Fall Finery: Grow and Cook Kale and Spinach

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Try growing spinach and kale in your fall garden to see why many gardeners and cooks consider fall the best season for leafy greens.
Try growing spinach and kale in your fall garden to see why many gardeners and cooks consider fall the best season for leafy greens.
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Cut spinach leaf by leaf, taking just a few leaves from each plant to keep the crop producing. Keep beds tidy.
Cut spinach leaf by leaf, taking just a few leaves from each plant to keep the crop producing. Keep beds tidy.
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Use quick hoops to make a simple shelter to protect and grow greens all winter.
Use quick hoops to make a simple shelter to protect and grow greens all winter.

Leaves may be falling from the trees now, but if you’ve planned well, abundant fresh ones currently color your garden green. Leafy green vegetables love fall, and their flavor improves in cooler weather — especially if grown without synthetic, high-nitrogen fertilizers. For kale and spinach, whose sugar content rises as the temperature falls, this is the best season of the year.

Our approach to greens has changed since the days of long boiling in a pot, the obligatory dab of creamed spinach next to a steak, and the generic iceberg lettuce salad. You can grow many different kinds of greens in your garden, and the distinction between salad greens and cooking greens has all but vanished as cooks gain finesse and become attuned to the flavors and textures of this nutritious fare.

Growing Kale and Spinach

Sow kale and spinach as late in summer as you can get away with, typically in late July or August, so they reach maturity before a hard frost. Both will tolerate a freeze, but their growth will slow, even with the cold-tolerant spinach varieties, such as ‘Space’ and ‘Winter Bloomsdale,’ and the hardiest kales, such as ‘Winterbor.’ Even more indomitable are the stemless kales, such as ‘Dwarf Siberian,’ which hunker down for warmth rather than growing tall. (For more detailed guidance on which varieties to choose, see Winter Gardening Tips: Best Winter Crops and Cold-Hardy Varieties.)

  • Published on Sep 23, 2014
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