A Dynasty is Over: Great Wall of Spinach cut down

The weather being colder and I, in anticipation of sweet, sweet sugar snap peas and snow peas decided it was time for the malabar spinach to go.


(Well, most of it)

I am experimenting (aka 'being lazy') and seeing what will happen to the spinach after the frost/during the winter and on (if it doesn't get too gross as the plant is almost succulent-like).

I am curious if the spinach will self seed itself for next year as I dropped plenty of berries/seeds on my first seed collecting harvest.

My malabar spinach, the red stem, "Rubra" variety, was quite lovely to behold much of the summer and once it started to seed and the weather become not so pretty, its color change was akin to those "love it or hate it" situations where you enjoy a plethora of yellow-pink-orange-ish colors with the fading green leaves and hot pink stems, or you think it sort of look like vomit.

Either way, it didn't look too palatable.

The twine trellised vines were pretty easy to take off all together, and while I'll go through and save some more seeds from the piles of malabar spinach vines, I am trying to figure out a good way to potentially compost them or if I probably ought to solarize the lot because I am nervous about utterly self seeding my compost pile with it.

The seeds shouldn't survive the winter, but in a compost pile, things do surprisingly well, and we know how warm it can get in there...

Ugh, now I need to re-string the fence again for peas, luckily it'll be a while yet before they need the support much if at all!

So, goodbye sweet faux-spinach! Next year, if things work out, I may try to see if you are freezeable!