10 Spinach Companion Plants To Grow With Spinach :- A lot of people grow spinach in their food gardens. Successful companion planting, on the other hand, can mean the difference between a bumper crop and one that is lost.
Expert in organic gardening Logan Hailey talks about her favorite plants to grow with spinach and the plants you should never grow with spinach.
10 Spinach Companion Plants To Grow With Spinach
Sugar Snap Peas :
Snap peas are a favorite spring vegetable that do well in cool weather. When the weather gets hot, both of these crops are done growing, which makes them a great early-season pair.
Pros: It fixes nitrogen and gives dappled shade.
Fabaceae, or legumes, are what sugar snaps are. They are famous for making nitrogen more available in the soil. Through their relationship with bacteria in the earth, peas “fix” nitrogen in the air by changing it into a form that plants can use. Because this adds so many nutrients, I never fertilize spinach that is grown with sugar snap peas.
Another good thing about sugar snaps is that their trellised bushes provide some shade, which keeps spinach cool in late spring. The peas’ afternoon shade will keep the spinach from bolting if the weather gets really hot out of the blue.
What to Plant: These peas grow best on a trellis that goes from north to south. Plant spinach on either side of the peas to keep the sun off of the young greens.
Kale :
Spinach complements Brassica-family kale well. Kale can be grown as young salad greens (my favorite) or full-size plants with spring crops.
Kale, like spinach, is cold-tolerant and ideal for early spring or late fall successions. Their botanical and morphological differences are also notable. Kale won’t compete for nutrients or pests.
Benefits: Shade and space optimization
The main benefit of interplanting kale is using up space. You can tuck spinach into kale beds. Kale grafts are little in spring, so this is useful.
Mix spinach and kale seeds and broadcast-sow at 4-6” tall for baby greens. They pair well in salads and sautes.
In late spring and summer, kale leaves can screen spinach from the heat.
Swiss Chard :
Baby greens grow and taste excellent together. Chard can shadow spinach in July as full-grown crops.
Benefits: Increase production, loosen soil, shade
Spinach and rainbow chard can be planted together to increase bed space and diversity. Growing these crops together in baby green mixes is possible.
Spinach plants like loam, and Swiss chard’s beet-like roots soften and aerate the soil.
Cauliflower :
Due of its size, cauliflower is unsuitable for tiny gardens. It may be justified if you can add spinach to the bed!
Increase yields and shade
Using cauliflower and spinach together maximizes space. Sowing spinach with newly transplanted cauliflower lets you harvest two crops from the same location. You’ll finish the spinach harvest and let slow-growing cauliflower take over when it gets too huge.
You won’t have to worry about below-ground competition because these plants have different root zones and nutrients.
Broccoli :
Seeing a pattern? Each of these larger crops shields vulnerable plants from the light. Tucking spinach in with them is another technique to quickly harvest a garden “blank space”.
Increase yields and shade
Spinach pairs well with broccoli, another cool-weather vegetable. broccoli in a straight row along the middle and spinach 6-10″ on each side is my preference.
Big broccoli leaves provide cool shade that preserves moisture and prevents spinach bolting in late spring and early summer.
Bok Choy :
Like spinach, bok choy (particularly young bok choy) can be sown for multiple harvests. Both crops are heat-loathing, cold-tolerant, and need sunshine, fertility, and water. Bok choy can benefit from planting with non-brassica plants to avoid flea beetles.
Gain diversity and use unused space
Bok choy can be cultivated full-size or baby. I prefer baby bok choy for its softness, fast maturation, and modest space needs.
Salad Greens :
Because they are grown similarly, lettuces and mesclun mixtures are ideal spinach complements. Many lettuce blends mature in 30 days. These light feeders grow at equal heights, so competition is minimal.
Benefits: Diversity and space optimization
Pre-blended salad mixtures contain baby lettuce, mustards, and other greens. You can direct seed these salad mixtures to diversify your beds and confuse pests.
Garlic :
Garlic, unlike most garden vegetables, is sown in the fall and harvested in the summer. It pairs well with spinach since spinach loves cold weather and can equal garlic’s winter hardiness in most climates.
Garlic repels bugs, spinach covers and prevents weeds.
This combo of timed companion intercropping’s will boost yields in a compact space with minimal effort. Garlic lives underground, leaving plenty of space in late fall and winter for a shallow-rooted, fast-growing crop like spinach.
Garlic repels aphids, caterpillars, and spider mites, and spinach prevents weeds around it.
Lettuce :
Head lettuce complements full-sized spinach in various ways due to their similar sizes and maturity timeframes. Head lettuce and full-size spinach grow into leafy heads approximately 6” in diameter, unlike the salad mix plantings above.
Benefits: Maximum yields, biodiversity, and complementary growth
Though head lettuce may not aid with pests or diseases, it is a low-key companion that won’t compete for light or nutrients.
Watercress :
Watercress is a spicy green that grows quickly as an annual or perennial ground cover. This Brassica (cabbage family member) won’t outcompete spinach or attract pests.
Benefits: Space-maximizing and living mulch
Watercress can maximize different harvests from tiny garden beds and act as a low-growing living mulch around spinach plants when trimmed back or harvested young.
