All About Growing Spinach

Today we’re talking about how to grow spinach—one of the easiest and most nutritious leafy greens you can grow as a beginner gardener. And it’s one of the hardiest greens, meaning you can grow it earlier than some other greens in the spring, as well as later in the fall!

It also works really well in container gardens and even growing indoors. So whether you have a big backyard or just a small balcony, read on to learn what you need to know to grow your own spinach.

When & where to plant

Spinach is a cool-season crop, so the best time to plant it is in early spring or in the fall when temperatures are between 40 and 75 degrees. Temperatures that are consistently above 80 degrees can reduce germination and growth rates significantly, so you’ll want to plant spinach in the early spring and fall gardens.

It also grows well in partial to full sun. So if you have a bed that isn’t peak sun, spinach is a good choice for that. However, since it’s a cooler season crop and the days are generally shorter in the spring and fall, planting it in your sunniest bed or planters is okay, too. Too much heat or light can make it bolt, meaning it flowers early and stops producing leaves.

Planting your seeds

Whether you’re planting in the ground, in a raised bed, or in pots and containers, spinach needs a well-draining, nutrient-rich soil. Any raised bed soil amended with a good compost or a container potting soil will work just fine.

Spinach is also something I recommend for beginners because it is so easy to grow from seed. This process is called “direct sowing,” and it just means you’re planting the seeds directly into soil instead of starting the seeds early indoors under grow lights.

You can start spinach indoors and transplant it outdoors, and plenty of people do. However, it can be very sensitive to transplant shock, and since it grows so well from direct sowing, I don’t bother with starting it early.

All you need to do is plant seeds about a half inch deep. I plant the seeds pretty close together, about 4 inches, and just let the plants be a bit bunched up. You can also thin out the plants as they get bigger, which basically just means plucking a few of the baby plants out as they all get bigger.

Once you plant the seeds, you’ll want to keep them moist but not soggy. If you have a good well-draining potting medium, the excess water should drain away without issues and prevent anny waterlogging and potential for rotting.

You spinach should sprout in a week or two, and the first set of leaves will be long, thin, and green. The next set of leaves will be more oval shaped. These are the first true set of spinach leaves. They’ll continue in this growth pattern with the leaves increasing in size with each set.

Caring for & harvesting

Once your spinach is growing, you’ll want to keep it watered regularly. As the temperatures begin to rise in the spring, you’ll want to water it a bit more. If you have ideal conditions, you’ll be able to start harvesting spinach leaves in about a month or a month and a half.

When you harvest it, don’t pull out the whole plant. Start by trimming the outermost leaves from the plant to eat. The plant will continue producing spinach pretty much until it gets too hot out.

Once the days start getting very long and the temperatures rise consistently above 80 degrees, your spinach plants will begin to bolt. You’ll know they are bolting because they will develop an upward growth habit with little flowers.

When this happens, you can harvest everything immediately to prevent the leaves from turning bitter. You can also let the plant finish flowering and producing seeds to save.

Winter growing

I have had great success growing spinach in “low tunnels” or DIY cold frames in my garden over the winter. The growth will slow way down, but creating a small tunnel with plastic over it will help insulate them a bit and warm things up.

And here’s another example of spinach plants really battling through winter. My mom just left her mature spinach plants from her fall garden in the ground, and they kept thriving throughout winter.

If you can believe it, these plants have been under inches of snow, ice, frost, and super cold temperatures, and we’ve been trimming and eating them all winter. They have been completely unprotected and are still in great shape! This really underscores what a hardy green this is.

Growing indoors

Spinach also makes a great candidate for indoor growing. I like to grow spinach and lettuce indoors when it’s too hot to grow it outdoors in the summer. You can grow it in a pot that’s at least 6 inches deep with some well draining soil.

You can set this on your sunniest windowsill and see if that’s enough. However, you may need to add a grow light and keep it on for 14 to 16 hours a day. Keep the soil evenly moist and play around with the different growing locations and conditions in your home to see what works best for you. 

And that’s it! I hope this inspires you to try your hand at growing some spinach in your garden. If you found this video helpful, don’t forget to like and subscribe to see all of my beginner gardening videos. We’re really getting into gardening season, and I have a ton of fun stuff coming up. Until then, happy planting!

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