Direct sow or plant these cold-hardy vegetables, herbs, and flowers in early spring for an abundant and early harvest.
After a long winter, any sign of green growth is a welcome sight. In early spring, forsythia and pussy willows begin to bloom and the first daffodils are popping up from bare patches of soil in the garden.
Early spring is also a good time to begin planting in your vegetable garden.
If you get cold winters and live in USDA zone 6 or below, you are getting antsy to get in the garden, there’s good news. You can start to direct sow some crops outside in early spring!
These spring vegetables can germinate in soil temperatures as low as 40°F or 5°C and can easily withstand light frosts even as young seedlings.
Some of these vegetables will be ready to harvest in as little as a month and a half, while the others will take a bit longer, but require the cool temperatures of early spring to get established.
At the end of this post, I’ll list a few herbs and flowers that you can direct sow in early spring as well.
If you don’t know what your hardiness zone is, you can read my post about finding hardness zones and frost dates here.
For gardening friends in USDA zones 7 and above, you may be able to grow these plants with or without cover in the winter! Ask local gardeners near you when they prefer to plant these cold-loving vegetables, herbs, and flowers.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. This means that if you buy through my links, I could earn a small commission, at no extra cost to you. I only discuss products that I love and think you’ll love, too. I’m glad you’re here and thanks for reading!
9 Vegetables to Plant in Early Spring
Before you begin planting these early spring vegetables, it’s a good idea to check your soil temperatures.
Look for temps higher than 40°F or 5°C, which may be sooner in raised beds than in the ground, so be sure to check both places if you have both types of gardens.
A meat thermometer is fine to use for this, just don’t forget to wash it when you bring it back inside. 😉
You’ll also want to wait until the ground dries out a bit. Soggy soil will cause seeds to rot and also could become compacted if you work in it.
Now let’s look at a list of vegetables you can plant in early spring!
Fava Beans
Fava beans are very cold tolerant and for me, in central Indiana zone 6, I can plant them as early as March 1, or as soon as the ground has thawed enough for me to plant them. It’s so exciting seeing these seedlings pop up when everything around them is brown and bare.
These beans are Windsor Fava beans from Botanical Interests.
Kale
Kale, like many of the plants in the brassica family, is very cold tolerant and tastes sweetest in cool temperatures. Try dinosaur or lacinato kale like I’m growing in the photo above. Red and White Russian kale are also very cold tolerant and may even reseed and volunteer for you if you allow it to flower and grow in a semi-protected area.
This photo shows Dazzling Blue Kale, which you can find seeds for here.
Spinach
Spinach is one of my favorite spring vegetables. It’s one of the first salad greens to grow in the spring and is so succulent and delicious before the heat of summer causes it to decline. Interplanted with a red leaf lettuce, spinach is a showstopper in the spring vegetable garden!
Sow spinach as early as possible to get as much spinach as you can before the weather warms up and causes spinach to bolt (go to seed). Pick the oldest leaves first to help delay bolting for as long as possible.
I’m growing Bloomsdale Spinach in the photo above.
Radishes
There are many different kinds of radishes to grow. For early spring, plant salad-type radishes (as opposed to winter or storage radishes which grow more slowly) in any color that you like. These guys grow super fast and mature in as little as 25 days. When harvested before the heat of summer, spring radishes won’t have as strong of a “bite” or spiciness to them. The earlier you can plant and harvest radishes, the better they will taste, in my opinion.
In the photo, I’m holding a bunch of White Icicle radishes, but I also recommend French Breakfast.
Sow small amounts of radish seed every week or biweekly to stagger your harvest. Stop planting radish seeds if they won’t mature in cool temperatures, which for me (zone 6) is around mid-May for a final harvest in mid-June.
Turnips
Another good root vegetable to grow in early spring is the turnip. This humble vegetable can germinate in cooler conditions and tastes fantastic cubed and roasted with oil and salt.
You’ll want to sow turnip seeds as soon as you can in the spring to get the best quality turnips. Hot weather causes turnips to be more fibrous and strong-flavored.
Purple Top Turnips are a staple root vegetable in the spring garden.
Arugula
Arugula is a super-quick growing plant, which makes it so satisfying to grow. In as little as 30 days, baby arugula can be ready to harvest. Cooler weather, like we have in early spring, will temper the spiciness of this salad green and bring out the nutty flavor of the leaf.
Sow arugula as early in the spring as possible before the weather warms up and causes arugula to bolt.
These are Astro Arugula that I have been growing and saving seed for since 2021.
Potatoes
Cool weather helps potato tubers grow and develop, so the sooner you can plant these spuds, the better your harvest ends up being. Wait until the ground has dried up a bit as potatoes do tend to rot if the soil is too soggy. You should try to chit, or sprout, potatoes before planting if possible to encourage rapid growth.
Find out how to grow potatoes in my post here.
Potato shoots and leaves can get frost-bitten, so cover your potato plants with lightweight frost fabric if nights fall below freezing.
Pictured is a mix of red, white, and blue/purple potatoes.
Here are a few online seed companies I can recommend that sell seed potatoes:
Onions (Seedlings)
Onion seedlings can go out in early spring. Both bulb onions and green onions will thrive in an early spring garden. I start mine from seed every year, and I wrote a post about that process here.
While bulb onions won’t be ready until after mid-summer in zones 4-6, green onions can be ready for harvest about two months after planting.
This year for green onions, I’m growing Parade Bunching onions, but in previous years I’ve grown Tokyo Long White Scallions. For bulb onions, I’m growing Walla Wallas.
Asparagus (Crowns)
Newly planted asparagus crowns won’t be harvestable for you the year they are planted, but they will provide succulent spring harvests for many years following first planting. Asparagus is a perennial vegetable that is easy to grow, and one of the first vegetables to produce every spring.
If you’ve never tasted a fresh, homegrown asparagus spear, you’re in for a treat! It’s one of our favorite raw vegetables to eat fresh from the garden.
Although you can grow asparagus from seed, you’ll get a quicker harvest if you plant asparagus crowns. Most garden centers carry asparagus crowns in the spring, and early spring is a great time to get new asparagus plants in the ground. I’m actually not sure if you can even purchase asparagus crowns outside of springtime, so if you’re wanting to grow this delicious perennial vegetable, start checking stores and online as early as you can this spring.
More Seeds to Direct Sow in Early Spring
After you’ve got those vegetables in the ground, don’t forget about sowing these cold-hardy herbs and flowers.
Herbs
- Cilantro
- Parsley (seedlings)
- Calendula
Flowers
- Poppy
- Sweet Pea
- Sweet Alyssum (this grows all season for me, and lasts well into fall; highly recommend companion planting your vegetable garden with this flower!)
Quick Tips for Early Spring Planting
- Don’t mulch. Mulch is typically a good idea, but in early spring, you need the sun to warm the soil for seeds to germinate and seedlings to stay warm. Once air temperatures are warmer, go ahead and mulch your garden to protect the soil from too much heat.
- Watch for frost and harsh weather conditions in the forecast. Keep frost fabric or an old cotton bedsheet handy for cold nights and harsh, windy days.
- Prep your spring beds in the fall. Applying compost, raising sunken soil, or growing winter-killed cover crops are all great tasks to do in the fall for your spring beds. This takes a little planning and forethought, so keep this in mind if it’s too late or you to pre-prep your beds.
- Inoculate your seeds and seedlings with mycorrhizae before planting. Sprinkle a bit of mycorrhizae with your seeds or dip seedlings in a fungi+water solution before planting to help plants form those beneficial relationships early.
- Plant annual seeds and seedlings in the sunniest spot in the garden. Early spring day length isn’t as long as it will be in the summer and these fast-growing crops will need as much daylight as they can get.
Above all, resist feeling like it’s too late to plant! Early spring may be the best time for these cold-hardy vegetables to be planted, but you’ve still got time if you’ve missed the earliest planting dates.
The growing season is only beginning, and there’s still late spring, all of summer, and early fall to look forward to planting in.
I hope this post helped you figure out what you want to grow in your own early spring garden.
Leave a comment below if you have any questions or tips for early spring gardening.