Spring is a time when many gardeners begin to prepare for the summer season. However, you don’t need to focus solely on summer veggie gardening. There are several vegetables that are reliable, fast to mature, and cold tolerant that can be grown now. With their bright flavors and quick growth, these four spring crops are sure to please a winter-weary palate.
Mustards
Wake up your spring salads with a blend of pungent mustard greens like ‘Red Giant’, ‘Miz America’, and ‘Green Wave’. The many varieties found in seed catalogs offer a medley of leaf shapes, textures, and colors, and because they’re frost tolerant, you can start seeding four to six weeks before the last spring frost date. I like to grow mustard greens in 1-foot-wide bands, sowing more seeds every few weeks for months of peppery leaves. The baby leaves are ready to pick just a month from sowing and full-sized ones a mere two weeks later. Plus, when the plants bolt, you can enjoy the edible flower buds or green seedpods.
Bok choy
Boy choy is a spring standout that is easy to grow and that grows quickly. Also known as pak choi, this Chinese cabbage is treasured for its tender leaves and crunchy stalks that are delicious raw or lightly cooked. I direct-seed when the temperatures are reliably over 50°F, sowing frequent small batches for a nonstop crop. Try standard green varieties like ‘Joi Choi’, ‘Asian Delight’, or ‘Bopak’, or jazz up the spring garden with the bold leaves of ‘Purple Lady’.
Carrots
The secret to a good spring carrot crop is to plant fast-maturing varieties when the temperatures are consistently above 60°F, ideally in compost-enriched, stone-free soil. Plant the seeds ¼-inch deep and 1 inch apart, keeping the seedbed consistently damp. This reduces the need to thin. My favorite spring carrots include ‘Adelaide’, ‘Yaya’, and ‘Napoli’. You can also grow a rainbow of colors with Glow Stix Sunrise Mix, a pretty blend of early maturing orange, yellow, white, and purple varieties.
Snap peas
No matter how many peas I plant, according to my family it’s never enough. For the earliest harvest, my go-to pea is ‘Sugar Ann’, an edible pod variety that goes from seed to harvest in just 51 days. Sow the seeds for this compact crop in garden beds or even containers, supporting the 20-inch-tall plants with twigs or chicken wire. At the same time, I plant several rows of ‘Sugar Snap’, a tall-growing snap pea that keeps the pea crop going once ‘Sugar Ann’ is finished. Plant the seeds in early spring as soon as you can work the soil, spacing them 1½ inches apart.
Hopefully, starting these crops while it’s still chilly outside will tide you over until you can get your hands on summer tomatoes and squash.
To discuss this article or ask other gardening questions, head over to the Gardening Answers forum. For more Northeast regional reports, click here.
For more information on vegetable gardening, check out Fine Gardening’s Fruits and Vegetables Project Guide.
Niki Jabbour is the award-winning author of Growing Under Cover and The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener. She lives and gardens in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
All photos courtesy of Niki Jabbour.
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