Tetragonia tetragonioides
New Zealand spinach, warrigal greens, sea spinach: brought back from the Pacific by Cook's expedition in the 18th century, it solves spinach's major problem — spinach bolts as soon as the first hot weather arrives, whereas this plant thrives in midsummer. Two botanically unrelated plants, but with a very similar taste.
Characteristics:
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Fleshy, triangular leaves: up to 15 cm long, thick and tender.
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Heat-resistant: it produces all summer, when spinach has already bolted.
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Spreading habit: its trailing stems reach 1 metre, forming a productive ground cover.
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Can be grown in pots: it does very well in a large container on a terrace.
Precautions:
- Like spinach and sorrel, its leaves contain oxalates: blanch them for one to two minutes in boiling water before cooking them, then discard the water. Avoid eating large quantities raw.
- A frost-tender plant, destroyed by the first frosts.
Sowing advice:
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Position: sunny and warm.
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Soil: rich in humus, moist, light and slightly acidic. It tolerates salty soils well, a legacy of its coastal origins, and withstands drought once established — but regular watering keeps its leaves tender.
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Method: its seeds have a very hard, corky coating. Soak them for 24 to 48 hours in lukewarm water before sowing; otherwise germination is erratic. Sow from March under cover, or directly in the ground after the frosts, at a depth of 2 cm. See how to sow your seeds.
Planting advice:
- Transplant after the frosts, spacing plants at least 60 cm apart: it spreads much more than you might expect.
Care advice:
- No special care is required. Pinch out the stem tips to encourage branching and produce more young shoots.
Harvesting advice:
- Pick only the young terminal shoots, approximately 10 cm long, throughout the summer. The more you harvest, the more the plant branches and produces.
Beneficial combinations:
Benefits for biodiversity:
- Its dense, trailing foliage effectively covers the soil, limits weeds and provides shelter for ground beetles and beneficial insects in midsummer.
- Its salt tolerance makes it possible to grow a leafy vegetable on coastal land where few species thrive.
Uses:
Harvesting your own seeds:
Leave a few woody, horned fruits to develop in the leaf axils — these are what give the “New Zealand spinach” its name — and harvest them when dry. New Zealand spinach also readily self-seeds from one year to the next. See how to store your seeds.
Commitment to Quality: at SemiSauvage - Permaculture, we grow and select our seeds with respect for all living things as our guiding principle. Based near the Auvergne Volcanoes, we choose open-pollinated, non-hybrid varieties, tested for their germination rate, carefully sorted and packaged, with no chemical treatment. Our belief: to give gardeners back the ability to resow, year after year, seeds that truly belong to them.
The spinach that doesn't bolt: your midsummer leafy vegetable.
