Grow Spinach from Seeds

Spinach is one of the healthiest leafy greens you can eat. It is loaded with plenty of vitamins and minerals that all doctors and nutritionists would recommend. So why not add this healthy tasty treat to your home vegetable garden?  Besides its health benefits, spinach is easy to grow from seed and in many areas of the world and you can get many harvests from the same plant as well as planting during the spring and winter months.

As long as temperatures are cool to moderate, you will be able to grow spinach. Don’t fear if you live in climates where it gets very cold, you can always add in a cold frame to protect your plants from the frigid winds. However if it gets too hot, 85 degrees or above, you are going to have issues with keeping the plants going if the temperatures remain at that level.




Make sure you pick a spot where it gets at least 5 hours of sunlight daily. More would be better, but many varieties tolerate light shade as well, which makes spinach a perfect fall crop when the days are shorter.

Plant your spinach seeds no deeper than a half inch. Any deeper and they may have trouble during the germination process. Plant multiple seeds together, then once they germinate thin out the plants to one plant per every six inches. If you find that you germinated more then your space allows, be sure to toss the extras into your next salad. They taste great!

When the outer leaves on your spinach plants reach six to eight inches in length they are ready to harvest. Simply cut them off with a sharp pair of scissors. Do not pull out the entire plant as it will keep producing as long as you only harvest the leaves. This allows those with limited space to yield plenty of spinach from just a few plants.

Expect your spinach plants, when you grow them directly from seed to take anywhere from 45 to 70 days to fully mature. Sometimes sooner under optimal conditions.

Spinach is a great source of calcium, iron, vitamins A, B and Niacin. If you were looking to get more of these nutrients into your healthy eating plan, be sure to grow some spinach from seeds right in your backyard.

About the Author
Mike Podlesny is the author of Vegetable Gardening for the Average Person: A Guide to Vegetable Gardening for the rest of us. Be sure to join Mike`s vegetable seeds mailing list.

Watch the video below to learn more about Mike`s Seeds of the Month Club:

Home Grown Tomatoes and their Contributions to your Health

Most people still refer to tomatoes as a vegetable even though botanically they are a fruit. Regardless of how you refer to them, one thing tomatoes can be called by everyone is good for your health.

Tomatoes are by far the number one vegetable, er um, fruit, grown in the home vegetable garden. Depending on which survey you have read, tomatoes outnumber its closest competitor by more than 3 to 1, which are cucumbers in one survey I read and peppers in another.

Who can argue adding them to your garden? They are easy to grow from seed, can be started indoors, and there are a wide variety of choices. With plenty of sun, fertile soil and regular waterings, you can have fresh home grown tomatoes all summer long (in most parts of the world).

There are a number of health contributions that adding home grown tomatoes to your diet can attribute to. For example, I recently had a chance to speak with board certified dermatologist and UCLA clinical professor, Dr. Tanya Kormeili.

“I like tomatoes because they are rich in lycopene- which helps reduce the number of free radicals. Free radicals cause aging, wrinkles and contribute to the DNA damage,” says Dr. Kormeili. “Additionally, they contain minerals, water, fiber and are a good source of vitamins A, B, C and E, which are important in skin health and also free radical protection.”

While Dr. Kormeili is a staunch supporter of adding home grown tomatoes to your diet for all the positives, she highly discourages the use of using tomatoes in a form of a topical face mask. She says doing this can cause sensitivity and rash, and that tomatoes should always be consumed and not applied.

So how should homegrown tomatoes be prepared in the kitchen? For this information I turned to Charis Freiman-Mendel, author of the book “Cook Your Way Through the S.A.T.”.

“Many vegetables lose their health potency if cooked, but not tomatoes,” Says Charis. “More carotenoids and flavonoids (also anti-inflammatory and fight allergies) are absorbed from cooked tomatoes than from raw tomatoes because cooking breaks them down and makes them more available to digestion.”

Here are some interesting points that Charis makes:

1. Cook tomatoes in olive oil to improve lycopene absorption. “Think bruschetta”, says Charis and if you need a recipe be sure to check Charis’ website at www.SATgourmet.com

2. Homegrown, especially organic, tomatoes have more nutrients, according to Charis, than conventional sit on the shelf varieties.

3. Tomatoes are low in calories. A perfect addition to any healthy eating plan.

4. Tomatoes are considered acidic which is undesirable, but it’s their acidic quality that helps fight urinary tract infections.

With all that tomatoes have to offer for your health, wouldn’t it make sense to grow at least grow a few plants at home? I believe so.


About the Author
Mike Podlesny is the author of Vegetable Gardening for the Average Person: A Guide to Vegetable Gardening for the rest of us, the moderator for the largest vegetable gardening page on Facebook and creator of the monthly Seeds Club.

Watch the video below to learn more about Mike`s Seeds of the Month Club:

Seeds for Schools: Winner #6 - Great Salt Bay School

Great Salt Bay School
Damariscotta, ME
# of Students: 450
Gardening Programming Started: 2006

Our 6th winner in our Seeds for Schools program takes us to the state of Maine, in the town of Damariscotta, to Great Salt Bay School. Great Salt Bay is for students in Kindergarten through 8th and all grades are involved in the school’s gardening club. The 5th through 8th graders have taken it a step further and for students in those grades there is a gardening club.

The school boasts a greenhouse and a variety of raised beds where they have grown plenty of herbs, garlic and many different varieties of greens.

Great Salt Bay faculty are hoping to connect the use of their garden, gardening club and the growing of fruits, veggies and herbs to their science, social studies, math and history lessons (plants grown during specific periods in history). Future plans also include assigning students writing and research projects where they go out and find out more about the origin of what they are growing, nutritional value and more.

“We have a productive garden, raised beds and greenhouse that are well cared for and maintained by enthusiastic children,” said faculty member and application submitter Lorna Fake. “ We are in a community that strongly supports growing and buying local produce.”

Great Salt Bay hopes that the seeds they will receive will allow them to grow enough to stock the school kitchen and also to be used by their cooking club. They educate students about good nutrition and the role of local gardens and farms in promoting healthy, sustainable communities.

Growing Herbs from Seeds for Good Health and Great Tasting Food

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I love growing herbs from seed. With a window sill and some sun, you can grow pretty much any type of herb year round, almost anywhere in the world. My favorite to grow for its wonderful aroma, is basil, but I love the taste of fresh rosemary on chicken. Herbs are easy to grow and maintain and the best part, many are healthy for you. Growing herbs at home is like growing medicine that makes your food taste better. Something that cough syrup won’t do.

I wanted to get an expert’s input on this topic so I turned to Nourishing NYC education director Scott Keatley. At Nourishing NYC, Scott and his team teach low income families how to grow their herbs and use them in healthy dishes. A process Scott claims that their clients love.

When I asked Scott what three herbs he would recommend to someone to grow in their gardens and as to why, he said there are a slew to choose from but he could easily narrow it down to his favorites. He said that basil, rosemary and thyme are three he highly recommends because they will make bland foods that are good for you taste better, increasing one’s likeliness to eat healthier.

What Scott also has found is that herbs give taste to foods that your palate craves which helps deter many from reaching for those sugary snacks. He likes to use basil in his pasta dishes as well as other Italian foods, and like me, Scott loves rosemary on chicken.

Head nutritionist at the Cederquist Medical Wellness Center, Christy Shatlock takes herbs a step further. “While most people know that herbs and spices can be used to enhance the flavor of foods, they don’t realize that these same herbs and spices can also be used to improve their health,” claims Christy. “Many herbs and spices have antimicrobial, antioxidant and even antiviral effects.”

A spice many don’t think of that is very valuable, according to Christy, is cinnamon. While it tastes great, it also has antimicrobial affects that helps improve insulin resistance for people with Type 2 diabetes.

Along with the many health and taste benefits that herbs provide, they do not add virtually any extra calories to a dish. This allows you to flavor up your foods without the fear of packing on unwanted calories.

Someone suggested to me that I grow basil next to my tomato plants and I will be amazed with the flavor of my tomatoes. While I have not tried that yet, (I plan to though), I have heard this tip from a few people now, and it makes me want to do more research on herbs, and find out ways that they can help enhance my garden. This is one of the reasons why we add one pack of herb seeds to each monthly shipment in our Seeds of the Month Club for our members.

If you are looking to spice up your food with better taste and add something healthy to your dish in the process, then clear off that window sill and make room on the back patio. You can grow your favorite herbs from seed with very limited space.

About the Author

Mike Podlesny is the author of Vegetable Gardening for the Average Person: A Guide to Vegetable Gardening for the rest of us, the moderator for the largest vegetable gardening page on Facebook and creator of the monthly Seeds Club.

Watch the video below to learn more about Mike`s Seeds of the Month Club:

#96: 5 Power Fruits to Grow at Home

Listen in as Mike continues his series on power foods to grow at home. Once again he talks to experts in the nutrition field on 5 fruits that you can add to your garden and of course how to grow them.

For a full transcript of this podcast, visit: http://averagepersongardening.blogspot.com/2011/10/5-power-fruits-to-grow-in-your-garden.html

#95: Five Power Vegetables to Grow in Your Garden

5 Power Foods you can Grow in your Vegetable Garden

I recently had a chance to speak to some health and nutrition experts and ask them what vegetables they recommend to their clients for better health. Listen in to find out what 5 power veggies they recommended and how you can grow them in your garden. For more information on growing vegetables, be sure to visit http://www.averagepersongardening.com.

About the Author

Mike Podlesny is the author of Vegetable Gardening for the Average Person: A Guide to Vegetable Gardening for the rest of us, the moderator for the largest vegetable gardening page on Facebook and creator of the monthly Seeds Club.

Watch the video below to learn more about Mike`s Seeds of the Month Club:

#92:Vegetable Gardening the New Prescription

More doctors and nutritionists are prescribing vegetable gardening as a means to a healthier lifestyle. Listen in as Mike gives you some more in depth information into this new trend. For more information on how vegetable gardening can help you, visit http://www.averagepersongardening.com or be sure to join the vegetable gardening page on Facebook.

5 Power Vegetables to Grow in Your Garden

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Vegetable gardening is a great activity. It gets you outdoors and is really one of the only hobbies that you can literally eat the fruits of your labor. Today, there is an emphasis on eating healthier, especially for our children, unlike anything I have seen in the past 20 years or so. I recently posted an article on our blog titled, Home Vegetable Gardening: The New Prescription from Doctors and Nutritionists where I discussed the increasing trend of how health professionals are making home vegetable gardening the new prescription.

I wanted to follow up that article with a list of vegetables that gardeners, looking to maximize their space, can grow to ensure they are eating the veggies that yield the highest amounts of vitamins, minerals and nutrients your body needs for a healthier you. I call them, the power vegetables.

I turned to nutrition expert Todd Cambio, BA, BS, CSCS, Sports Nutritionist who is also the author of the book Reducing Pain and Everyday Inflammation: How to Feel Better, Have More Energy, and Increase Flexibility. Todd specializes in sports recovery methods and nutritional counseling. “I highly recommend pretty much all veggies as long as you are mixing up the colors regularly and eating them raw as much as possible,” says Todd. “Eat veggies at every meal, at least one cup.”

The top five power veggies Todd recommends are Broccoli, Butternut Squash, Spinach, Onions and Red Bell Peppers. “I recommend these veggies because they supply you with numerous antioxidants, fiber, electrolytes and anti-inflammatory properties,” says Todd. “Also these red, yellow and orange colored veggies contain carotenoids. Carotenoids are powerful antioxidants, protecting the cells of the body from damage caused by free radicals. Carotenoids are also believed to enhance the function of the immune system.”

All 5 are easy to add to any home vegetable garden, although butternut squash will take up the most room, so you will want to grow them vertically if space is an issue, which you can read more about in Derek Fell’s book Vertical Gardening: Grow Up, Not Out, for more Vegetables and Flowers in Less Space.

Broccoli, spinach and onions are cooler weather crops, where as the red bell peppers love the heat, so plan accordingly. If you are looking for alternatives for any of these as maybe you may not like the taste or flavor, Todd says you can substitute cauliflower, cabbage & zucchini for broccoli; acorn squash and carrots for butternut squash; arugula and other dark leafy greens for spinach; other members of the onion family such as shallots for onions; and other varieties (either sweet or hot) for red bell peppers.

With your own home vegetable garden you have the ability to grow the foods your body needs to be healthier, and as we all know, and as studies have shown, home grown foods, taste better and are higher in nutrients than their store bought counterparts.

About the Author
Mike Podlesny is the author of Vegetable Gardening for the Average Person: A Guide to Vegetable Gardening for the rest of us and the administrator for the largest vegetable gardening page on Facebook.

Watch the video below to learn more about the Seeds of the Month Club:

Home Vegetable Gardening: The New Prescription from Doctors and Nutritionists

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While finishing up a project I was working on the other night, I was flipping through TV stations to at least put something on that was watchable as background noise. I came across an infomerical selling some new great weight loss product that is guaranteed to give you those 6 pack abs and rock hard muscles in as little as 20 minutes a day.

As luck would have it, I was able to catch the fine print after the narrator uttered those words that read, “results may vary and were based on a combination of proper exercise and eating 3 healthy meals every day for 12 weeks.”

I am not a dietitian or nutrition expert but common sense would leave me to believe that a healthy eating regimen combined with exercise would yield a healthier “you” with or without that piece of equipment that costs 4 easy payments of $99 per month.

The commercial, if nothing else, did make me think about something and that was how can you tie in a home vegetable garden with a healthier eating lifestyle. I mean, after all, fruits and veggies by definition are healthy for you.

I recently brought up this topic to food and nutrition expert Jill Nussinow, MS, RD, author of the book The Veggie Queen: Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment and the creator of the DVD, Pressure Cooking, A Fresh Look: Delicious Dishes in Minutes.

Jill is a registered dietitian who also teaches cooking classes. She recommends to her students that they should always grow their own fruits and vegetables. She had one student who grew a large garden and was able to lose 10 pounds by adding into her healthy eating habits the fresh fruits and veggies she grew herself.

Freshness, flavor, likeliness of consumption and pick what you need are just some of the reasons why Jill recommends to her students that they grow their own. Vegetables you grow yourself will always be fresher than what you can buy in the store and have a better flavor too. She says that you are more likely to consume what you grow since you will be growing what you like to eat and she says that waste will be at a minimum because you can wait and harvest only what you will consume.

Jill also recommends, “anyone who can grow their own fruits, vegetables and herbs do so in an effort to be sure that they are getting the freshest, best and unsprayed produce. The flavor and freshness will be much improved. Also in the growing process, people get a lot of spiritual nourishment. You can't get that from buying your vegetables. And almost everyone can grow a small pot of herbs of some sort.”

There is enough research out there to prove that adding fresh fruits and veggies to each of your meals is a great way to excellent health. So, is having a home vegetable garden the new prescription from doctors?

Yes, says, Dr. Nathan Daley a member of the International Association for Ecology and Health and the American College of Sports Medicine. “As a physician I do a great deal of nutrition and lifestyle counseling. I often recommend that patients grow their own vegetables, or at least some of them, in order to maximize the nutritional value and minimize the toxicant burden of their produce.”

In an environment where “fast” food is becoming the norm, doctors prescribing home vegetable gardening as a remedy is a great start in moving away from unhealthy eating habits. Everyone listens to their doctor right? Once prescribed though it becomes the challenge of parents everywhere to not only take and use that advice themselves but also instill that lifestyle into their children so they can then pass it on to future generations.

As a father of two children myself, I know it is important to me to do this as many other parents out there I spoke with. Registered dietitian Marcia Crawford, works with her clients to focus in on getting their children to enjoy the benefits of a “farm to fork” lifestyle. “The process always ends up with kids eating more produce. Inevitably the whole family gets involved. Meals begin to be planned and produce becomes the star of the plate, not an afterthought,” explains Marcia.

“I love the fact that you can garden at any age in any place and really impact your health - be it herbs that give flavor to foods that previously would have been drowned in fat for flavor or no fat, big flavor berries or some seriously healthy vegetables. "Fresh" and "local" cease to be marketing words; there is nothing more rewarding then eating the fruits of your labor.”

Ms. Crawford, along with Dr. Daley and Ms. Nussinow, all agree that once you make fresh home grown produce the focus, the calories will decrease and nutrient density will increase with every meal.

To determine the best way to incorporate your home vegetable garden with you and your family’s healthy eating style, evaluate a few areas first, so says nutrition expert and author of the book Nutrition Simplified: A Realistic 7 Step Workbook to Jump Start Your Metabolism , Betsy Markle, RD.

“What are the fruits and veggies the individual likes/dislikes? Are there any particular meals or foods that they would like to make? For instance, I love making my own salsa so I try to plant most of those ingredients. How much space do they have? How much time do they have to spend on their garden? Where do they live (weather/garden time period)?” says Betsy. You must be able to honestly plan this out in order to make it be affective and work.

If you can walk into your doctor’s office and get a prescription for pains and aches why not get a prescription from your doctor to grow your own fruits and vegetables? Maybe if more doctor’s made this prescription a staple to every office visit, more people would live a healthier lifestyle.


About the Author
Mike Podlesny is the owner of Mike the Gardener Enterprises, LLC, the exclusive home for the Seeds of the Month Club, which has appeared on NBC, ABC and MSN Money as a great way for consumers to save money.

Watch the video below to learn more about the Seeds of the Month Club:

Diabetes: Growing Your Own Fight

A large portion of the population has in some way or another one of the two types of Diabetes. This article won’t go into medical detail as to each of the types, but it will go into the affects that fresh vegetables can have in fighting diabetes.

Fresh vegetables are such a positive factor in fighting diabetes, and because they are, you are also presented with a great opportunity to grow your own cure (so to speak).

Certain vegetables can be consumed in large quantities because they are low in calories and low in carbohydrates. Buying fresh vegetables at the grocery store can start to add up and get very costly. You can offset that cost by growing your own vegetables.

These vegetables are an excellent course for diabetics because of their low caloric count and all can be grown right in your backyard:

Cabbage, celery, lettuce, spinach, eggplant, cauliflower, cucumber, radish

These make up just a few of the many you can grow and eat in larger quantities. Of course you should always speak to your primary care physician as to which vegetables offer your condition the better benefits and then you can grow them to help with any costs you might incur at the grocery store.

For instance, a spinach plant can produce good tasting healthy spinach throughout an entire growing season in most parts of the country. The average cost for a bag of fresh spinach is around $2.99. That one bag would last you about a week. If you grew your own spinach, three plants could give you enough of a harvest for half of the year, saving you money, and allowing you to eat more of it.


The same holds true for any vegetable and as the studies have shown us, eating healthy fresh vegetables helps in the fight against diabetes.

Just remember to eat them fresh when you can, such as in a salad, or uncooked. The nest best thing would be, baked, broiled or steamed. You could also grill your vegetables and get a good flavor. Also fresh is always better than frozen, so try to ingest the fresh vegetables not too long after you pick them.

With the cost for transportation always increasing due to high oil prices that will lead to higher costs for store bought vegetables. Save that cost and walk out your back door and pick the vegetables you need to help fight diabetes. They are better than store bought vegetables anyway since you are the one growing them the way that you want. You know that no harmful chemicals are being sprayed. You know that you have taken the utmost care for them because you will invariably be the one eating them.

Take the steps necessary to start growing your own vegetable garden today. It will help save you money at the store and fresh vegetables will help in your fight against diabetes.

About the Author
Mike is the author of the book Vegetable Gardening for the Average Person. It is a practical easy to follow book that teaches gardeners everything from composting techniques, aeration and frost conditions, to choosing the right tools and picking the right seeds.