Winter is far from over here on the North Coast, as evidenced by the weather of the last 10 days. Yet, daffodils and flowering plums bloom heavily despite heavy winds, driving rain and vicious hail storms.
Believe it or not, the soil is slowly warming up, the days are longer thus making it the best weather for growing spinach. Spinach, you ask?
Spinach grown in the late winter early spring tastes the best. The leaves are thick, deep green and full of flavor from the cold weather. And there are no pests like aphids and leaf miner. Garden fresh winter spinach leaves mixed with shredded cabbage make a fine winter salad. Try it.
The easiest and most effective way to grow winter spinach is to use large containers. A six pack of spinach starts will easily fill up an 18-inch diameter grower pot. Fill the pot half way with a good potting mix, add a thin layer of blood meal and then fill to the rim. Insert starts and then let the winter rains do the watering. There will be no weeding, no slogging about the garden mud and no tiny little soil slugs to mess things up. You end up with a good clean crop of spinach within about six weeks.
Plant some spinach now. When you begin to plant the spring vegetable garden, you will be harvesting a fresh green already.
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