Spinach is a very temperature sensitive vegetable. The weather needs to be cool, not cold and definitely not hot. It won't germinate at 80 degrees and above and won't grow if it reaches that temp and above. If you're going to use it for cooking (i.e., not just salads) the only practical way to get enough is to sow it directly in the garden. I have developed a method of sowing that achieves excellent germination. Make your bed or row, and then tamp it down lightly. Take a straight edge of something and press it into the soil of the bed. I use the edge of an 8 foot long 1 X 4 that I have beveled into a "V" shape so as to create a furrow about 1/2 inch deep. Sow your seed, not crowding it too much (difficult). Then take builder's sand or "play sand" like that sold at Lowes or Home Depot and cover the seed. The sand prevents the formation of a crust in the soil over the seeds. Wet the bed gently so as not to wash soil over the sand and continually keep it moist while awaiting germination. This will work if the temp is right and you will enjoy a bounty of spinach. Spinach will also overwinter if the weather cooperates, but here I have difficulty getting germination because of the heat in the fall. Good luck ! ! ! !

I would second the idea of liquid fertilizer. Use something organic. A couple of things to consider: First, lettuce and spinach grow very quickly, and you should accommodate that rapid growth cycle by providing them all they need in a readily available form. Granular organic fertilizers generally take too long to break down. That's not to say that they take an unreasonable amount of time to do so, just that these particular plants have such a quick growth cycle that waiting even just a couple weeks for the nitrogen in granular fertilizers to become bioavailable is too long. The second thing to consider is that spring soils are still cool, and the bacteria that fix nitrogen and convert it from one form to another are not fully active yet. What's more, nitrogen does not cling to soil particles very well, and thus gets flushed out of soil by spring rains. Putting these factors together makes a pretty strong case for providing extra nitrogen in a quickly available from for lettuce, spinach, and other fast growing spring greens. Fish emulsion works extremely well, or if you're particularly beholden to Miracle Grow, then try their new Organic Choice All Purpose Plant Food. It's high in nitrogen (8-0-0) and is made from beet molasses. I never thought I would recommend a Miracle Grow product, but in fact I have tried it and it works quite well. Walmart and the big box stores usually carry it. See here: http://www.scotts.com/smg/catalog/productTemplate.jsp?proId=prod10280006&itemId=cat70048 -Diggity Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Imperative blog

My opinion: forget about a garden this year. Dig a little hole and see what the soil is like. Based on your photo, it looks like it should be pretty good. Let's say it's good soil. I'm going to assume you don't have time to hand-weed this plot. Cover the whole thing with black plastic, cardboard or something to cut off the light to the weeds and kill them. This will take several weeks. If you used Roundup, you could do it in a week. Warning: if you till without killing the weeds, you'll be sorry. Then remove any fences and debris, and till or dig at least 6 inches deep. All of the dead grass and weeds now becomes an organic soil amendment. Find out from some local experts whether you need to add lime or phosphorus. If so, till them in. This is also a good time to till in some compost. Now make two raised beds about 4 feet wide, with a path in the middle. I just rake the soil into raised beds; I don't build support walls. But that's up to you. I like raised beds because they are easy on my back. Now keep the soil surface uncovered and moist for a couple of weeks and let the weed seeds germinate. Any roots that you didn't kill may also resprout. After you've got a nice crop of weeds growing, cover with black plastic or cardboard again until the weeds are dead. If you had planted your veggies right away, these are the weeds that you would be pulling by hand, in the hottest part of the summer. Now your soil is ready for its first crop, but it will be too late for this year. I like to cover the soil with black plastic over the winter, to keep the windblown weed seeds out, and to keep the soil in good workable condition, so that I can start planting early in spring. Minimize tilling from here on out, to avoid uncovering more weed seeds that are lurking underground. They will sprout as soon as they get some light. This sounds complicated, but actually it takes very little labor to follow these steps. It just takes a lot of calendar time. A 10 x 20 piece of black plastic is a good investment. Find a few stones or bricks to hold the edges down.

Robert, I don't know if there is one that is 'best' because their performance can vary so much every year depending on the weather. I've always had great success with Bloomsdale Longstanding, Melody and America. The varieties recommended by OSU for home vegetable gardens are: Ambassador, American, Bloomsdale, Chesapeake, Coho, Fall Green, Grandstand, Melody and Ozark II. I've linked the OSU Fact Sheet on Commercial Greens Production because it lists their recommendations for commercial crops. Willhite Seeds sells a variety called Nobel Giant which is supposed to be a very vigorous producer, but I've never grown it. I also think you could trust any spinach variety sold by Johnny's Selected Seeds as they cater to small market growers. Every variety of theirs I've ever grown has produced very well so I have a high level of trust in their variety choices even though their climate is very different from ours. If you're planning on planting fall/winter spinach, that must mean you're expecting rain to fall sometime in the next 6 months. I hope you're right about that. : ) Good luck with the spinach. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: OSU Greens Factsheet