Planting Good King Henry
Good King Henry is a cool season vegetable in the Amaranthaceae family. Getting the timing right is the difference between a strong stand and a disappointing one, so the windows below are given relative to your own last spring frost and first fall frost rather than a generic calendar date. Look up your local frost dates and count back or forward from there.
You can sow Good King Henry directly into the garden 0–2 weeks before your last frost.
Good King Henry can be grown by direct sowing and transplanting. Direct sowing avoids transplant shock, while direct sowing is simplest where the season is long enough.
Spacing and Planting Depth
Give Good King Henry room to mature. The figures below come from verified extension and seed-supplier data for typical varieties.
| Spacing in row | 12 inches |
|---|---|
| Row spacing | 18 inches |
| Plants per sq ft | 0.67 |
| Planting depth | 0.25 inches |
| Sun requirement | Partial sun |
Plan a square-foot bed with Good King Henry →
Calculate plants in a bed for Good King Henry →
Days to Maturity
Good King Henry reaches maturity in 80–100 days from sowing.
Good King Henry is ready to harvest after about 90 days. Harvest before summer heat or, for fall crops, before a hard freeze, to keep quality high.
Conditions and Care
As a cool-season vegetable, Good King Henry does its best growing in the cooler weather of spring and fall and tends to bolt or turn bitter in summer heat. It is frost hardy and can shrug off light freezes, so it can stay in the ground later into the season than tender crops.
Good King Henry grows well in partial sun and tolerates some afternoon shade, which can help slow bolting in warm weather. Sow seed about 0.25 inches deep — small seed is sown shallow and barely covered, then keep the soil evenly moist until seedlings establish.
Good King Henry belongs to the Amaranthaceae family; rotating where you grow members of this family each year helps limit the build-up of soil-borne pests and disease. Good King Henry is generally grown as a single planting each season rather than succession sown.
See Good King Henry in the full planting calendar for your ZIP →
Plan crop rotation for Amaranthaceae →
Growing Notes
Perennial spinach relative; harvest shoots and leaves.
Related Crops
Other crops you might grow alongside or instead of Good King Henry.
In the same family
Good King Henry is in the Amaranthaceae family. Other Amaranthaceae crops in the Gardenable database:
Similar growing requirements
Crops with similar season and time to maturity — useful if you want a diverse garden on a similar schedule: