Works well in the south, but I don't know about Cleveland. Spinach stands a lot of cold, but three months of solid frozen ground may be too much.

Agree. It all depends on climate. Sometimes mine will make it, others times it don't. All depends on how my micro-climate pockets shift or don't. In your location it sounds like you really lucked out.

Dave

We had a "normal winter" this also worked another year for me. Ground froze a lot - but never for long periods, maybe that is why it worked?

It's now my favorite way to grow spinach. Plant in August or Sept., harvest as far into the winter as possible, then leave it until March or April. Mine did great this year, but winter was a toss up. After Christmas it turned real cold, and then January was very cold. The ground froze a few times, once for about 2 weeks, and we got as low as -8 one morning in January at our house. It looked pretty bad and I didn't expect much, but when the weather began to warm come March it came back and has been producing since the beginning of this month for me. I'll add February was a bit mild, so that may have helped it. I'd be interested to see how it would do farther north with much more severe weather.

Jacoblockcuff, I also plant a fall crop during the third week in Aug for picking in Oct thru the first hard freeze. These can over winter and be pickable in the Spring too but for some reason younger plants do better here for an early spring came back. So I replant more seed at Thxgiving as it gives the plants time to grow 2 small sets of leaves before going dormant. If Feb turns warm it takes off quickly and can handle any cold snap after that. Thxgiving here is about 1 month after the first average frost in mid/late Oct.

Late summer planted spinach winters over here, in a cold frame or under a thin cover of leaves. Planted this way, it grows bigger in spring.

Spring planted spinach takes time to grow and bolts as soon as daylight time increases.