Growing Spinach Indoors Or in Containers to Add Character to Your Landscape
Growing spinach indoors or as an accent to your landscape in containers can be a very rewarding experience. Companion planting in containers with eggplant and lettuce is a unique way to add character to a porch or patio.
Spinach is a crop that can be easily added to your landscape design. It is an easy crop to grow and can be used as an accent among other plants in your landscape gardens or as a companion plant in a vegetable garden.
Being a crop that likes cool temperatures, it is an excellent choice to be planted in flower beds before the temperature in your area are warm enough to flowers, or at the end of the growing season for a late crop. Keep window boxes, containers and raised beds growing late into the season. They are all ideal locations to grow an early or late season, healthy and thriving crop.
Spinach varieties can have there own unique characteristics, from flat leaf, semi-savoyed, heavy savoyed and even the strawberry spinach that produces a strawberry like shaped fruit on leafy stems above the rosette of leaves. It is a very unique variety of spinach that can add character to any type of garden or be used as a border along walkways.
Being an early crop makes it deal to be planted in containers. The preparation of window boxes or other containers can be prepared well in advance indoors and set outside once the temperatures are at ideal condition for spinach to grow.
Spinach seed will germinate readily at a temperature of 38 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit, and can also be planted with good results when temperatures are at 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Once the temperatures start to get to warm it will reduce the seed germination rate, in soil temperatures above 85 degrees Fahrenheit.
Spinach is usually garden planted in rows 12 to 24 inches apart, but can be planted as close as 6 inches apart in containers, raised beds or window boxes, and even in gardens. The seed when planted should only be covered with no more than a half inch of fine soil. Ideally the soil should be one with a good healthy organic soil structure and with a ph range of 6.6 to 6.8.
Some indications of a possible soil ph that is out of range are poor seed germination, browning of the seedlings leaf tips, yellowing and slow growth. Testing of soil is a very important part of any organic garden, along with having a good soil management plan in place.
When growing spinach as a part of your landscape, it will adapt to a range of soil types. From a light and sandy loam to a silty clay type loam. In soils that are heavier and have a poor drainage, amend the with plenty of organic matter, preferably raising the ground elevation to a mound or a raised bed for improving the drainage. Once the seeds have been planted, the soil should be keep moist and watering of plants should be done in the morning so the plants foliage will be dry before dark. water is very important in growing a healthy and tender thriving crop of spinach, keep the soil moist to a depth of about 4 to 6 inches.
A environment friendly and healthy way of gardening. Organic Gardening is away of gardening in harmony with nature. Growing a healthy and productive crop in a way that is healthier for both you and the environment.
John Yazo
[http://www.organicheirloomgardening.com]
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