CHAPTER VII. 
spinach ( Spinacia oleraceaj 
“Our bodies are our gardens ; to the which, our wills are gardeners : 
so that if we will plant nettles, or sow lettuce ; set hyssop, and weed up 
thyme ; supply it with one gender of herbs, or distract it with many ; 
either to have it sterile with idleness, or manured with industry ; why, 
the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills.” 
Othello , 3. 
CjE^HE simplicity of Spinach is the cause of its ruin in 
7-pp thousands of gardens. It is put upon the poorest 
71 ground, badly prepared, and to make amends for 
slovenly work, five times as much seed as is requisite is sown 
in the drill, and the crop is a mere shadow of what spinach 
ought to be. It is so accommodating and wants so little to 
make much of it, that it rarely occurs to amateur gardeners 
to grow it well and enjoy it thoroughly. The practice of 
sowing spinach between rows of peas is good, for it can be 
cleared off before the peas are ready, and in this sense may 
be regarded as a stolen crop. To grow a first-rate sample 
requires good ground, and the complete exposure of the plant 
to light and air from the first, and a very important part of 
the matter is to sow thinly, so that there will not be much 
thinning of the plants required, for spinach should spread 
almost flat upon the ground to make fat leaves and be 
thoroughly first-rate in every way. 
Spring Spinach may be sown from February to the end of 
April, after which time it is waste of work to sow another 
grain of seed, for the heat of the summer will overtake it, 
and bolting will soon follow. If sown on a plot by itself 
(and not between peas), the distance from row to row should 
be not less than eighteen inches, and indeed, if the ground is 
strong, the rows may be two feet asunder with advantage, for 
if well done there will even then be scarcely space enough 
for one to go between to gather the crop. Where the de- 
mand is great there should be two or three sowings, but great 
