The saying in the area around Cranbrook B.C. is to, not plant your garden until, ‘the snow is off Baker’. Baker is a mountain that everyone living in the area can see. The other common belief is that, the May long weekend is the time to have most things planted. For U.S. residents that date is the third weekend in May and a Canadian Public holiday.

While those sayings are rough guidelines and other communities have the similar sayings, a keen gardener can get started much sooner than that. If the weather offers opportunities, there are so many things to get ready for a relaxed summer in the garden. Many of us already have started tidying up flower beds being careful not to disturb too much and being careful around emerging bulbs. Pots can be scrubbed out with a hard brush ready for planting, patio furniture can be cleaned and set up and seeds can be started on windowsills or in greenhouses. Spinach can go straight into the vegetable bed.

When it comes to the vegetable garden, there are many things to take care of. The planting beds can be prepared in whatever method you choose. In an effort to save on water this year I will be trying the no dig method on some of my beds. I will be growing cut flowers and if there is space left I will surely find a plant or two to fill the space!

Once the soil has thawed out, it can be weeded and amended with manure, compost or sand if the clay needs it for drainage. My raised beds are very full of beautiful healthy loam and so I shall remove some soil and use it around the garden or in pots. I will do the same amendment with manure but then lay down cardboard that has been well watered. I will cover it with a couple of inches  planting mix, use pegs to anchor the card, tamp down with my upended rake and allow to settle before my first seedlings go in.

As well as spinach, there are a number of vegetables that are frost hardy and in fact prefer much cool weather. The Brassicas, cauliflower, cabbage, kale can all be seeded or planted quite early, by mid- late April.  Peas are another crop that much prefers cool weather and can go in at a similar time. Make sure to install some sort of climbing structure for the peas – strong branches, or a row of canes linked with string at the same time as you plant them.

Lettuce, onions, carrots and beets are all crops that can be seeded into the garden by late April. If you started onions inside early, the small sets can planted outside by late April. Some nursery centers bring in onion sets ready to be planted.

There are multiple vegetable gardening sites for zone three that provide really good vegetable growing information. Here are two.

As more of a flower gardener this year, I will be planting out my hardy annuals once the seedlings look strong enough. Snapdragons, Nigella(Love-in-a-Mist), Bupleureum, Queen Anne’s Lace and Verbena bonariensis. Bachelor Buttons and poppies will get seeded straight into the garden as soon as the soil is easily worked.  Hardy annuals are those that can tolerate a little frost. Pansies are also hardy and I usually cheat and buy those for an early pot of colour.

Hardy zone three annuals: Queen Anne’s lace, Pansies and Verbena bonariensis.