Plant these Vegetables Now for an Early Harvest!

 

If you garden, many vegetables seem to not be ready until July or August, only to be enjoyed for a short month or two before a frost comes and kills them. However, what if "jumpstarting" the growing season could bring another month or two of vegetables? 

There are some crops that cannot be started early, or that are not necessary to be started in advance, such as corn, beans, potatoes, and carrots, to name a few. Vegetables like corn, beans, and potatoes all have a specific time they are planted; vegetables like these also don't like being transplanted later on, and can suffer from root trauma during transplanting. On the other hand, vegetables like tomatoes and peppers transition almost seamlessly from transplanting. It is typically these two vegetables that I like to get started early in the year so the first harvests can take place in June instead of July or August. 

Other crops like lettuce can be both direct sown and used as transplants, given that their maturity times can vary drastically. For example, some leaf lettuce varieties will be ready to eat in less than a month, whereas some romaine lettuces require approximately two months until harvest. These long-maturing varieties can be sown in pots early so that they can be transplanted for an early harvest, while at the same time, the early lettuce varieties are already up and growing, and possibly are already being harvested! The idea behind planting in advance is called "succession sowing." Essentially, starting in the spring, crops are planted in 1-week intervals of each other, which means that each week will bring a new harvest. This process continues until growing conditions for the crops becomes undesirable. 

Can vegetables be grown year round? 

Yes! The only caveat is that there needs to be a place that mimics the environment that the crop would be growing in naturally. Perhaps the most common method of year round gardening is with a greenhouse. Greenhouses allow sunlight to enter in through clear panels of glass or plastic, which ends up heating the greenhouse. However, greenhouses aren't the only way to grow vegetables in a controlled environment. Basically any structure that can maintain a relatively moderate temperature of 70-ish degrees and have light will work for growing or starting vegetables. For microgreens, I utilize our well-house, which has a small heater and a grow light. While it's not the biggest space, it can produce a surprising amount of greens per square foot! 

After these couple of rabbit-trails, let's get to the list of vegetables you should think of planting this month (and a few proceeding months) for a late spring/early summer harvest!

February Planting:  

• Tomatoes
• Peppers (sweet & hot peppers) 

March Planting: 

• Peas (can be direct sown) 

April Planting: 

• Corn (mid April) 
• Zucchini (mid April) 
• Beets
• Kale
• Peas
• Lettuce 
• And several more minor vegetable crops that germinate well in moderate temperatures.