MINTER: Early starts for early harvests suggested by Chilliwack gardening expert

Published 12:00 pm Saturday, April 11, 2026

We’ve finally warmed up this week with temperatures in the 20C’s, and by avoiding night frosts, I think it’s time to begin our early vegetable planting. The ground soil is still cool, but if you’re using raised beds or containers, some of the more cool-tolerant seeds could safely go in as well.

Onion sets, multipliers, shallots and leeks are all safe bets to get the earliest green onions and onions in general. If you enjoy the large Spanish varieties, transplants of Walla Walla, Riverside Sweet Spanish, and the giant Kelsae onions are ready to be set out in our gardens.

Early potatoes, like Norland, Warba and Caribe, can go in now for harvesting those fabulous nuggets in late June.

Pea seeds will germinate in the cold, as will Broad beans, fava beans and radishes, but I would hold off on other seeds until we get consistently warmer temperatures.

Lettuce transplants can also be set out now and the leaf lettuce, Buttercrunch, seems to be a favourite. Romaine lettuce also remains very popular for obvious reasons, especially for well-known and loved Caesar salads. Romaine lettuce now comes in come in smaller, more compact varieties, as well as traditional sized heads. I love the “Simply Salad” blend of lettuce for early and then continuous harvesting. You might also try planting 4-inch pots of Gourmet Blend, which is a nice combination of colourful leafy salad greens. By setting out more fully developed plants from the larger pots, you can enjoy an early harvest in just a few weeks.

Although I think it’s too early to directly seed carrots, beets, Swiss Chard, and spinach you can safely set out transplants for a much earlier harvest. Growers have started these varieties many weeks earlier, so it cuts down your growing time considerably for much earlier late-May or early June harvests.

Of all the brassicas, broccoli seems to be the most popular today. The smaller, multiple heads of broccolini varieties are very much in demand and broccolini Aspabroc and Artwork are the varieties to look for. As broccoli growers know, if you pick out the main head early, most broccoli varieties will produce multiple smaller heads for that second crop.

Cauliflower remains popular, especially the self-wrapping types that keep those white heads pure white. Cabbage has also retained its popularity, because of the smaller-headed varieties, like Fast Vantage, which produces earlier. Red cabbage is important for colourful salads, and the ruffled heads of Savoy varieties are so valuable for a number of culinary uses.

The are now many new varieties of kale out there that never stop producing, keeping them relevant for wonderful salads and healthy smoothies all year long.

Hold off on your warm-weather loving vegetables until mid- to late-May, but it’s nice to know we can get our early gardens underway now, with the promise of so many early harvests.