Vegetable Growing Guide: Spinach

A highly nutritious and easily grown crop for use throughout the autumn, winter and spring.

Sow perpetual spinach in spring in drills 1in (2.5cm) deep 6in (15cm) apart, in rows 18in (45cm) apart, preferably in a well-manured organic soil in partial shade.

Pick young leaves regularly, starting late summer, and give some protection against frost to enable picking throughout the winter.

Summer spinach, such as Monnopa is treated in the same fashion and takes almost 9 weeks from sowing to picking, provided that the soil doesn't lack moisture. So make successional sowings at 2-3 week intervals until mid-summer.