The coolest veggies around

Plant a few seeds in a triangle so the tendrils can vine their way up a tripod of bamboo stakes, or plant in a row beneath a trellis or chicken wire support. If you stagger pea plantings over several weeks until the latter half of April, you'll have a steady harvest of spring peas. Birds like the tender young pods just as much as you do, so protect your developing crop with netting.

Other seeds that you can sow outside this time of year include leafy greens chard, kale, lettuces, spinach, beets, and radishes. On the next garden-working day, prepare a few rows or a patch of garden by laying down two to three inches of compost and turning it into the soil. Sow the seeds to the depth listed on the seed packet. Again, for a continuous crop, sow the seeds weekly through the latter half of April.

Within a month you'll have a plot of edible greenery. But there's no need to wait that long if you want to go fork first into your garden. You can thin out the younger sprouts to add to salads and sandwiches, leaving room for those remaining to grow to full size. Certain varieties of leaf lettuces are known as cut-and-come-again crops. Snip their outer leaves and the plants will continue to grow from the center.

If the seed route isn't for you, but you still want to see your early garden grow, some vegetable transplants are sturdy enough for this cool spring weather. A transplant - a small plant that has already gotten a jump on spring - can be tucked directly into the garden. Look for transplants of cool-season crops such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, broccolini, and Brussels sprouts in small containers at garden centers, nurseries, or home stores. Stagger your plantings to ensure a steady crop for later spring.

The beauty of the early spring garden is its verdant greenery and ignorance of frost; these crops are not meant for warm-weather culture. For most, seed sowing through the end of April will provide them just enough time to come into their own before they succumb to the summer sun. Lettuces are an exception, if for just a few extra weeks. You can sow seeds or plant baby lettuces through the first week of June. If you keep them well-watered and in the shade of taller veggies, you can even squeeze in an extra week or two of plantings into the middle of June.

Not all veggies that get their start in the early spring garden will be ready for harvest in a matter of weeks. Potatoes, onions, and leeks can take the spring chill but come into their own in the heat of summer. Despite the wait, get them into the garden this April for enjoyment further along in the garden season.

Perhaps the best thing about cool-season veggies is that they aren't just for spring. Once the heat of summer is over, lettuce, cabbage, kale, spinach, and chard can go for a second round in the fall garden. It may be an abbreviated season, but it's just as tasty.