Local garden stores have seen a surge in vegetable-seed sales in the past week. Whether you’re staying busy around your yard or patio or kicking into full-on Walking Dead garden-subsistence mode, here are some of the seeds you can direct-sow this early in the season.

Arugula

Sow these peppery/nutty greens every few weeks from mid-March to April. (They don’t like the heat.) Reap the rewards in as little as four or five weeks, when you harvest them with scissors. Throw them in a salad, pop them on a baguette with goat cheese, or cover a homemade pizza in a leafy mountain of them.

Snow peas

Add sticks or twine to your plot or your container, and watch a sweet crop wind its way up in less than eight weeks—easy-peasy. Eat these babies pods and all, in salads and stir-fries, or just as a crunchy work-at-home snack.

Kale

Sown this time of year, cold-hardy kale can take more than two months to get to harvesting height, about 22 centimetres. The good news is that it sprouts fresh leaves when you pick it; those take a couple weeks to come back. Use it for an extra-nutritious Caesar salad, in a hearty potato soup, or go full West Coast and throw it in a smoothie.