The Barefoot Farmer at Long Hungry Creek Farm
Spinach & Onions

Macon County Chronicle November 12, 2002

Spinach and onions love cool weather. Every year in early spring Im
anxious to get them planted. Warm temperatures make the spinach bolt, and
as it sends up its flower and seed stalk, it quits putting out leaves.
Onions also dont like it hot, so we can hardly get these two planted too
early.

But Im trying. Near the garlic beds in the new orchard are a few beds
already composted, limed, and ready to plant. I thought I might mulch
these unplanted beds and then pull the mulch back in early spring to get
a jump on the spinach and onion crop.

Id heard about planting spinach in late fall and letting it over-winter
as a small plant. Maybe we should try that. The back of the spinach
package recommends fall planting and covering the young seedlings with a
protective mulch or plant bed row cover.

Eric and Cher blew us away last summer with their huge Walla Walla
onions. In answer to our queries, we learned they had planted seed in
August and set out the plants later in the fall. They mulched them with
hay or straw. I asked Eric to buy extra seed next time, and he brought it
over this summer.

An old carrot bed wasnt doing anything productive, so we made seven rows
in it and planted the small black seeds of the Walla Walla, Sweet Vidalia
type onion. Soon the bed was full of plants which we kept relatively free
of weeds during the fall.

Its been a busy year, and before I knew it November arrived. Seems kind
of cold, late and wet to think about planting a garden, I briefly thought
to myself, but the hopeful side soon popped up. well never know if we
never try, was the thought that joined with, you cant harvest it if
you dont plant it, and up the hill we went.

I hoed shallow furrows in the first of the beds, which are about 175 feet
long. The row closest to the garlic patch got Indian Summer spinach seed
in it, and the next row was planted in Tyee spinach. I thinly sprinkled
the seed about an inch apart, and then gently raked over the rows.

The next bed received the slender onion plants. Wondering how far apart
to set them out, we recalled Eric and Chers onions being six inches in
diameter. So we aimed for a six-inch spacing, again with only two rows to
the bed.

Normally I like three in a bed, but the question of how to get mulch
between such tight rows plagued me. With plenty of space, I figured itd
be easier to mulch and the onions wouldnt be too crowded together. Soon,
two pretty, green rows graced the bed.

There will still plants left over, and an empty bed nearby was begging
for them. As we started planting the two rows of onions, the spinach seed
in my shirt pocket began making noise. I suppose it was just shuffling in
its package, but I thought it was wanting to be planted.

Thats when I remembered an old gardening trick, companion planting.
Spinach and onions are companions, they like to grow near each other.
Spinach is grown for its leaf, and has a tap root. Onion on the other
hand, is grown for its bulb, and has small, raying rootlets which stay
near the soil surface. So they each take different nutrients to grow and
utilize a different layer underground. Both like it cool, I dont know
yet whether theyll like winter weather.

As you can imagine, I picked up the hoe and made a row right down the
middle of the bed. Flanked by Walla Wallas on either side, another 175
feet of spinach seed awaits its fate. It poured late that night and all
of the next day, which was Election Day. I faithfully went to the polls
and cast my vote-spinach for senator and onion for governor.




_/

Copyright Barefoot Farmer (c)

Last modified: Sun Apr 30 10:04:41 CDT 2006