Vegetable · Leafy green
Spinach
Spinacia oleraceaSpinach is happiest in cool, crisp weather, unfurling tender, mineral-rich leaves at a rapid clip once it gets going. It is one of the most cold-hardy greens around, shrugging off frost that would flatten softer lettuces. The one rule: sow it early or late in the season, since heat sends it racing to seed within days.
Sow depth
½ in
Spacing
3 in · rows 10 in
Sun
Sun or part shade
Germination
7–14 days
Time to harvest
40–50 days
Difficulty
Easy
When to sow spinach
- Sow from about 6 weeks before your last expected frost until about 1 week before your last expected frost.
- Sow from about 11 weeks before the first expected autumn frost until about 8 weeks before the first expected autumn frost.
Direct sow into cool, moist soil — warm soil slows or blocks germination.Sow thinly along shallow drills, then thin seedlings as they crowd.Succession sow every couple of weeks for a rolling supply of leaves.
Keep the soil consistently moist — drought stress hastens bolting.Feed lightly with a balanced fertilizer to keep leaves lush and dark.Provide light shade if a warm spell arrives mid-season.
Harvest outer leaves first — the center keeps producing new growth.Cut the whole rosette at once if bolting looks imminent.Pick in the cool of the day for the crispest leaves.
Companion plants
Keep fromPotatoes
Spinach makes a fast, low-growing living mulch between slower crops like strawberries, shading out weeds.
Watch out for
Leaf miner — Larvae tunnel pale trails inside leaves as weather warms. Remove and destroy affected leaves as soon as trails appear.