Time to plant your cool season veggies!
Posted on April 16th, 2009 – 7:20 AMBy Jaime Chismar
April 15 is not just Tax Day, it’s the first planting date for our cool season veggies.
Love lettuce? Ready for radishes? If you want to get your hands dirty, now is the perfect time to sow your greens, snap peas, onions and more. Many root veggies can also be planted outdoors. Carrots and beets actually grow best in the spring and the fall. For a complete listing of cool season veggies, check out this handy chart from the University of Minnesota Extension Service.
Not ready to work in your garden? Now is the perfect time to clean your containers and refill them with new potting soil. Many cool season veggies love life in a container. If you plant now, you’ll have a great harvest of baby field greens before it’s time to plant your peppers in the ground. If you need a little instant gratification, pansies also like the cold and can add a pop of spring color to your patio.
Snap peas are my favorite cool season veggie. I can never eat enough of these sweet treats. Luckily, it is super easy to grow snap peas in a container. As you can see from the photo, an unused tomato cage and twine make a great impromptu trellis. Buried in the bottom of the pot, the stake adds a little vertical lift.
What cool season veggies are a must-have in your garden? Do you plant slowly over the growing season or do you wait until June 1 to get all your veggies in the ground at once?
13 Responses to "Time to plant your cool season veggies!"
Wow! I couldn’t resist yesterday’s weather so I put snap peas, 2 kinds of lettuce and arugula in the ground. I was afraid it was a little TOO early–who knew it was the correct date! I didn’t realize that carrots and radishes are also cool weather–I’ve got those inside but will move them out shortly. Thanks for the confirmation.
I plan to put mine in this weekend. Do you have to provide support for snap peas? I’ve never done them before. I’m putting in some cool season onions, lettuce, snap peas, brussels sprouts (starting them WAY early this year), and maybe a couple other herbs.
YAY!
I put 3 kinds of lettuce, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, onions, and kolrabi in my raised beds this past weekend! Luckily it has been a warm week! Hopefully I’ll already see some sprouts soon.
I’m getting my garden tilled today — so I can plant my cool season stuff before it rains this weekend. Hope it does rain this weekend!
Planted chinese pea pods about 3 weeks ago - when I planted more this last weekend I dug around and the seeds were sprouting, just had not made it to surface…I also planted radish, beet seeds, red onion sets and when I dug out some invasive weeds (I think some call it ‘lawn grass’) I found I had missed some shallots last year which were sprouting so they went back in with the new shallots. Chives are coming up as is tarragon. Black current bushes are really sprouting, the red currants just peaking out. The apricots will be in bloom very soon… the trees are hardy here but the bloom is early and they can not take a hard freeze once open so good fruiting is iffy - very iffy. 1 out of 4 years so far
When is it a good time to plant flowers in the garden. I want to plant some creeping phlox in the garden. I see they are selling pots of them already in some of the stores?
[…] Greengirls – […]
When you say onions can be planted now do you just mean onion seeds? Or can onion sets also be put out? Sorry if that is a dumb question. I didn’t know any of these could be planted this early. So nice to know - I’m itching to start planting!
my dad helped me till my garden yesterday to make it twice its size, so i’m pounding in fence posts and digging in fencing to keep both the bunnies and my dogs out. i hope to get my peas planted today. i’ll be planting brussel sprouts, carrots, radishes, and 4 kinds of lettuce as well as kolhrabi and daikon radish.
I put in Sugar Snap Peas and three kinds of lettuce. I planted them on Monday…I had to stop myself from going out there every half hour to see if anything had sprouted yet. Of course it hadn’t. I’m glad we live here in MN where we get a break from gardening over the winter. I doubt I would get this excited if I had to garden year ’round.
I still have to buy seeds, since I didn’t mail order this year. I did order potatoes and will be planting them next week.
My lettuce reseeds every year, so that is already coming up. I also had garlic sprout in the garden and had garlic greens in my scrambled eggs last night.
Yay, laura. Another kohlrabi fan!
It may be a little early to put out onion sets. They need at least a week without frost as they are touchy until acclimated. I do live in North Dakota so it may work in Minnesota but it is too early here. Normally I do get onion sets in during the first week of May. If it does frost during the first week you can cover them with straw or some sort of row covers. Our soil is still very cold (the snow just melted) so I am just working on cleaning up the garden and yard for now.
Greengirls Connie Nelson, Robyn Dochterman and Jaime Chismar are dishin' the dirt from the backyard garden and beyond. Whether you're a greenthumb or greenhorn, they're eager to learn from your misshaps, mistakes -- and most importantly, your sweet successes -- all growing season long.
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