March 7 Column: Starting Veggies Early

starting veggies early, Cool Weather row cloche
These are French “cloches,” or bell-shaped glass covers that are used to give plants cold protection early in the season.

Starting veggies early is the topic for this week’s garden column and video. I’ve decided to push the envelope by planting lettuce waaaaay earlier than usual this year and, to make matters worse (although I hope not!), I am encouraging you to try this, too. Here’s the link to my column in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review: Get a jumpstart on the garden. (you can also read the text of my column at the bottom of this post)

When I say “starting veggies early,” just how early am I talking about? I usually direct-sow lettuce seeds in the garden around April 10. Last year, in late March, I received a row cloche system from Gardener’s Supply, which prompted me to start seeds indoors in anticipation of receiving it. Then I planted them in the garden (under the cloche system) about 2 weeks ahead of time. I was excited about this but I knew I should try to plant them outdoors even earlier this year, to see how early I could get away with this.

To clarify, a cloche (which is French for the word “bell”) is a bell-shaped cover that you place over a plant to give it frost protection early in the season. It’s common to see old glass cloches in British and European gardens (see photo at top left) that are used for this purpose. But there are other ways to protect early plantings, as I explain both in my column and in this week’s video, and they’re quite simple.

This is my Cool Weather Row Cloche system from Gardener’s Supply.

At the end of January, I started several lettuce plants from seed. It’s important to let them develop a good root system and a few leaves before you move them out into the garden. After setting up my cloche system a few days ago — which warmed the soil — I transplanted the seedlings on March 4th. Now THAT is early! My fingers are crossed that an Arctic front doesn’t push through Spokane in the next couple of weeks!

I encourage you to try this method for starting veggies early. If you can pull it off, you will be eating fresh salad greens from your garden way earlier than usual. And if it Mother Nature pulls a fast one on you? Well, you’re just out a few lettuce seeds.