We tried growing both the traditional spinach and a socalled perpetual spinach that is in fact a chard. Both types were grown in pots on an east facing balcony that gets no more than 3 hours of sunlight in the morning.

It's clear in this video which one has become our favourite staple. Not only does perpetual spinach last longer than traditional spinach. Compared to its close cousin the Swiss chard, perpetual spinach is easier to grow as these do not tend to get affected by powdery mildew which eventually took over our Swiss chard.

One thing we noticed was that perpetual spinach seemed to taste more earthy (just like Swiss chard and other beets) the bigger the leaves got. So, for salads, we try to harvest the leaves when small. But when used for cooking, the leaves have a more neutral taste. So we use the bigger leaves for soups and stews.