Gardening 101

Spinach was ready in our garden April 22 this year. A 4’X6’ patch provides more than we can possibly eat. The trick with spinach is to plant it as early as possible, it doesn’t matter that more frosts and freezes will come. In 17 years of gardening in Minneapolis, I’ve never seen spinach killed by a freeze. Usually a patch of warm weather in March melts the snow and thaws the top inch of soil before more snow comes. This is the time to plant spinach. Of course, we didn’t have the snow issue this year, so there was plenty of time to get spinach in early. I cleared the debris and dug out the weeds as deep as the soil was thawed from a bed about 4’ wide and 6’ long. To make a nice seed bed and provide the new plants with available nitrogen, I applied about ½ an inch of composted manure, usually available from home centers for about $1.50 a bag as a spring loss-leader. But the important part is just to get the seeds in the ground. Some people even get spinach started in the fall then mulch it over the winter, so it gets off to a good start early. I plant spinach like grass seed, except thinner, spreading it over the surface of the bed so the each seed has and average of about a square inch of soil. It needn’t be an exact science, and it’s better to plant them too close than too far apart, since the spinach helps smother out weeds. At the end of the bed I also distributed a blend of lettuce seeds. Then I covered the seeds with ¼ inch more compost (less on the fine lettuce seeds). In other years, I’ve just scratched the seeds into the soil with a rake. Usually, I then cover the bed directly with Remay (a spun bonded white fabric) or a hoop frame covered with Remay to elevate the low temperatures. This year I just covered it with a hoop frame covered with chicken wire to keep out the rabbits. Since the soil was dry back in early March, I watered it in really well, soaking the soil repeatedly. Then, I just waited, maybe pulled a weed or two occasionally, or watered as the dry weather continued. This year the spinach popped up pretty quick, and by the third week of April, I started harvesting baby spinach. I use a sharp knife, grabbing a handful of the baby plant leaves and shearing them off an inch or less above the soil. The leaves will re-grow for repeated harvest until the plants bolt (go to seed) when the weather gets really hot in summer. Shade from the western sun will keep them going longer. I harvest the lettuce the same way.