Spinach

Spinach is a cool-season green that performs best in spring and fall, when temperatures stay below 65°F; in heat and long days it bolts within weeks. The bolted flower stalks are bitter and inedible, though they have a lacy quality that works as filler in a naturalistic arrangement.

Direct sow a half inch deep as early as the soil can be worked, about six weeks before last frost, and every two weeks until the weather warms; sow again from late summer until a month before first frost for the fall crop, which is often the better one. Thin to 4 to 6 inches in rich, moist soil near neutral, in sun or part shade, and keep it watered. Harvest the outer leaves and the plant keeps producing, or cut the whole rosette at the base.

Fall-sown spinach under a row cover or a light mulch overwinters through zone 5 and gives the first harvest of spring. Leaf miners tunnel the leaves in early summer; a cover at sowing stops the flies. Slugs and rabbits like young spinach. Savoy types stand cold better; smooth-leaf types wash more easily.