To get a head start on spring planting and enjoy an extra-early crop of spinach or any other cold-hardy garden goody, try this simple tip. Cover a garden bed with clear plastic right now, and this will warm up your soil faster. Go ahead and sow spinach seed into the bed first chance you get, and your spinach will be ready to harvest a couple weeks sooner than without the plastic. It’s that easy!
For more tips on getting the most out of your early spring garden, check out the following articles:
* Easy Early Salads with Perennial Greens
* Know When to Plant What: Find Your Average Last Spring Frost Date
* Grow Great Salads Year-Round
* The No-Spray Way to Protect Plants
Photo by Matthew T. Stallbaumer
Cheryl Long is the editor in chief of MOTHER EARTH NEWS magazine, and a leading advocate for more sustainable lifestyles. She leads a team of editors which produces high quality content that has resulted in MOTHER EARTH NEWS being rated as one North America’s favorite magazines. Long lives on an 8-acre homestead near Topeka, Kan., powered in part by solar panels, where she manages a large organic garden and a small flock of heritage chickens. Prior to taking the helm at MOTHER EARTH NEWS, she was an editor at Organic Gardening magazine for 10 years.Connect with her onGoogle+.
