Spinach is one of the first crops many gardeners plant in spring. In fact, when the heat comes, spinach quickly bolts. If you want to eat spinach throughout the summer, grow warm-weather, spinachlike crops that produce all summer, such as New Zealand spinach (Tetragonia tetragonioides) and Malabar spinach (Basella rubra).

Spinach comes in two different leaf types: smooth and savoy (crinkled). The smooth-leaf types are easier to clean, but the savoy-leaf types give you more leaf surface to hold salad dressing. Unless otherwise noted, the varieties in the following list mature in about 30 to 45 days from a spring planting. As with lettuce, you can always harvest the young, tender greens earlier if you just can’t wait:

• ‘Bloomsdale Long Standing’: Heirloom, savoy-type variety with thick leaves.
• ‘Melody’: Award-winning hybrid features large, semisavoy leaves and good disease resistance.
• ‘Space’: Hybrid, smooth-leafed variety is productive and slow to bolt.