Spinach is very very tough. For a spring harvest I'll plant seed around Thanksgiving here (Va-7) and after it pops up then winter can throw everything it can at it even down to 0F and it comes back just fine without cover. I've already picked it for dinner 3 times and it has a long ways to go before bolting. I also planted some more seed about 3 weeks ago and it's up and running just fine with temps dropping into the low 20's often. Winter doesn't hurt spinach, summer does. It only took me 50 years of gardening to learn this autumn planting trick.

If your soil is workable for planting then it is time for spinach planting. In other words, spinach gets planted as soon as the soil is workable. ;-)

Dave

Thanks for your comments everyone. I've grown spinach for years, but never had such weird weather at this time of year. The snow has just barely melted off the raised beds and it looks like more is coming next week so I'll get those little seeds in today while it's sunny and fair.

Hi again Margie, if you have the extra seed to experiment with you might try autumn planting even up in NY around Nov 1st. I'd bet it takes on your Z-5 a-ok and comes thru for an extra early spring harvest. My only problem is keeping the rabbits and deer away from it during the sparse eating winter months. The spinach is low growing so is easily covered with a hoop of fencing to keep the critters out. The snows of late were a good blanket for the plants too. Once March comes around they just need cleaning up with removal of old leaves, weeds, and soon the new leafs quickly grow. Happy Harvest ;-)

People have said the same about planting peas. I guess it's not getting cold enough to totally freeze the ground like in Feb-Jan. They won't pop up till sometime in April>?

Just took this pic of my autumn planted spinach that was planted last Thanksgiving. As you can see it's covered with fencing for the critters and the strawberries to the left under pine needles are just starting to show some life after a long winter. Sorry for the poor quality pic as it's too cold to go outside so took pic thru a window. About a month ago I cleaned up the row removing the old weathered winter leafs and mulched the spinach with compost and have picked it 3 times since then. The low temp here this winter was in the single digits several times.

Thanks so much for your autumn planting suggestions. So helpful- and for the photo which illustrates your method. Never thought to plant in fall, but I think you're right that it might work. We have those same pesky rabbits and they really wreaked havoc this past winter because of the tremendously cold weather early on and the huge snow accumulations (Syracuse, NY- we had below zero weather for about 3 weeks straight). We have some shrubs that we never had to protect that had most of the bark eaten off this year. Sigh! So I would probably cover the spinach like you did. Appreciate your extra effort to tell me your secrets. : )