I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard “I can’t wait to get into my garden” within the past few weeks. I’ve been wanting to plant some cool Spring crops.

It’s been a long winter, and the economy has certainly made it feel longer, colder, and darker than usual. What we all need is to get out of the house and into our back yards so the fresh spring air can clear the cobwebs—and the bad news—from our minds.

But hold it, we’re still just a few days into the official start of spring. And in much of the country the last frost date is still several weeks away. It’s still raw outside, and spring rains will make gardening a bone-chilling experience for both you and any green thing that tries to push itself up from the ground. Tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, you just hold your horses until there’s nothing but warmth and sunshine.

Cool Spring Crops: The Hardy Pea

Only the hardiest of veggies can make it through early spring weather. The top of the list of hardiest veggies is the pea. While its not my favorite vegetable, I plant them out of respect for their cold tolerance, plus I also just want to plant something out in the garden.

You can plant pea seeds as soon as your garden soil is workable (when you dont need a chisel to get through the frozen soil). Plant one row every week for three weeks to ensure a regular harvest. Careful, though; peas don’t like warm weather. Final sowing for peas is mid-April for Zone 6. Subtract one week for each zone warmer; add a week for each zone colder.

Leafy Greens

Leafy greens are good for you, and with their tolerance of cool weather, you can introduce fresh, homegrown leafies into your diet early in the growing season. Again, as soon as the soil is workable, sow weekly rows of spinach, kale, collard greens, and Swiss chard. Sow those seeds right through the second or third week in April for Zone 6 (add and subtract weeks according to zones).

Lettuce is a leafy green, too, but wait about two weeks after spinach and kale to sow lettuce seeds outdoors. The good thing about lettuce is you can sow seeds right up until hot weather hits in summer.

Cole Crops

Other non-leafy green crops you can sow outdoors early are the cole crops—kohlrabi, broccoli and broccolini, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and cauliflower. In fact, you can put out transplants (small-sized plants) of these crops fairly early, as well. Early spring is also the time to put in onion sets and sow seeds of beets, leeks, radishes, and potatoes.

With all of these early spring crops, be sure to leave enough room for summer crops.