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Year-round gardening: Cool-season vegetables can provide boost to spring gardens

By April 13, 2024 | updated 2 years ago

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Cool-season vegetables such as lettuce thrive with early planting.
Irene Shonle, El Paso County Extension Horticulture Specialist

Now that the snow has melted, gardeners are itching to get into their gardens. Planting cool-season vegetables is one way to get a garden going in early spring.

Vegetables are grouped into two categories — cool season and warm season — determined by soil, nighttime temperatures and tolerance for light frost. Hardy, cool-season vegetables can be planted when soil temperatures are above 40 degrees, the soil can be worked easily, high temperatures are at least 40 degrees and low temperatures are above freezing. Some of the earliest vegetables to plant are parsnips, onions, lettuce and spinach.

As soil temperatures exceed 40 degrees, semihardy vegetables such as kale, beets, peas and carrots can be planted. A soil thermometer is helpful in determining the soil temperature. Vegetable beds should be placed where plants receive at least six hours of direct sun a day.

Cool-season vegetables thrive in cool daytime temperatures; they might bolt and fade once temperatures exceed 80 degrees. A second crop can be planted later in the summer to take advantage of cooler temperatures in early fall.

Within the category of cool-season vegetables are annual and perennial vegetables. Spinach, chard, lettuce, peas, broccoli, cabbage, onions, beets and carrots are annual vegetables. Peas can be sown directly in early spring as soon as the soil can be worked, but carrots need a bit warmer soil. Leafy vegetables also can be sown directly, and some varieties are “cut and come again”; harvest as needed and more leaves will be produced to harvest again.

Garden centers sell starter plants that should be hardened off by placing them outdoors for several hours each day over the course of a few days before planting them in the garden. Examples of perennial vegetables are asparagus, chives and rhubarb.

Wait to plant warm-season vegetables until the risk of frost has passed, typically mid to late May, and soil temperatures are about 60 degrees. Because Colorado’s growing season is short, it’s helpful to begin these vegetables indoors in seed trays to transplant when the weather warms or purchase starter plants at a garden center. Tomatoes, beans, cucumbers and summer squash have a shorter growing season (50-65 days to harvest) compared with pumpkins, melons and winter squash, which might take 80 or more days to harvest.

Cucurbits, the family of vegetables that include cucumbers, squash and melons, are susceptible to powdery mildew. Remove affected leaves and avoid watering in the evening. Plants often wilt in the heat of late afternoon but recover as the temperatures cool. Wilting in the morning means the plants need more water.

Here are some helpful worksheets:

https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/yard-garden/recognizing-tomato-problems-2-949/

https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/nutrition-food-safety-health/growing-container-salad-greens-9-378/

https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/yard-garden/cucumbers-pumpkins-squash-and-melons-7-609/

https://cmg.extension.colostate.edu/Gardennotes/720.pdf

Submit gardening questions to csumg2@elpasoco.com or call 719-520-7684. The in-person help desk is open 9 a.m.-noon and 1-4 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays at 17 N. Spruce St. Find us on Facebook at Colorado Master Gardeners – El Paso County.

By Kim Snowdon Colorado Master Gardener

Reporter

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