Spinach likes it cold

While visiting our amazing local farmers market one spring, I was amazed at how many stands had a spinach harvest available. At the time, I think I may have JUST planted my own spinach, so the sight of so much spinach bounty seemed a miracle that early in the season. Out of curiosity I asked one farmer, "When do you plant your spinach?", and their reply was "fall". This seemed amazing at first, but isn't that exactly what we do with garlic? Plant in the fall and it pops out of the ground in the spring. I'm still a little weary of planting my spinach in the fall, but I have learned from experience that the earlier you plant your seeds in the spring- the better your harvest.

Spinach seed in its furrow.

Each year I plant my spinach earlier and earlier. In 2009 I planted spinach on April 27th, in 2010 on April 3rd and 11th (succession plantings). This year... March 17th. It seems like a leap of faith especially when the snow returned a few days later (along with 29 F days) and has yet to completely melt away. Was this too early? My 2010 spinach was the most successful spinach crop I've ever had... in 2009 I thought it was the best I had ever had too. Maybe 2011 will be even better. Spinach germination rates are very poor after temperatures reach about 70 degrees (actually a 50% drop in germination). They like the cold weather. When the temperatures are too high the seeds go dormant and refuse to sprout. With that in mind, the fact that they can germinate in even 35 degree temperatures and that each year I've planted earlier I've gotten better results... I think the sowing of spinach seeds on March 17th may not be too crazy. I read somewhere that if your not loosing some of your crop to the temperatures then your not planting early enough. Amen.



Spinach seeds.



Here is the spinach bed. I mixed in wood ashes and several buckets of compost and  smoothed it out with a rake. Then I marked my rows about six inches apart with jute twine tied to sticks pushed into the soil at either end (this helps me plant a somewhat straight row). Its too early to hook up the garden hose, so I was watering the bed everyday with two watering cans. However, I've laid off the watering with all the rain/snow we had lately.

Amongst other garden activities on March 17th (including the previously blogged fire drama), I was repairing the garden defenses... namely the deer fence. This was the most time consuming project of the day as it involved a lot of repairs done while balancing on a ladder. What seems to happen every year is that tears will develop in the plastic deer netting. Over time the tears get bigger or a branch will fall on it, or snow will weigh it down and large rips will occur. This and the wooden stakes that I use to support the netting can break too. In the past I've been tempted to replace the areas of damaged netting, but frugal reasoning from my boyfriend encouraged me to sew it back up instead.

Sew I do.

I felt like an orb weaver. The garden fence is now all fixed up and ready to keep out the deer. I have more work to do on the fence to keep out the groundhogs, but this can wait for a bit when the weather warms up again. Besides I think those nasty rodents are still hibernating. Even though its chilly now... its going to be time to plant more things outside very very soon.