It’s September and the temperature can easily hit 100 degrees here in Texas. But, I harvested spinach for supper today, and you can too! I call this lovely plant Summer Spinach, but its scientific name is Basella alba. Commonly known as Malabar Spinach, this beautiful plant is native to Asia and is found throughout subtropical Asia and Africa. 

Loves the Heat 

Unlike true spinach and almost all other garden greens, Malabar Spinach thrives in the heat, producing generous servings of leaves throughout the hot summer. Easy to start from seed, it is also a perennial plant, so I often just choose from the many springtime sprouts that come up in the garden from our previous crop. Two or three healthy sprouts can be trained onto a trellis, or even a fence, like this one. The vines can grow up to ten feet long and boast beautiful purple stems, luscious green leaves, and later produce pink and purple flowers which yield glossy black berries. The leaves always taste best before the plant flowers, so I try to pinch off blooms as often as possible. As a bonus, this beauty has never shown any disease problems, and only occasionally shows damage from grasshoppers or snails. But, it grows quickly enough to outpace any minor insect problems we have ever noticed. It really is a dream plant. It is Texas tough. 

Fast Growing

Malabar spinach grows fast. It grows several inches per day, adding fresh tender leaves on each viney branch. It even tolerates nibbling by our goats and chickens, while still producing plenty of tasty leaves further up for the humans to harvest. It is undaunted by extreme summer weather, vining and climbing so rapidly that you will sometimes need to pick up rogue vines off the ground and tuck them back into the trellis to keep things neat and tidy in your garden. 

Long Growing Season

Plant seeds in pots in late February or direct seed into the garden any time after the last frost. Our Zone 8 average date of last frost is March 15, so be sure and check your local date by clicking here. It germinates quickly and is such a fast grower, you can still plant as late as August or September and to enjoy weeks of fresh Summer Spinach. By the time this summertime hero plant is bitten back by cool fall temperatures, you’ll be harvesting your cool season greens again. Perfect! 

Perennial 

The second year you grow this amazing summertime green, you won’t have to plant anything. You’ll have many volunteer sprouts in March, so choose a few plants which are conveniently growing in the right spot, put a large tomato cage or trellis on them, and keep them evenly watered for a few weeks. Any extra volunteers are not invasive; they can easily be tilled up or pulled up if they are in your way. In my experience, the young plants don’t seem to transplant very well, so just let a few plants grow where they pop up. Then get out of the way, because you’re going to grow enough Summer Spinach to feed a crowd! And this wonderful plant produces beautifully through even the worst Texas summer, until frost finally takes it out in the late fall. 

So Many Ways to Enjoy This Healthy Green

We eat it fresh in salads, in soups, on sandwiches, and in stir fry. I also make these delicious Spinach Squares that you have to try to believe!  

Rich in antioxidants like beta carotene and lutein, this green is a powerhouse of nutrition. It’s high in protein, for a plant. And, it is rich in minerals like calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, and potassium. It is even a good source of iron. What’s not to love? 

Try It

Even though you will find yourself with too many beautiful glossy leaves to eat yourself, just do like I do ~ share your extra leaves or stems with the goats, pigs, cows, and chickens. Let me know if you need help getting started with Malabar Spinach. It’s the perfect summer green for home gardens. No homestead should be without this tough, beautiful, healthful, and productive plant!