After a long, cold winter, the first warm, sunny day of the year can send a gardener into a state of near-frenzy. The seed catalogs are piled high, the tools are sitting by the door, and the urge to dig in the dirt is overwhelming. It’s this “spring fever” that often leads to one of the most common gardening mistakes: planting the wrong things at the wrong time. In that rush of enthusiasm, it’s tempting to plant your tomatoes and peppers, only to have them killed by a late frost.

The secret to a truly successful and early start to the gardening season is not in fighting the calendar, but in embracing it. The answer lies in a special category of hardy plants: the vegetables to plant in spring. These are the “cool-season” crops that don’t just tolerate the chill of early spring; they thrive in it. Learning to work with these vegetables will satisfy your itch to garden, reward you with the season’s first harvest, and set your entire year up for success.

The Secret of Spring: Understanding “Cool-Season” Crops

Vegetable gardening is a game of two halves. The “warm-season” crops (like tomatoes, peppers, squash, and beans) are tender, frost-sensitive plants that need warm soil and hot weather to thrive. The “cool-season” crops are the exact opposite.

Cool-season vegetables are plants that germinate in cool soil, grow best in the crisp air and moderate temperatures of spring and fall, and can withstand a light frost. In fact, many of them taste better after a light frost, which converts their starches into sugars.

However, these plants have an “Achilles’ heel”: heat. When the days get long and the temperatures climb, most cool-season crops will “bolt”—a survival mechanism where the plant abandons leafy growth, sends up a flower stalk, and tries to set seed. This process floods the leaves with bitter-tasting compounds, ruining the harvest.

Your goal as a spring gardener is to plant these vegetables to plant in spring early enough that they can reach full maturity before the summer heat arrives. This means you need to know your most important date: your average last frost date. You can find this by contacting your local university’s cooperative extension service, which offers a wealth of region-specific planting calendars.

Your First, Most Critical Task: Spring Garden Preparation

You can’t just throw seeds on the frozen ground. A successful spring harvest begins with a well-prepared bed. This is the perfect task to tackle on those first “workable” days when the soil is no longer frozen but it’s still too cold to plant.

Clean Up the Winter Debris

Your first step is a simple tidy-up.

• Remove any dead plant matter, old vegetable vines, or diseased leaves from the previous season.
• Pull any early-sprouting perennial weeds that are emerging.
• Rake back any thick, matted layers of mulch to expose the soil to the warming sun.

Wait for the Soil to Be “Workable”

This is the cardinal rule of spring: do not work wet soil. Go outside and grab a handful of your garden soil. Squeeze it. If it forms a hard, matted, muddy ball, it is too wet. Tilling, digging, or even walking on saturated soil will destroy its structure, compacting it into a concrete-like substance that roots will struggle with all year.

You are waiting for the “Goldilocks” moment. The soil should be just moist enough to crumble in your hand, like a brownie. This is when it is “workable.”

Amend Your Soil for the New Season

Winter has leached many nutrients from your soil. Your spring crops are heavy feeders and need a full plate of food to fuel their fast growth. Amending your soil now is the single most important thing you can do for your garden’s success.

• Compost is King: Spread a 2-3 inch layer of finished compost or well-rotted manure over the entire bed. This “black gold” is the best, all-in-one amendment. It provides a full spectrum of nutrients, feeds beneficial microbes, and improves the texture of both clay and sandy soil. Our Composting 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Black Gold guide is a great place to start.
• Test Your Soil: For even better results, consider a soil test. This will tell you the exact pH and nutrient makeup, helping you understand The Secrets of Soil Fertility: Boosting Your Vegetable Yield.

Gather Your Tools and Make a Plan

Now is the time to make sure your tools are in good shape.

• Sharpen your pruners and shovel.
• Check your hoses for leaks.
• Make a simple sketch of your garden beds. Where will the peas go so they can have a trellis? Where will the lettuce get a little afternoon shade? A little planning now prevents a lot of headaches later. If you’re building your toolkit, check our guide to the Best Vegetable Garden Tools.

The Eagerest Vegetables: What to Plant Before Your Last Frost

These are the “super-hardy” crops. You can plant these as soon as your soil is workable, typically 4-6 weeks before your average last frost date. They don’t mind the cold and some can even handle a light snow.

Category 1: The Super-Hardy Greens

These are often the first, glorious harvest of the year.

• Spinach: A true cold-weather champion. Spring-planted spinach will grow fast and produce tender, sweet leaves.
• Kale: Matures more slowly than spinach, but the young seedlings are incredibly frost-hardy.
• Mache (Corn Salad): A lesser-known green that is exceptionally cold-tolerant, with a mild, nutty flavor.
• Arugula: This peppery green grows so fast, you’ll be harvesting it in a month. It will bolt the second the weather gets warm, so enjoy it while you can. Our guide to Growing Leafy Greens has more detail on these early stars.

Category 2: The Direct-Sow All-Stars

These are plants that are best “direct-sown” (planting the seed directly in the garden) as they don’t like to be transplanted.

• Peas (Snow & Snap): Nothing says “spring” like the sweet crunch of a fresh-picked pea. Plant them 1-2 inches deep along a trellis. The vines will quickly climb as the weather warms. Legumes in the Limelight: Growing Beans and Peas with Ease is a perfect next read.
• Radishes: The ultimate “instant gratification” vegetable. Many varieties are ready to harvest in just 25-30 days. Plant them from seed, thin them out, and get ready for a fast, peppery reward. Get tips from our Radish Revelations: Quick tips for Rapid Growth.

Category 3: The Hardy Root Crops

These crops grow under the soil, which insulates them from the wildest temperature swings. They need loose, well-drained soil free of rocks.

• Carrots: While they can be slow to germinate, spring carrots are incredibly sweet. Plant the seeds shallowly and keep them consistently moist. Our Carrot Cultivation: Secrets for a Crunchy Harvest guide has all the details.
• Beets: Both the root and the greens are edible and delicious. Plant seeds in a row and thin them to 3-4 inches apart. The Beets Go On: Cultivating Colors inYour Root Vegetable Garden will inspire you.
• Turnips & Parsnips: These old-world vegetables are exceptionally hardy and provide a delicious, earthy flavor to spring meals.

Category 4: The Allium Family

This family of plants provides the flavor backbone for your kitchen.

• Onions (Sets & Seeds): You can plant tiny onion plants (“sets”) or start from seed. They will establish their roots in the cool weather and begin to “bulb” as the days get longer. Onions Unearthed: The Layers of Growing Bulb Vegetables can get you started.
• Leeks: A gourmet treat that is easy to grow. Start seeds indoors or plant small transplants in a trench.
• Garlic: While Garlic Gardening: Cultivating Flavorful Cloves at Home is best done in the fall, you can still plant garlic cloves in early spring. You may get smaller heads, but you’ll still get a delicious harvest.

What to Plant Around Your Last Frost Date

These vegetables are “frost-tolerant” but a bit more tender. They are best planted in the 1-3 week window before or on your average last frost date.

Category 1: The Brassica Family

These are the superstars of the cool-season garden, but they are best started as transplants (small plants you buy or grow indoors).

• Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cabbage, & Kohlrabi: These plants form the heart of the spring garden. Plant your healthy transplants in your prepared soil, giving them plenty of space. They will grow their large frames in the cool weather and form heads just as the season turns toward summer. Broccoli and its Relatives: Growing Brassicas in Your Backyard is a great resource.

Category 2: Lettuce and Salad Greens

This is the one you’ve been waiting for.

• Lettuce (All Types): While you can plant lettuce with the earliest greens, it’s slightly less hardy than spinach. The window around your last frost date is the perfect time to plant a lot of it. Plant small batches of seeds (a “succession”) every two weeks to ensure a continuous harvest. Get all the tips from How to Grow Crisp Lettuce: Expert Tips for a Perfect Salad.
• Other Salad Mixes: This is also the perfect time to plant mustards, mizuna, and other Growing Salad Greens: From Bitter to Sweet for Every Palate.

Category 3: Potatoes

Potatoes are a unique case. You plant them 2-4 weeks before your last frost date. The soil protects the “seed potato,” and the green shoots will emerge just as the danger of a hard freeze has passed.

A Critical Step: Hardening Off Your Spring Transplants

If you bought your Brassica or lettuce starts from a nursery, or grew them indoors, you cannot plant them directly into the garden. This is a fatal mistake. Those plants have been living in a perfect, 70-degree, wind-free greenhouse. Planting them in the cold, windy, sunny garden will cause them to go into shock, get sunburned, and possibly die.

You must acclimate them. This is called Seedling Hardening Off.

• Day 1-2: Place plants in a shady, protected spot outside for 1-2 hours.
• Day 3-4: Give them 3-4 hours of shade, with maybe 1 hour of gentle morning sun.
• Day 5-6: Give them a half-day of sun.
• Day 7: They are ready to be planted.

Don’t Get Caught by a Late Frost

You’ve done everything right, but a “polar vortex” is forecast for next week. Early spring is fickle. Always have a backup plan to protect your new seedlings.

• Row Covers: A lightweight, spun-fabric “floating row cover” is a gardener’s best friend. It lets in light and water but provides 4-6 degrees of frost protection.
• Cloches: A simple “cloche” (a “bell” in French) can be a milk jug with the bottom cut off, placed over a single plant. Don’t let one rogue night undo all your hard work. Preparing Your Garden for Extreme Weather is a skill every gardener should have.

Embrace the Season

The joy of early spring gardening is not in trying to rush summer, but in celebrating the unique, delicious, and hardy vegetables to plant in spring that are meant for this season. By working with the weather, preparing your soil, and choosing the right plants, you can get a jump-start on the season and be harvesting your own fresh, delicious food weeks or even months before your neighbors have even thought about planting their tomatoes.

Check out the author’s book here: The Year-Round Vegetable Garden for Beginners.