What to Plant With Spinach: Spinach Companion Plants (and Timing Tips)

Spinach is one of the first crops you can sow in spring and one of the last you can harvest in fall. It handles frost well, grows in a small space and is ready in weeks. Its weakness is timing: warm weather, dry soil and long days all push it to bolt, sending up a flower stalk and turning the leaves bitter. That timing shapes which plants make good neighbors. This guide covers what extension sources list as spinach companions, the cabbage-family question, and how to plant spinach so you harvest before it bolts.

Good companion plants for spinach

Strawberries

Virginia Extension lists spinach and strawberries as companions. Spinach is low and quick, so it can fill open ground around young strawberry plants in early spring or along the edge of a strawberry bed, and it is finished before the runners need the room. See what to plant with strawberries.

Bush beans

Bush beans are a listed spinach companion. They are a natural follow-on crop: spinach goes in about a month before the last frost, and bush beans go in after it, so beans can be sown into the space as the spring spinach finishes. Penn State Extension suggests exactly this kind of swap, pulling bolted spinach and reusing the bed for a warm-season crop such as beans or peppers. More in what to plant with beans.

Spinach and the cabbage family: sources disagree

Virginia Extension's companion table lists spinach as a cabbage companion in one row and cabbage as incompatible with spinach in another, so we mark the pair as mixed rather than pick a side. Practically, both are cool-season crops planted at about the same time, and mature cabbage-family plants spread wide and can crowd or shade a low spinach row. If you grow them together, give the cabbage family its full spacing and sow spinach in the open ground between young transplants, harvesting it before the brassicas fill in. Our broccoli guide covers the same question from the cabbage side.

What not to plant with spinach

None of the extension sources we use list a crop as clearly incompatible with spinach, so we do not show a keep-apart table here. A few practical cautions still apply:

• Shade from tall summer crops. Spinach tolerates partial shade, which UMD Extension describes as four to six hours of direct light a day, but very tall, dense crops can starve a spinach row of light in spring and fall.
• Competing for water. Spinach bolts if the soil dries out, so avoid tucking it among thirsty, sprawling crops that will out-compete it for moisture.
• Planting too late. The most common spinach problem is timing, not neighbors. A late spring sowing runs into warm weather and long days and bolts early.

For pairs that sources do list as incompatible, see the keep-apart chart.

When to plant spinach

Penn State Extension recommends sowing spinach about four to eight weeks before your average last spring frost, and six to eight weeks before your average first fall frost, which gives two crops a year. Seeds germinate best in cool soil, roughly 45°F to 68°F, and seedlings tolerate hard frosts. Many gardeners are disappointed with spinach because they sow it too late in spring. Make several small sowings a week or two apart instead of one big one. Our planting calendar shows the spring spinach window for your frost date. Our fall spinach and kale planting dates table works out the fall date from your frost.

Why spinach bolts (and how to delay it)

Spinach responds to lengthening days by bolting. UMN Extension notes that hot weather makes plants respond faster to that day-length signal and that drought speeds bolting too; in Minnesota, spinach tends to bolt in June even when it is cool. To get more from each planting: If summer bolting is a problem where you live, Swiss chard is a close relative that does not bolt in summer heat; see what to plant with Swiss chard.

• Sow early in spring, and lean on fall plantings, which grow into shortening days.
• Keep the soil evenly moist, watering the soil rather than the leaves.
• Choose varieties sold as slow-bolting for later spring sowings.
• Harvest promptly. Once a central stalk shoots up, the leaves turn bitter, so pull the plants and replant the space.

Planting and spacing

• Soil: well drained and rich in organic matter. UMN Extension gives a pH of about 6.5 to 8 as best for spinach, so have your soil tested. Work in compost before planting; UMD Extension notes spinach has a high nutrient requirement.
• Depth: about ½ inch deep.
• Spacing: UMD Extension suggests about 3 inches between plants, in rows or spread evenly in wide rows or beds. Thin when plants touch and eat the thinnings.
• Covers: a row cover speeds early growth and keeps out spinach leaf miners.

A simple spring-to-summer bed with spinach

1. Spinach sown four to six weeks before the last frost.

   Two or three short rows, sown a week or two apart.

2. Strawberries along one edge.

   A listed companion; spinach fills the open ground around young plants.

3. Bush beans after the last frost.

   Sown into the rows as the spinach is harvested or starts to bolt.

4. A fall sowing in late summer.

   Six to eight weeks before your first fall frost, in the space the beans leave.

Our raised bed layouts show how to map a 4×8 bed by the square foot.

Harvest

UMD Extension lists 28 to 55 days from seed to maturity, depending on variety. You can pick the outer leaves as they reach a usable size and let the center keep growing, or cut whole plants. Harvest the whole planting as soon as you see a flower stalk forming.

Spinach in containers

Spinach grows well in a pot or window box with drainage holes, since it is small and shallow rooted. Containers dry out fast and dry soil triggers bolting, so check moisture often, and move the pot to a cooler, partly shaded spot as spring warms up.

Frequently asked questions

What grows well with spinach?

Extension-listed companions for spinach in our checker are beans and strawberries. The table on this page explains why each pairing works.

What should you not plant with spinach?

Our sources do not list any plants as incompatible with spinach. Sources disagree on cabbage-family crops.