If a garden was a high school movie drama, tomatoes would be the prom queen cheerleader, corn would be the basketball star jock, fennel would be the weird kid who dislocates his fingers and thinks it’s entertaining, and Swiss chard would be the really nice, helpful girl who just isn’t popular.
And I think that’s a shame. Seriously, why don’t more people talk about growing Swiss chard? My local, small-town farmers market is awash with tomatoes, onions, and pumpkins, but there is nary a green leaf to be seen. It’s not like Swiss chard is ugly — its giant, savoyed leaves are lofted above succulent stems of vibrant crimson, creamy white, or a party mix of pink, yellow, and orange.
It’s eye-catching both in the garden and on the plate and not only as a garnish — those nutrient-dense leaves can be a meal in their own right. And growing Swiss chard isn’t difficult — there are few greens as cold-hardy and heat-tolerant as easygoing Swiss chard.
所以,让我们把瑞士甜菜迟来的时刻放在聚光灯下。如果你还没有在花园里种过,你就真的错过了。让我来告诉你为什么。
How To Grow Swiss Chard
Swiss chard (Beta vulgaris) is in the Goosefoot family, rubbing shoulders with its closely-related beet cousins and spinach kin. Far older than cultivated beets (it’s the plant beets were bred from) chard has been written about and enjoyed as far back as the fourth century when Aristotle described a red-ribbed variety.
Swiss chard is probably one of the more forgiving of garden plants. For novice gardeners bummed by bolting spinach, caterpillar-chewed kale, or late-planted lettuce that fails to thrive, Swiss chard is here to make it all better and ensure you still have some delicious greens to harvest in the meantime.
Chard doesn’t really care about the acidity of the soil — unlike its more sensitive beet counterparts. It prefers full sun, but if it falls into partial shade, it won’t complain too much.
Related Post:8 Winter Vegetables You Should Plant In Your Garden
瑞士甜菜可以生长在2区和更温暖的花园中,虽然它喜欢较冷的温度,但它可以耐受足够的高温。我们忠实的甜菜在华氏100度的欧扎克夏日里继续生长!
How To Plant Swiss Chard
你可以移植已经发芽的种子,或者直接在花园里播种(或者两者都可以)。因为它们耐寒,我更喜欢后者。种植前在土壤中加入一些堆肥,可以给这些植物提供它们所需的氮,让它们长出茂盛的叶子。
你可以在最后一次霜冻前一周左右开始播种,播种深度约为1/2英寸,间隔约为4英寸。
Like beets, each seed actually contains several seeds, so you’ll eventually need to thin your plants. Once they’re about 6 inches tall, make your first spring saute with the culls and leave behind a well-tended bed of plants around 10 inches apart.
How To Maintain Swiss Chard Plants
After that, the only thing you’ll need to maintain your Swiss chard is keep it watered during the driest of summer — just enough to keep it from wilting before the heat relents.
瑞士甜菜也是一个奇妙的颜色飞溅在食用景观。2英尺高的叶子和画家调色板上的茎颜色,看起来就像在夏威夷的风景中一样,它可以做出相当的视觉声明。让开,凤仙花和牵牛花。我宁愿让一道彩虹般美丽美味的瑞士甜菜排列在通往我家前门的小路上。
How To Harvest Swiss Chard
种植瑞士甜菜最好的事情之一(在我看来)是它在整个生长季节是多么坚固。从春天开始收割,当叶子长到5或6英寸高时就开始采摘——如果你愿意,它们可以长到2英尺长。
Break off or cut the outer leaves carefully, leaving the tender, inner leaves to develop for later. As the weeks progress, simply continue harvesting the big outer leaves and you’ll have a continual supply of tropical-big, nutritious chard leaves.
Harvested this way, spring-sown Swiss chard can be productive well past the first freeze of fall. If you keep your plants under a cold frame during the worst of winter, they’ll keep on keepin’ on until spring. An alternative common name in England for leaf chard — a slightly different form of the chard plant — is perpetual spinach. The name makes perfect sense once you see how dependably these greens are produced
How To Save Swiss Chard Seed
Swiss chard, like its close relative the beet, is a biennial. This means the root will need to be overwintered before it’s triggered to produce seed. There are a few ways to manage it.
Related Post:How To Choose, Collect, And Save Seeds
暖冬季节的园丁只需要把大量的植物留在地面上,覆盖几英寸的覆盖物。如果你的冬天气温低于10华氏度,你可以试着把植株修剪到大约半英寸,然后用厚厚的叶子覆盖它。
Remember to remove this covering in the early spring so the flower stalk can emerge. Another option is to dig up the entire plant and store it in a cool, damp place until you replant it in the spring. A root cellar would be ideal if you have access to one.
It is also important to note that Swiss chard is wind pollinated which means you’ll need to choose just one variety to save if you want the seeds to come true. It also means that it can easily cross with a beet — their seeds look pretty much identical. If you’re trying to save seeds, make sure your beets aren’t flowering at the same time as your chard.
Swiss Chard Diseases
You may be asking yourself … is this article done gushing about growing Swiss chard? And to that, I answer — not yet! Because in addition to being easy to grow and delicious, Swiss chard has very few pest problems or diseases.
例如,去年在我的花园里,我在甜菜旁边种了几排羽衣甘蓝。到了夏天开始的时候,尽管我尽了最大的努力,但卷心菜蠕虫已经把羽衣甘蓝变成了一个真正令人失望的花边,但甜菜完全没有被人咀嚼。
Related Post:Growing Kale
甜菜唯一的真正问题是有点霜霉病,但这可以通过每年实行轮作来防止,确保你不会在叶子潮湿的瑞士甜菜中工作。
How To Use Swiss Chard
Anything you do with kale, spinach, or mustard greens, you can do just as well with Swiss chard. Their leaves cook down like spinach, so they don’t take on the toughness that kale sometimes exhibits, and their stems retain a bit of a crunch when cooked to keep the mouth-full interesting. They are flavorful enough on their own, but not so strongly flavored that they take over the dish.
I love throwing handfuls of Swiss chard leaves and stems over a pizza before I grate on the cheese layer. It adds both a pop of color and a boost of good nutrients. It’s delicious in a stir-fry, fantastic in a vegetable pie, a great addition to a morningshakshuka, and simply a delicious dish in its own right when sauteed in olive oil with sliced garlic.
Varieties To Consider
When you look at the Swiss chard section in your seed catalog, you may be overwhelmed with the selection. Here are a few of our favorite varieties.
Fordhook Giant
With cream-colored ribs and somewhat lighter green leaves,this varietyis a dependable heirloom that is going in my garden this year.
Rhubarb
A misleading name, perhaps, buta truly lovely heirloom variety. Jewel-red stalks and vibrant veins support deep green leaves. Just make sure you don’t mix up this variety of Swiss chard and its namesake. True rhubarb (Rheum rhabarbarum) has toxic leaves.
Five Color Silverbeet
This heirloom variety产生大量的橙色,粉色,黄色,红色和白色的茎。放在农贸市场的小摊上一定很好看。
Silverado
A bolt-resistant cultivarthat may be better for warmer growing regions, the leaves of this white-stalked plant are a rich green and attractively savoyed.
Bright Lights
This varietywill offer a lot of color to your garden beds, and can be harvested in as little as 4 to 5 weeks.
Please tell me that you’re going to give Swiss chard a chance in your garden this year. No matter how much a novice you are to gardening, this forgiving green is here as a garden-morale booster and nutritious addition to any meal. Are there any other chard fans out there? My fan club needs some additional members. Please join in the comments below.
William C.says
Chard also works well for juicing, smoothies, and as a wrap for fajitas.
Wren Everettsays
Oh, I did forget to mention juicing! Thanks for bringing it up, William. Those are some great ideas to add to the list!
Evelyn Mitchellsays
Wren,
I am planting it in a pot on my tiny front porch and some in the garden.
I have trouble getting Beets to grow, either that or the animals eat it. I’m in Missouri but in the central region, Pulaski county. I have more rocks than soil, and I don’t trust the commercial soils, so I’ve been trying to let leaves and mulch brake down in my tiny garden. I’ve been lacking in adequate leafy greens. So you know I’m looking forward to those crunchy greens. …and reds, oranges, whites… well you know what I mean.
Evelyn
Wren Everettsays
哈哈,我完全理解岩石土壤。我们有时开玩笑说,我们的“土壤”是巨石与岩石结合在一起,与鹅卵石结合在一起,然后填入沙子。我有时也会遇到甜菜的问题——它们显然不喜欢酸性土壤。瑞士甜菜每次都比他们做得更好。我打赌五颜六色的瑞士甜菜放在你的门廊上一定会非常漂亮!成长快乐!
ssays
Two of your chard pics, credited to Kat Shereko, show plants with very dark leaves. Do you know what varieties these are? Are the leaves dark only after a chill, or all year? Many thanks!
Kane Jamisonsays
My best guess would be Bright Lights – those seeds are common in Seattle area where the photo was taken:https://territorialseed.com/collections/swiss-chard/products/swiss-chard-bright-lights