Most seed will sit in the ground in raised beds without rotting until they are ready to sprout, so theoretically we could plant some things like beets anytime now in zone 4, assuming they are not going to be sitting for too long a period in wet, cold soil.

I will probably wait a week or two to sow my beets. I was canning my beets by July 18th last season, and wrapped up my pickled beets up by the end of July. I have a lot of beds to work with, so the 8X10' bed I rotated the beets to gets covered with a thick layer of compost to rest until the next year. In some beds I do a second sowing of spinach, radishes and lettuce at the beginning of August.

I don't regularly grow broccoli so can't offer much useful information to you.

In my foray yesterday in the garden, I noticed that all the frost and ice under the thickest leaf mulch areas in the beds was finally gone.

The greens I planted last season in mid-March survived after sprouting through night time temperatures in the upper teens in mid-April. However, they did not mature to harvestable time faster than the greens I planted later in April. So there was not real advantage, other than experimentation.

I enjoy planting different things as soon as the soil can be worked in the spring to experiment and for something to do, and continue through July 4th to stagger harvests of beans and different types of zucchini. Then second plantings of greens go in late July or early August.

I have had good success direct sowing tomato seeds in my bed in mid-May. I have never started anything indoors prior to the season, even in my gardens in Zone 3 at our old homestead.

Here in Minneapolis, frost hardy seeds could have been in the ground close to month already this year and would likely have already sprouted, and in some cases far enough along to harvest. Carrots, lettuce, radishes, shell and pod peas, beets, chard and many of the cole greens, even onions all would have worked. Almost certainly there are gardeners already harvesting spring radishes and may be early lettuce and other greens, as early as our spring was here in the City. I like to work up my beds in the fall to be ready to go right out into them as early as possible, but family issues last fall and health problems this spring blew that into a cocked hat this year.

Sorry to hear about your impediments this year Old Dutch. I hope you can get everything squared away soon. I am in the neighborhood so If you need a hand this spring/summer I would love to come out and help, see what you are doing, and pick up a few tips.

The real nice thing about most of the cool weather spring crops is that you can put them in as soon as it is fit and then have them out of the way, and very often harvested before the ground is needed for hot weather crops. Just be sure you have the right varieties. Some of the hardy crops bolt in the spring and have to be planted mid to late summer to mature in fall cool weather.

So, just a slight turn off topic. When do you start cool weather crops at the end of the summer? I was too late this spring, but would like to try for fall if possible.

You can plant for the fall starting about now. Some few like lettuce will not germinate if the soil is too hot, but you can start them inside under lights. Lettuce transplants very easily. Spring radishes and many types of hybrid turnips, Napa, and carrots can be planted just about any time. I like daikons, of which many of the hybrid varieties can be planted nearly any time. All of them can be planted now for autumn harvest. Fall cabbages and broccoli should be started very soon now, too.

When we lived back in Iowa City, Ia, I heard a number of old timers rhyming about fall planting: "Plant turnips the 25th of July, wet or dry." We need a bit of a jump on that for turnips at about 55 days for the standard purple top white globe up here in Minnesota, perhaps a couple of weeks. About the same for Golden Globe, if you want to try a yellow one. For Tokyo Cross, White Lady and similar white hybrids as little as 35 days is needed, and you don't have to wait to plant them either; they can go in anytime. I suggest you use the 55 days as a bench mark to plan when to plant other things rather than expecting the crop in that number of days. A warm fall will probably speed up maturity, a cool one will slow it down but the result in a cool fall will almost certainly be better tasting.

You can also take turnip greens at any time they are big enough. Many of your brassica root crops and even the sweet potatoes and green peas have very edible leaves and shoots, even if the normal crop does not develop.

Longer maturities need to planted a bit sooner than for standard turnips, meaning you don't have to wait much longer any more.

I planted cabbage last weekend, and I noticed today some are up now. I had a succession sowing of lettuce up and growing for a few days, and this morning I noticed that something had mowed them all down overnight. I suspect a small bunny got inside the fencing, which happens from time to time. Whatever it was, it didn't touch my small basil and spinach plants so maybe it was slugs. It has been pretty wet and cool the last week or so here.