because they reward you with edibles in no time at all.  Usually about 30 days from when the seeds go in the ground you'll have nice plump red globes begging you to bite in.  If you're new to gardening I'd grow radishes first just for the confidence boost.

Most everything else, the beets carrots and all the other crazy vegetables that are cold hardy tend to take some time to come up so don't get discouraged if you don't see activity.  Plants know when it's safe, and if you've planted too soon the seeds will just wait it out. Smart huh?  In fact there's a lot to be said about this, and a whole bunch of ways to take advantage.  Unfortunately I cannot discuss that today, but like those smart seeds, when the timing is right, I will.

That's it for today folks.  Stop on by tomorrow for a rundown on how to manage your broccoli, spinach, onion and lettuce starts as well as some tips on transplanting.