Spinach is one of the most healthy vegetables due to its rich content of proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins (C, B1, B2, B6, PP, K), as well as folic acid and mineral substances (iron, calcium, copper, sodium, potassium, phosphorus). It is prepared in different ways - for example, baked spinach with rice, fried spinach with eggs or as a pie filling. It is also very tasty raw as an ingredient in various salads and the most tender and pleasant-tasting is baby spinach.
Although the shops are already well stocked with various vegetables, the best remains at home. Also a salad with freshly picked baby spinach from your own garden is incomparable.
In order to grow your own baby spinach, you need seeds, a soil mixture, a large pot, a few smaller seedling pots. Spinach grows best and is richest in vitamin C when planted and grown in the fall and spring, because it does not like temperatures, which are too high.
First, drill a few draining holes in the bottom of the pot, then cover it with pebbles or pieces of clay. Fill the soil, until you fill 3/4 of the volume of the pot. Place the seeds and carefully fill the pot with the rest of the soil. Press lightly with a small spatula or spoon and pour water. Do not pour water too strongly, because you will wash the seeds away. You can lightly spray it with your fingers, but make sure you provide enough moisture to your plants.
Put the pot in a place where there is light and water often, because spinach loves water. After a period of between two weeks and one month, you should have ready-made seedlings, which can be planted into individual pots or directly into a prepared flower bed in the garden. Handle it carefully, because the stems are very fragile.
You can plant baby spinach right in the garden. Then you need to leave about 15 cm between the rows and place the seeds in holes, which are about 5 cm deep at a distance of 20 cm from each other or in shallow furrows.
In order to have an autumn harvest, you need to plant baby spinach in late August. If you want to have spinach in winter and early spring, plant it in late September. The spring months, which are suitable for planting are February (end) and March (beginning). Spinach is cold-resistant, but you need to provide it with a place protected from the wind.
