Spinach problem

[Ruderunner]

In looking for a low growing leafy crop to be a ground cover and hopefully choke out weeds, I decided to try spinach, spread out 4 packs of seeds. I spread 2 packs memorial day and another 2 a few weeks later after deciding that the first batch was nearly a complete loss. Lack of germination, not plants dying.

To this point I only have about a dozen plants. Most are bolting already but that's probably due to the unusually high temperature recently.

So I'm not sure what I did wrong originally, is it just too warm? If so, what are the odds that as the weather cools going into fall, I might end up with copious amounts of spinach?

 

[Mr_Yan]

Spinach is a cool weather short life crop. I have never had good luck with direct seeding as it also tends to take longer than the other cool weather crops to emerge. I always start mine in soil blocks and transplant out.

July and August in the midwest will be terrible growing conditions for spinach. We harvested all of ours two or three weeks ago and replaced with beets and basil.

Leafy ground covers you can also eat...
Have you heard of malabar spinach - a spinach like vine from the tropics.
How about sweet potato vines? Check better sources but I think the leafs are edible.
Oregano or thyme?
Squash, pumpkin, or watermelon?

 

[Ruderunner]

We did New Zealand spinach a few years ago and had good results with that. I was hoping regular spinach would be easier since it doesn't spread as much.

Im going to plan on starting earlier next year.

 

[Mr_Yan]

What if you did a planting of traditional spinach then replace that with New Zealand Spin after the first gets cropped out, blanched, and frozen?

Man you could end up with a LOT of spinach.

Ever think of strawberries?