spinach is a very difficult crop for most areas. The best way to grow it is over the entire winter. It should do ok for you. it should survive and you crop it in the spring. you plant the seeds probably now and harvest in the spring. there are some web sites discussing growing spinach do a google search. of course the pacific north west is where the seed crop is grown because it does well there. I have given up on it and now grow swiss chard. really tasty if you pick some good varieties. It grows so incredibly easy compared to spinach. you can slice off the stem and eat the leaf portion only just like spinach. of course do not throw away the stem. they are great to eat but you can cook them separate for a different texture. However, I just cook it all together. I am not trying to emulate spinach.

Mine too Dave--Mine is set to come on at 10C which is just about what yours is set at. My greenhouse is 6'x8' and consists of mostly shelves on 3 sides,with a square on the north end for me to stand and work. I have a pullout rack under the shelves on the east side for impatiens and begonias and a few hooks for hanging baskets in the rafters. It is as airtight as I can get it, but still needs suplimental heat at night. We live in Northern Ontario and get colder nights than many of you do. In the daytime if the sun is shining it can be below zero outside and I will have to open the vents to let out the excess heat. The reason I described mine is to say that it costs me about $50 for the season to heat. I open it in mid April and things are all out of it by mid June. Most of my heating is done in the first month. I start most of my seeds in the greenhouse. I do have a cold frame which gets the overflow the last month. because my greenhouse is too small to hold all I plant, but by then I scarcely have to heat anyway

Here's Western-y poetics for ya..... Snakeweed, Shindagger, Horsecrippler, Dogweed, Cowblinder, Rattlesnake Master, Flameflower, Scullcap, Starvation Cactus, Antelope Horns, Mosquito Grass (or Skeeter Grass if you're a real hick), Barometer Bush, Rabbitbush, Winterfat, Mormon Tea, Indian Blanket, Mexican Hats, Scrambled Eggs, Texas Yellow Star, Locoweed, Bitterweed, Scorpion Flower, Devil's Claw, Navajo Tea, Prince's Plume, Leadplant, Indian Tobacco, Desert Spoon, Beargrass, Soap Tree Yucca, Buckwheat, Firewheel, Deergrass. Beargrass and of course Sitting Bull Falls Cardinal Flower. Its not really poetry but its a bit of brief story telling. I'm not in the horticulture or nursery business so unless I need to specify or pin a species down for some reason I use the vernacular, some people frown on this. I do look them up when necessary. Semi-arid, wide skies & flat windy landscapes sounds like it would be perfect for many of the natives around here. What kind of soil, I'm interpreting that you are saying there is a lot of natural peat? BTW, wantanamara is in a primo-de-la-primo spot for native plants-- the Texas Hill Country-- the place is famous for their natives. They've got the Lady Bird Johnson Native Plant Demonstration Gardens and everything. Lady Bird did more for stirring up interest in natives than anyone else I know of. Our highway wildflower plantings, among other things, show her influence. Each year I collect gobs of seeds stored in several ziploc bulk sized baggies with various SW & prairie natives to keep my populations in check since I have more limited space than some lucky people I could mention. If I lived on an acreage, I'd just let them fall. I'd be glad to to send them later in the year for fall sowing, I try to pass them along to anyone really interested in naturalizing natives. Most are easy, low growing & long blooming making them good for naturalizing with reliable color. This post was edited by TexasRanger10 on Thu, May 8, 14 at 18:20

Hi Dani I am in Canada Zone 5a which I think is zone 4 in the US and if I remember correctly I started putting my seedlings outside about the start of April last year. I have a porch on the east side with a roof and I bought one of those shelf units that is a mini greenhouse. I put it against the house wall. It worked really well. I could zip the cover up at night and unzip it in the morning. My seedlings were kind of tall and spindly and it helped them not get beat up too much from the wind. We live in the country and get huge wind so maybe that isn't a factor for you. I did have to bring them in a few nights when it was going below freezing but they handled down to just above freezing well. After a few weeks I took them off the shelf and moved them to the edge of the porch where they would get sun a bit longer. I eventually started carrying the flats over to my garden where they were going to get planted so they would get more sun and eventually left them out there. It was a very gradual process and I planted them about May 20. The tops did get beat up but they started growing from the roots immediately after planting. After they were growing well I just cut off all the tall spindly leaves that died off and they looked great. I thought it was better to start early and make it gradual and it seemed to work. Just watch for freezing temps. Debbie