Spinach is a cool season garden favorite, growing best in temperatures 50-70 degrees. Average high temperatures in San Diego from November to April are 66-70 degrees and average lows are 49-56 degrees. Most years it thrives in my garden. It also tolerates a few hours of bright shade.

I just planted two varieties this week—a baby leaf spinach mix in the ground and Catalina spinach from Renee’s Garden in six packs.

At the coast we’ve had dips into the 30’s some years and short forays into the 80’s during the winter season but spinach still holds its own. In my Massachusetts zone 5b garden it would over-winter in a cold frame under a blanket of leaves and emerge in early spring for a welcome harvest.

Spinach is generally easy to grow though sometimes it can be difficult to germinate. I typically use seed that is less than two years old. Some years I direct seed in the garden. This year I’m direct seeding and growing to transplant.

My favorite is a smooth-leaf variety, ‘Catalina’ from Renee’s Garden but there are many options. Check Johnny’s Seeds for the nineteen varieties they offer including savoyed-leaf, smooth-leaf, red-veined and Asian-leaf spinach. Spinach does well in a container if that’s how you garden.

Everything you need to know about planting, growing and harvesting spinach is in this blog posts on growing spinach.

Getting a Good Stand of Garden Spinach

Here are some topics from these article that added to my knowledge base.

• Prime spinach seeds for faster and better germination.

• Refrigerate seeds one week before sowing to help germination.

• Troubleshoot problems such as leaf miner, flea beetle, yellow leaves.

• Grow onions with spinach.

• Grow spinach sprouts from seed.

And if you need more reasons to grow spinach, there are these.