Cool Weather Veggies

I don't know the conventional wisdom where you're from, but around here the rule is Mother's Day weekend. Seasoned gardeners know you don't plant anything out before May 10.

However, there's a few veggies that give gardeners a way around this. Most of the cool weather veggies are leafy greens perfect for salads or smoothies. Here's some veggies that appreciate a chill in the air so you can sow them now. My suggestion for seeds is always Burpee. The seed packets in store give a whole lot of information in a standard format across all varieties of veggies and flowers, and the website gives a wealth of information as well.

Lettuce

Lettuce will bolt in hot weather, which is a fancy way of saying it'll go to seed and stop producing salad so plant it while the getting is...well...cool. This healthy lettuce was Grand Rapids Leaf Lettuce. I sowed dozens of seeds to get this thick crop.

Carrots

Quick carrot tip: don't sow your seeds too close together. As a root vegetable, carrots will begin intertwining, but not to make some super carrot, but rather a weird, Maleficent-looking freak carrot that may taste fine, but is not the easiest to peel or cut. By the way, I do not recommend the kaleidoscope blend from Burpee. The orange carrots in the mix were delicious and convinced me that fresh carrots > store carrots any day, but the purple carrots were bitter.

Kale

These days kale isn't just the weird lettuce looking garnish on your plate, it's the super-food ingredient in healthy smoothies or chopped salads.

Radish

There's plenty of awesome salad ingredients that do best with a spring planting. Garnish that salad with a fresh radish.

Spinach

One more leafy green to add to your spring garden - spinach.

These leafy, healthy greens and root veggies are the perfect combos for salads and smoothies and a great way to get some growing in before you start your summer crops.

Growing in Containers

I used containers to grow my lettuce and carrots so I could control the soil quality more and give my carrots a loose soil that would allow them the most space.

My favorites were the Earth Box and plain old buckets from Lowes - but make sure to get food grade plastic. Food grade plastic can withstand the hot temperatures outside without leeching chemicals into your soil.

You can get the Earth Box from Amazon in several color options and with or without the fertilizer option. I didn't use any of the fertilizer and still had great results. Good soil is really all you need, and a little bone meal goes a long way.

Happy growing!