Spinach in March

It's only mid May and Cheryl picked yet another batch of fresh spinach. We've been eating spinach from the garden since early April, even before many gardeners had sown their spinach seeds. We did it by frost-seeding in late September. Being hardy, the spinach seedlings spent the winter beneath a constant cover of snow mulch and as soon as the snow melted in late March, the inch-tall seedlings shot up. We've been eating spinach ever since. Frost seeding is an old practice not very often mentioned in garden books now. It works in our area for not only spinach but also peas. Seeds treated with a fungicide are less apt to rot in the cold soil but the treatment is more of a life insurance and not absolutely necessary. Try it this year. —Dr. Bob Gough