The spring garden is full of so much potential. It is the time of year when we can start having larger harvests from the garden. I enjoy the cool season garden because it can be filled with so many nourishing foods. There are many cool season crops that can be grown before our last frost date that thrive before temperatures start to rise. There are also ways that you can stretch out or push your growing seasons so you can start growing cool season crops sooner. With so many options to choose from it may be hard to decided what to grow if you have a small growing space. Below are some cool season crops that will give you more harvest potential than others you might consider growing.

• Sugar Snap Peas – Sugar snap peas are a great beginner crop to grow in a small space. They don’t take up a lot of bed space at the soil level, instead they grow vertically when trellised, which is the best way to grow them. (Unless you are growing a short growing variety.) You can start your peas before the last frost, they do well in cool temperatures. I would suggest covering small seedlings with frost cloth if the temperature is going to be significantly colder. You can continually harvest from sugar snap peas until the temperature gets too hot for them to thrive. They are easy to prepare as either a snack or as an ingredient in a meal. They can be consumed as a quick snack straight from the garden or they can be sautéed or lightly steamed. Try adding to a stir fry, salad or even your favorite white sauce pasta dish.
• Lettuces – Lettuces can be grown for their full heads or they can be harvested when they have small leaves. Growing a variety of lettuces of both leaf lettuce and head lettuce is ideal for the most variety. You can easily prepare lettuce by rinsing under cool or cold water, drying off excess water and adding to a large bowl. You have the choice of shredding , mincing, tearing the lettuces pieces to your desired size. Something I suggest you try would be to cut a head of lettuce in half and grill or cook the lettuce until it is wilted, drizzle with your favorite salad dressing or sauce and top with your protein of choice. There is something wonderful about warm wilted lettuce, give it a try. When harvesting lettuces, cut a few leaves from the outer portion of each plant to not stress any single plant, this will also give you more possible harvests.
• Broccoli – Broccoli is another cool season vegetable that can give you more than one harvest if you allow the side shoots to continue to grow and make new heads after harvesting the main head. They will be smaller than the main head, but you can get more than one harvest from most varieties. Broccoli is a power house when it comes to nutrition. Most anything in the brassica family is a fantastic option for most diets. Broccoli is good steamed, sautéed, roasted and grilled. Broccoli is a larger plant and will take up more space in your garden than peas or lettuces, but give it a chance if you love eating it!

There are many options when it comes to getting multiple harvests from singular plants grown in a small space. These three plants are a great selection if you want to be able to harvest more than once. Of course you can grow single harvestable plants like beets, carrots and radishes in successions to enjoy more than one harvest from them. This takes more planning and leaving spots open for future successions while the garden is getting established in the early season. (This is a whole other blog topic.) When it comes to choosing what to grow in a small space it is even more crucial to pick those things your family loves to eat. You can still add in something new or experimental to try, just focus the majority of your garden on those things your family loves to eat above anything else. (The same goes for any herbs you use in your home apothecary for you family.) The spring garden is full of potential, use it to your best ability by growing multi-harvest crops, you’ll get more from your garden than single harvest crops.