You know it is time to plant spinach in Edmonton when the temperatures start to hover in the just above zero range and the sun has actually melted some of the snow from your soil.
Starting your garden early (this year I started mine at the end of March) without fear means that you can actually start to see and use fresh veggies by the end of April/beginning of May! Spinach, and a few of its cold weather happy friends, respond well to these cooler temperatures. They do not do well in the summer months; last summer I experimented just to make sure that the expert advice was right and my spinach was sad and wilty.
We have a lot of wild rabbits running around our neighbourhood, so I thought that they would take full advantage of fresh spinach sprouting before them; alas, they are not interested in it all. Happily for me, I can safely plant my spinach in my south facing front yard and in the bed that runs along the west facing side of the house without competing with the rabbits!
We don't want to live on spinach alone, so there are some other vegetables that can be planted right away. Try radishes, lettuce, and onion. It is possible to be able to have a couple of months of these veggies before it is too hot. To ensure that you always have fresh produce popping up, practice succession planting. Start by planting your cold weather seeds now, then do another row in two or three weeks. Repeat one or two more times, when you start to notice that it has become too hot and the plants are coming up bitter.
Enjoy your early veggies!
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