Planted Malabar Spinach Seeds

This morning I planted a hill of Malabar Red Stem Spinach (Basella alba Red Stem) on one of the trellis north of the house.

This ornamental spinach keeps you in tasty greens all summer! The red stems really jazz up the plate!

The thick, dark green leaves of this edible ornamental provide tasty greens throughout the summer, when traditional spinach will not grow. The mild flavor makes Red Stem equally good cooked or fresh, and is more palatable to children than the peppery cool-season varieties.

Heat-loving and vigorous, these attractive plants reach 6 feet or more if trained on a bean tower, trellis, lamppost, or any vertical structure with some porousness for twining. The plants sport scarlet stems that contrast beautifully with the deep green of the thick, broad leaves. Many people grow Red Stem for purely ornamental purposes, but there's a lot of good eating on this productive plant!

Harvest in 55 days - June 29th.