Spinach is a great addition to a new vegetable garden at it is a very quick growing vegetable, easy to grow for beginners and super healthy.

With very little effort you can have a bumper crop of leafy greens to cut and come again from spring to fall.

In this spinach growing guide I'll take you through everything you need to know to start growing spinach :

1. Why Grow Spinach
2. When To Grow Spinach
3. Where To Grow Spinach
4. How To Grow Spinach
5. Growing Spinach In Containers
6. Growing Spinach Indoors
7. Spinach Pests
8. Spinach Problems
9. Spinach Companion Plants
10. Harvesting Spinach

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Why Grow Spinach

Quick Growing

You can start harvesting young spinach leaves just 4 weeks after sowing. New leaves will keep growing back so you will have a new harvest of leaves every 2 or 3 weeks.

Easy To Grow

You can grow spinach easily from seed in very little space in vegetable beds or patio pots and containers.

Spinach grows happily in some shade and can be grown indoors or to save space in a vertical garden.

Super Healthy Leafy Greens

Spinach is rich in immune boosting minerals like iron and magnesium.

The mineral content in freshly cut leaves from your garden is often higher than store bought spinach.

Garden grown spinach is often more tender than store bought so great for smuggling greens into kids food.

When To Grow Spinach

• Spinach grows happily between :
  • 25 to 75 fahrenheit
  • -2 to 25 celsius

• Spinach can handle light frost
• But hates too much heat and will bolt and go to seed in hot weather.

Spinach In Cooler Climates

In cooler climates sow spinach :

• From early spring to May or
• From late August to September for a late winter - early spring crop.

In London, I often keep spinach going all summer by planting it in a shady bed or in pots moved into a shadier area of the garden.

Spinach In Hotter Climates

In hotter climates grow spinach crops over autumn and winter :

• From September
• Through March.

More heat tolerant spinach varieties, with less tendency to bolt include :

• Malaber
• FanTail
• Indian Summer
• Bloomsdale Longstanding
• Catalina
• Oceanside.

Where To Grow Spinach

• Spinach grows in partial shade & full sun if not above 25c/75f.
• Spinach prefers neutral to alkaline (7+) soil but is not super fussy.

It's typically recommended to rotate spinach and NOT to grow it - or closely related chard and beet - in the same spot within 3 years.

This crop rotation boosts soil health.

If like me you have a small vegetable garden, you can rotate spinach crops through pots for optimal soil health.

How To Plant Spinach

Some gardeners pre-soak seeds to help germination but I don't bother and have never had problems.

I simply sow spinach seeds :

• ½ - 1 inch deep
• In rows
• 2 inches apart.

Seeds sprout in 7 to 10 days.

You can plant a few seeds weekly for a constant crop but I plant all in one go and then harvest leaves at different points so I've alway got cut-and-come-again leaves available.

Sowing Spinach Indoors

You can sow spinach seeds indoors to avoid heavy frost but spinach seedlings are weak stemmed and fiddly to move compared with courgettes, peas or collards.

Growing Spinach From Scraps

You can re-grow spinach quickly and easily from spinach scrap roots.

Simply put scraps in a little jar of water and once new roots and some stem have appeared, plant out.

Caring For Spinach Plants

Spinach plants are very easy to care for as long as you keep an eye on heat and 1 key pest we'll cover later.

The only other care needed is :

1. Watering
2. Feeding
3. Thinning

Watering Spinach

Spinach does get thirsty, so do stay on top of watering, as soon as your seeds have germinated.

Just don't over do the watering!! Yellowing or wilting leaves can be a sign of unhappily soggy roots.

Feeding Spinach

Spinach does grow well in rich soil and you can feed it blood meal or fish emulsion but well composted beds should be fine without feeding.

Thinning Spinach

If you want to grow a single crop of big spinach plants, you can thin seedlings to 3 or 4 inches.

I grow spinach as a cut-and-come-again crop so constantly harvest fairly young leaves for the kitchen and don't bother thinning out.

Growing Spinach In Pots And Containers

Spinach can grow well in shallow pots and containers so can be usefully squeezed into all sorts of ledges around a backyard or patio.

You can even grow spinach in a vertical vegetable garden like this :

To grow spinach in containers :

• Pick pots at least 15cm/6in deep.
• Plant in rich compost.
• Stay on top of watering.
• Move pots into shade if sun too hot as the weather warms up.

If you are starting a vegetable garden on a budget you could grow baby spinach in an old cream tub.

Growing Spinach Indoors

You can grow baby spinach indoors if you can give it a window spot with lots of light that won't get too hot.

Just make sure your pot drains well into a tray of some sort so you can keep the spinach well watered without the roots getting too soggy.

Spinach Pests

Spinach doesn't suffer too badly with pests and it is possible to control them gardening organically.

Spinach pests to be aware of are:

1. Leaf Miners
2. Aphids
3. Slugs & Snails
4. Birds

Leaf Miners

Leaf miners are the big spinach pest.

The tell tale signs of leaf miners in spinach are silvery grey trails and areas of rotting blackened leaf.

The damage is called by the black fly larvae burrowing through leaves.

The best ways to prevent and control leaf miner damage to spinach are :

1. Cover plants with fine netting, (butterfly nets not fine enough).
2. Snip out first signs of any silver trails with fine scissors.
3. Remove damaged leaves.
4. Look for tiny bright white grain like eggs on underside of spinach leaves and remove manually.

Aphids

Aphids are not typically as much of a problem for spinach as for other leafy greens e.g. chard or collards.

But you can get aphid infestations that suck moisture from plants.

Aphids will often be herded onto vegetables by ants who protect the aphids from natural predators.

The best simple natural ways to protect spinach from aphids are :

1. Plant garlic to keep aphids away.
2. Spray infected leaves with water and a little low chemical dish soap.
3. Get rid of ant nests near vegetable beds with natural ant killers.

Slugs & Snails

Slugs and snails love all young green plants so use these slug & snail repellent tips to stop them wolfing down your spinach plants.

Birds

Keep crows & magpies off spinach with old DVD reflectors on tripods.

Spinach Problems

Spinach really is very easy to grow for beginner vegetables gardeners and there are just a few common problems to be aware of :

1. Bolting
2. Light Green Leaves
3. Bitter Leaves
4. Yellowing Leaves
5. Mildew

Bolting

Spinach will send up flower stalks instead of leaves & go to seed if the plants lack water or get too hot.

If you are gardening in a cool climate and have a maverick hot spring, you can usually save spinach plants from bolting by moving them, in pots if necessary, into a shadier spot.

Light Green Leaves

Spinach leaves should be dark green. Lighter green leaves can be a sign that the soil isn't rich enough and needs additional feeding.

Bitter Leaves

Bitter spinach leaves are another sign soil isn't rich enough but can be remedied in the kitchen with cream!

Yellowing Leaves

Yellowing leaves can be a sign of poor soil but also of over watering.

Mildew

Mildew on spinach is a sign the plants don't have enough space. If you are growing full size spinach plants rather than cut-and-come-again young leaves, you should thin plants so a good 3-4 inches apart.

Spinach Companion Plants

Spinach releases anti-fungal and anti-bacterial fluid into soil that can be valuable for other plants.

Spinach can be a particularly good companion plant to grow with:

1. Turnips
2. Peas
3. Cabbages & Collard Greens
4. Garlic
5. Tomatoes
6. Strawberries

Turnips

Growing turnip greens amongst spinach is a great way to feed soil for a bumper spinach crop.

Peas

Growing peas and spinach together is very efficient use of space in a small vegetable garden and the peas will feed nitrogen to the spinach.

Cabbages

Cabbages including collard greens can be interplanted with spinach.

Garlic

Growing garlic as a companion plant can protect spinach from aphids.

Tomatoes

Spinach can be grown ahead of tomatoes in cool months to improve soil health as tomatoes are vulnerable to fungal disease.

Tomatoes then in turn provide shade for spinach growing underneath.

Strawberries

Strawberries and spinach are traditionally grown together to get better crops from both.

Harvesting Spinach For Salad & Cooking

Spinach really is quick growing and you can start harvesting spinach leaves just 4 weeks after planting.

If you harvest spinach by cutting the bottom of stems, new stems grow.

This means we can grow and harvest spinach in two different ways :

• Cut & Come Again
• Main Crop

Cut & Come Again Spinach

You can eat cut-and-come-again spinach fresh from the garden week in, week out for months.

From 4 weeks, I cut young leaves from alternate plants to create optimum space for new growth.

Some people suggest harvesting spinach first thing but we cut the biggest leaves available just before cooking for optimum nutrition.

Main Crop Spinach

If you have more space in your vegetable garden, you can grow big spinach plants for harvesting and freezing at the end of the season.

Remove whole plants when thinning early in the season rather than cutting off stems, to stop growth.

To remove soil and creatures, sloosh spinach around in a big bowl of water, then drain leaves using the water for watering other plants.

And there you go, lots of tips to grow spinach easily as a new gardener.

I hope they give you a bumper crop.

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Original images by sloely.com