Spinach
Delicious and nutritious, spinach provides plentiful and repeated harvest. It’s a compact and speedy crop to fit in small spaces and containers, and can even be grown in light shade in warm weather. You can enjoy harvests for most of the year if you sow little and often.
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| Spinach |
Spinach produces large crops of tender, tasty leaves to enjoy in salads when young or cook lightly when larger. The leaves are packed with antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, including iron, so are best eaten as fresh as possible for maximum goodness. Baby spinach leaves are particularly delicious raw, with a soft, succulent texture and mild flavour.
Spinach is quick to grow, but needs fertile soil that doesn’t dry out. It does best in milder temperatures (ideally 15–20°C/60–70°F), as cold or hot, dry conditions can cause it to start flowering prematurely (bolting), putting an end to harvests. Sow in light shade in warmer weather to keep it cool, and water regularly. Protect spinach from slugs and snails, especially in damp conditions.
These compact plants (up to 20cm/8in tall) are handy if space is tight and they can be grown in containers too. Spinach is also a useful crop for cooler, shady spots in early or late summer, out of midday heat. It needs full sun at other times of year.
Sow small batches regularly and harvest as a cut and come again crop – you should get several pickings from each sowing, but do bear in mind this is a short-term crop that will eventually flower, as which point it should be removed. For early spring harvests, sow a hardy variety in late summer or early autumn and protect plants with cloches or fleece before the first frost.
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| Spinach for cook |
There are many delicious varieties of annual spinach (Spinacia oleracea), for fast-growing, productive, short-term crops, to sow repeatedly. Savoy types have large puckered leaves, while smooth-leaved types have flat, more upright leaves and are generally more robust.
Some varieties produce particularly large leaves or have attractive red stems. Some are resistant to bolting or downy mildew. For overwintering, take care to choose a hardy variety – check seed packets for sowing times.
Ten varieties of spinach have an RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM), which shows they performed well in trials – see our list of AGM fruit and veg for recommended varieties of spinach and many other crops.
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| Fresh spinach leaves |
You can also choose perpetual spinach, for longer-term harvests for up to a whole year – this is useful if space is limited, as plants crop for many months. It’s a type of spinach/leaf beet or chard and is grown in a similar way to spinach – also see chard for more details.
Various other crops have spinach in their common names, as they’re used in a similar way, but are often unrelated to annual spinach. Some cope better with summer heat. Examples include
New Zealand spinach (Tetragonia tetragonoides) – a tender plant that grows well in hot weather and full sun
Tree spinach (Chenopodium giganteum) – a tall plant with pink young leaves
Red mountain spinach or red orach (Atriplex hortensis var. rubra) – has attractive deep red foliage
Malabar or Indian spinach (Basella alba) – a succulent-leaved, tender climber that needs very warm temperatures
For more veg-growing inspiration, visit any of the RHS gardens, as they all grow wide range of quick and easy salad crops and much more.
Recipe with spinach
Spinach is not just a nutritional powerhouse, it’s delicious as well! If you have a bag of spinach hanging around in your fridge and aren’t sure what to do with it, try this quick and healthy recipe! From tasty light salads, prepare to get your spinach fix with this fresh spinach recipe idea.
Strawberry Spinach Summer Salad
This delicious strawberry spinach salad is the perfect showstopper to bring to a potluck or dinner party and makes for a healthy lunch or dinner when paired with grilled chicken or salmon. Feel free to sub out the feta for your favorite crumbled cheese or choose your favorite nuts to add a tasty crunch to this beautiful meal.
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| Spinach mix fruits salad |
Salad Ingredients:
1 Package Spinach
8 oz Strawberries, halved
1 Large Avocado, sliced
½ Red Onion, thinly sliced
½ Cup Crumbled Feta
⅓ Cup Sliced Almonds
⅓ Cup Pistachios, shelled and chopped
Balsamic Vinaigrette Ingredients:
1 Cup Strawberries
3 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
¼ Cup Olive Oil
1 Tbsp Honey (optional)
½ Tsp Dijon Mustard
1 Garlic Clove
Salt & Pepper to taste
Instructions:
Add vinaigrette ingredients to the blender, blend at high speed until smooth.
Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Assemble salad, drizzle with dressing to taste.
What and where to buy
Spinach seeds are widely available from most gardening retailers all year round. Packets usually contain plenty of seeds for repeated sowings.