Brian Minter: Want an early veggie crop? Here's what you can plant now in Metro Vancouver

Pre-started lettuce and other salad greens grow quickly this time of year. Photo by Minter Country Garden

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If you’re like me, the recent warm weather has spiked the immediacy of getting my food garden underway. It’s mid-April, daytime temperatures are in the teens, and hopefully, we’re past those sneaky night frosts.

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I’m choosing the sunniest spots in our garden and using raised beds and containers for extra warmth in the soil so I can include a wider variety of cool-loving, early plants. My goal is to enjoy the earliest crops possible, as well as spacing out subsequent plantings for continuous harvesting, so I can still harvest late vegetables for Thanksgiving and beyond.

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I will plant early seeds like radishes, peas, onion sets, and early potatoes now but mostly rely on pre-started transplants for other varieties, which will save me waiting weeks and months for harvest times.

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Among the seeds that can be planted early: Peas. Photo by Minter Country Garden

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I love pre-started lettuce and other salad greens because they grow so quickly this time of year. Butterhead and other Bibb lettuces like Buttercrunch are favourites, both for flavour and ease of harvest. Red leaf lettuce is perfect for adding colour to salads and sandwiches and Romaine varieties, like Green Towers, are the heart and soul of Ceasar salads. I’m also a fan of the blended lettuce mixtures like City Garden Mix, which has a good range of flavours and continues to produce all summer long.

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It’s important to get greens like arugula started early as they will tend to bolt or go to seed when we get those sudden bursts of hot weather. The same is true of all those remarkable Asian greens and mustard greens. If you can find them already started in a four-inch pot, they will likely be ready to harvest just a few weeks after being transplanted.

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Speaking of bolting, spinach is another crop that needs to be set out early. Fortunately, spinach varieties are all fast cropping, maturing anywhere from 30 to 45 days from transplanting started plants. The old standby is Bloomsdale Savoy, but there are many other varieties available today. It’s ideal to harvest as soon as the leaves begin to size up, because long days with higher heat will spark the bolting process.

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Although not a true spinach, the well-known New Zealand Spinach or tetragonia tetragonioides, is a heat lover. It takes longer to produce, often taking up to 60 days, but will produce soft, tender spinach-like leaves all summer long.

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Swiss chard is one of my favourite greens, not only for longevity in the garden and for the beautifully coloured foliage but also for the wonderful flavour. Both Celebration and Bright Lights are blends of red, yellow, pink and white stems, making them a garden showpiece.

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Of all the brassicas, broccoli has always been a favourite. Purple-headed broccolis, like Summer Purple, are nice to spice up your salad plates. Most broccoli varieties will produce smaller side shoots if you cut out the central head when it’s young, providing a longer harvest. Now, the mini-head varieties like Aspabroc and Artwork, commonly called broccolini, have really become very popular.

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Kale is still a hit in our younger gardening community. Not only are they the hardiest brassica, but they also perform well in hot summer. I love the Bor series, like Redbor, Winterbor and Darkibor. The latest trend is to let them grow large as garden specimens, which are especially attractive in fall and winter, while remaining edible.