• DELIVERY INFO: Now taking pre-orders for Spring Plants for 2024. Bare-Rooted Fruit plants will be shipped in Dec/Jan. See FAQs for further info.
Spinach

Spinach – Perpetual (Autumn)

£4.99

Out of stock

A brilliant autumn grower
Producing tasty spinach leaves for you throughout the seasons, as it grows simply cut the bigger outer leaves off at the base and it’ll keep producing more and more. As long as the slugs and caterpillars don’t get to it, it’ll carry on for ages. Planted in autumn, you can hope for a harvest from late November onwards depending on the weather. The plug plants come with a full growing guide.

Number of plants: 10 plug plants

Variety: Perpetual (organic*)

In the kitchen: You can either cook the spinach leaves making a delicious addition to a wide range of dishes, use the baby leaves in salads or add to smoothies or juice.

Delivery Info: Available to order now for delivery between September and Mid/Late October.

Planting/Growing Advice: Plant in early autumn approx 30cm apart in raised beds, traditional veg patches or in pots and planters. They will grow quite quickly while the weather is relatively warm in autumn, and then will slow down in the colder months. They are frost tolerant. They will grow even faster if grown under cover in a greenhouse/polytunnel or under horticultural fleece/cloche.

When to harvest: Start picking the outer leaves as the plant reaches approx 20-25cm high. Leave a few baby leaves in the centre of the plant hen harvesting and it will keep producing leaves for several months.

lettuce

Sun or partial shade

Lettuces and leaves need some sunshine, but will tolerate partial shade (and in fact this can often help to keep them cool and prevent them from bolting) and moisture-retentive soil.

lettuce

Great for beds, containers and planters

Lettuces and salad leaves don’t require a lot of space, making them perfect for growing in pots and containers, grow bags, planters and beds.

lettuce

How far apart?

As a general rule, give them about 15cm space. As always, you should check the instructions on each variety when you receive your baby plants to make sure you give them enough space.

lettuce

Keep them cool

Lettuces and salads will keep producing lots of leaves for several weeks if kept fairly cool – regular watering, mulching and growing them in partial shade can help. If they do get too hot, they are prone to ‘bolt’, and will stop producing leaves and instead start to form a flower/seed head.

lettuce

Protect from pests

Slugs, snails and rabbits are the main ones to watch out for… slug traps using cheap lager work well, and a 1-2ft tall fence around raised beds, made out of bamboo canes and chicken wire, will normally help to keep rabbits at bay.

lettuce

When to harvest

Most lettuces and leaves can be harvested as cut-and-come-again – just cut off the outer leaves, leaving a few smaller leaves in the centre, on a regular basis.

For those that form a heart, like little gem, wait until they have matured and cut off at the stalk.

Plants bolting

In hot, dry conditions or sudden cold spells, lettuces and salad leaves can get stressed and will rush to produce flowers and seeds rather than producing lots of leaves. Once this has happened you cannot reverse it, so the best thing to do to try and prevent it is add a good layer of mulch around vulnerable plants to keep them from drying out, this will also help to keep the soil a little warmer on cold days.

Slugs & Snails

Lettuces and leaves are very popular with slugs and snails – keep them protected (try beer traps, eggshell/grit, copper tape etc) and remove any slugs that you see.

Rabbits

Try to protect your leaves from rabbits if they are a problem in your plot – a simple 2 foot high fence made from chicken wire and bamboo canes is usually sufficient to deter them, but the more persistent rabbits will burrow underneath the fence, so be prepared to dig the chicken wire into the ground if needed.

Flea beetle

Tiny round holes in leaves, particularly in stronger leaves like wild rocket and mizuna is inevitably flea beetle. Where this is a problem, you can try using an insect proof mesh and mulching the plants to keep the soil moist and cool will help (they are more active in hot dry weather). You can still eat the leaves if they have holes in so don’t give up on them!

Symptom Checker

Patchy holes in leaves with slime trails = slugs/snails

Tiny round holes in leaves = flea beetle

Plants eaten to the base = rabbits

Plants flowering early = bolting

Storage Tips

We really recommend picking what you need, when you need it. But they will keep in the fridge unwashed in a food bag for a couple of days.

Ways to cook

It’s not all about salads, although freshly cut lettuce from the garden is one of the best things about summer salads! You can try making summer soups with wilted lettuce, pea and mint. And a lot of leaves are great in stir fries.

Recipe Ideas

Coming soon!

When we deliver
We deliver these plug plants between September and mid/late October, although it’s a little dependent on the weather.

You can order from…
These plug plants are available to be ordered now and we’ll despatch them as soon as they are big enough to both handle the journey to your garden and handle life outside the poly tunnel.

Do I need to sign for them?
All our plant orders are dispatched with an overnight courier* to mainland UK and do not need to be signed for when they are delivered, but will be left somewhere safe. When placing your order, please let us know where you would like the plants left if you are not in when the courier delivers.

We will keep you posted
You will receive an email approximately a week before your order is dispatched and another on the day your plants are packed and leave us so you know to expect and prepare for their arrival.