How to Plant a Spring Garden

One of my goals this year is to take my spring garden a bit more seriously than I have in the past. Between having a small baby and being pregnant, I simply haven’t put in as much effort into my spring garden as I’d like to. But this is my year to change that! This begs the question, “How to Plant a Spring Garden?”

I’ve given the spring garden a small go for the past three years, so I have a few tips for how to get it going. I’ve certainly not perfect the spring garden art, but I hope I can share at least a bit of advice in order to get at least one person into gardening this year. Some other posts you may find helpful as you begin gardening: The Basics to Starting Seeds Indoors, Gardening To-Do List | January, Using a Grow Light | Seedlings, and 5 Tips for Transplanting Seedlings to the Garden.

know your zone

Everything you need to know about knowing when to plant a garden is right here. We’ll discuss frost dates, gardening zones (what they are and how to find yours), as well as how to read a seed packet and plan when to plant each variety. You’ll even find more gardening tips and tricks at the very end of this post.

“Gardeners need a way to compare their garden climates with the climate where a plant is known to grow well. That’s why climate zone maps were created. Zone maps are tools that show where various permanent landscape plants can adapt. If you want a shrub, perennial, or tree to survive and grow year after year, the plant must tolerate year-round conditions in your area, such as the lowest and highest temperatures and the amount and distribution of rainfall.” –Garden.org

Find your specific gardening zone right here!

what to plant in spring

Spring planting is much different than summer planting. This is the time for quickly-growing and frost tolerant crops. So, what kinds of crops are to be planting for spring harvests?

Direct Sow

These crops can be planting right into the garden.

Lettuce (Red leaf, green leaf, romaine, baby)
Chicory
Spinach
Kale
Radishes (red, easter egg, french breakfast)
Sugar snap peas
Scallions
Root vegetables (beets, turnips, carrots)
Kohlrabi
Herbs (Chamomile, calendula, cilantro, parsley, dill)
Potatoes

Transplant

These crops tend to do best if started indoors and then transplanted into the garden. Follow the directions on your seed packet for best results.

Onions
Cabbage
Broccoli
Cauliflower

Planting a Spring Garden

Some seeds need to be started indoors while others can be directly sown into the garden. See the list above for which ones I direct so and which I transplant.

For best results, follow the directions on your seed packets in concordance with your frost date. The seed packet should have all the information one could need for sowing seeds: from the seed depth, when best to plant, whether to start the seeds indoors or not, row spacing, etc. If not, a quick visit to the website you bought from will lend you the answer.

Keep in mind that it’s really hard to mess this up. Yes, you will have seeds that don’t germinate or things that don’t grow well, but you are bound to get something out of your garden. If not food, at the very least more knowledge that you can use the next time around. I encourage you to give it a go and don’t give up even if it isn’t as successful as you hoped it would be!

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“She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.”
— Proverbs 31:16

How to Plant a Spring Garden