How to Grow Spinach {Start to Finish}

I started some spinach seeds last week in the greenhouse gutters and I am anxiously waiting for them to pop through the soil. I thin that’s the hardest part about gardening if you ask me. Waiting.  

Spinach is pretty easy to grow, and you can grown an incredible amount from just a tiny packet of seeds. I like the Monstrueux de Viroflay variety for it’s big, fat leaves.

Brief description:  Spinach is a cold-hardy leafy green.

Where to Plant Spinach:  Raised beds, garden beds, or containers.

Planting Seeds:  Plant 1/2″  deep.  Thin to 2″-6″ apart when seedlings are 1″ tall.  Plant 4-6 weeks before the last frost.   You can sow seeds every 3 weeks to get a continuous crop.

Growing Tips:  Spinach forms fairly deep roots and will do best if you loosen soil up to 1 foot deep all around your planting area.  To get a crop to grow throughout the summer, sow spinach in the shade of larger plants, such as corn or beans.

How to Harvest:  Pick individual leaves from outer part of the plant or cut the whole plant down at the base.

Are you ready to start your garden but you’re not sure when you should plant your seeds or set out your transplants? Head on over HERE and you’ll be taken to a handy dandy chart that is broken down into what vegetables should be planted {or transplanted} each month in your area.

Anyone can do this. Dirt + Seeds+ Water = Food!

~Mavis

Here are a few of my Favorite Spinach recipes:

Ham and Spinach Quiche with a Butter Crust

My Favorite Spinach Smoothie Recipe

Lentil Soup with Spinach and Carrots

Lasagna Spinach Rolls 

Fun Fact:  Remember Popeye?  Spinach growers in the 1930’s attributed a 33% percent boost in spinach sales because of Popeye’s popularity. Go.Fight.Win.

Gardening books hold kind of a special place in my heart. I wouldn’t be the gardener I am today {or maybe not a gardener at all} if it weren’t for a few gardening books I picked up years ago.

I spent almost the entire winter of 2008/2009 reading up on gardening. I found some incredible reads that taught me so much and made me realize how much I didn’t know. So I’ve never stopped reading gardening books.

Here are just a few of my favorites, although if we’re being honest, narrowing this list down was virtually impossible. 

My Favorite Garden Books:

• Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting
• The Complete Compost Gardening Guide
• Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre
• Sugar Snaps and Strawberries 
• The Gardener’s A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food
• The Kitchen Gardener’s Handbook