![]() Remember, this is the same spinach that was planted the previous August! Usually it’s not until March when I get my first spinach harvest. In one very mild year I was able to harvest in February. It’s starting to wake up as the days get longer. After that I let the bed rest for January and February.įebruary 19: The above photo is what the spinach bed looks like on this date. I often try to save my last harvest for Christmas dinner. Mid-December – March: Where I live in Wisconsin plant growth stops during this time which means the spinach isn’t growing anymore. I’ve also noticed that when I cover my spinach for the winter it bounces back and starts growing much earlier in the early spring. This keeps it warmer during the day and increases the chances it will defrost when it’s sunny out. But, during some years I choose to add a low tunnel made of greenhouse plastic on top of my spinach. Spinach can survive the winter in zone 5 with no protection. Of course, we have to serve a spinach salad!ĭecember 8: It’s starting to get cold here in Wisconsin, so my spinach is freezing at night, but if the temps get above 32 degrees F and the leaves defrost I can harvest it for a salad that night. November 21: This impressive harvest of fall garden vegetables is getting packed into a cooler and taken to my in-laws for Thanksgiving dinner. Sometimes I have more than I can use, so I pack it raw into freezer bags to use in my morning smoothies during winter. October 31: I’m still harvesting from my fall plantings. September 14: I’ve already begun harvesting fresh salads for dinner from this planting. One of the beds of fall spinach I planted about a week before is germinating nicely! We’ll talk more about timing later in the article. Here’s a season in the life of fall planted spinach as an illustration of why you must plant it in your garden this year.Īugust 22: I usually plant around August 15 depending on the weather. Then we’ll get into the specifics of how, when and what varieties to plant.įall Spinach: Why It’s the Most Amazing Vegetable to Grow Let me use some photos from my garden to illustrate why you, too, should fall in love with planting spinach in fall. Take that, you delicate spring planted spinach. It’s barely worth planting.īut, fall planted spinach, be still my heart! One planting can provide as many as eight months worth of spinach harvests. That plant can barely produce more than one harvest during the spring months before going to seed. This is a very different vegetable than the persnickety one known as spring spinach. ![]() Thus began my love affair with the toughest vegetable I know – fall spinach. I had no idea a vegetable in my garden could survive the harsh winter of Wisconsin (something I can barely manage to do myself!). Imagine my surprise when I realized that not only was the fall spinach from the previous year still alive, it was actually growing again. Then, in spring, when the ground started to thaw and the sun returned and started getting me in the gardening mood, I went out to my garden to do a little clean up. Then it got cold over the winter (okay, that’s an understatement, I do live in Wisconsin) and the spinach was covered in snow and I forgot all about it. The first season I planted it for fall growing I got lots of big, delicious harvests throughout September, October, and November. Did you know that fall spinach is a gateway vegetable?įall spinach is the vegetable that first got me hooked on cold weather gardening.
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