What to Plant in Spring: A Seasonal Guide for Home Gardeners

Start with the cold-hardy crops

The first things into the ground are the ones that shrug off a light frost: spinach, kale, lettuce, peas, radishes, carrots and onions. These germinate in soil as cool as 7C (45F) and actually taste better when they mature in cool weather, because heat makes lettuce bolt and radishes woody. Sow them three to four weeks before your last expected frost, as soon as the soil can be worked without clumping. If a hard freeze is forecast, a floating row cover or an old bedsheet overnight is enough to save them.

Let soil temperature set your timing

A calendar date is a rough guide; soil temperature is the real signal. Warm-season seeds like beans, corn and squash will simply rot in cold, wet ground, so wait until the soil holds at least 15C (60F) at a 10 cm depth, usually about two weeks after the last frost. A cheap soil thermometer pays for itself in the first season. If you are impatient, pre-warm beds with black plastic for a week or two before sowing.

Transplant on a cloudy afternoon

Harden seedlings off over seven to ten days by moving them outside for gradually longer stretches before planting them out. Transplant in the late afternoon or on an overcast day so roots can settle without baking in the sun. Water them in well, and give tender transplants a week of shade cloth if the forecast is bright and windy. A plant that wilts on day one is not dying, it is just re-establishing, but steady moisture makes that recovery much faster.

Sow in succession, not all at once

One big sowing of lettuce or radishes gives you a glut followed by nothing. Instead, sow small patches every two to three weeks through spring so you harvest continuously into early summer. This works especially well for salad greens, radishes, beets and cilantro, all of which mature fast and decline quickly once they bolt. Keep a note of each sowing date so you can fine-tune the interval next year.

Plan the relay for what comes next

Spring beds are a relay race. As soon as peas and early greens finish in early summer, that space should be ready for beans, cucumbers or a heat-tolerant green like Swiss chard. Decide the follow-on crop before you sow the first one, so you are not left with empty ground in June. Note what you planted and where, so you can rotate plant families next year and stop soil-borne diseases from building up.

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