How To Grow Your Own Swiss Chard From Seed & Why You Should

Fordhook Giant Swiss Chard In The Greenhouse Last November

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The year I turned 30, I had two friends who turned 60, and I took full advantage of the situation. "Save me some trouble," I said, "and tell me the most valuable thing you've learned in the last 30 years."

The first one offered up a piece of advice I've tried to abide by ever since. He said, "Be happy, not resentful or envious, when good things happen to other people." But it was seven words of wisdom from the second friend that truly changed my life: "Always plant Swiss chard in the garden."

Variety is good for the garden and the tastebuds, but if I were allowed to grow only one leafy green, it would definitely be Swiss chard. This nutrient-packed chameleon of the vegetable world comes in a variety of colors and is a superb, year-round stand-in for lettuce, spinach and celery. When the spinach is suffering from heatstroke, or the lettuce is keeling over from frostbite, my hardy Swiss chard doesn't even flinch.

Swiss chard, which is also known as white beet, strawberry spinach, seakale beet, leaf beet, Sicilian beet, spinach beet, Chilean beet, Roman kale, perpetual spinach, silverbeet and mangold (and that's just in English!) is bursting with nutrients, including vitamins K, A, C and E, plus several B vitamins, magnesium, manganese, potassium, iron and dietary fiber. It's a good source of calcium and contains promising cancer-fighting properties. Throughout history, various parts of the plant have been used to treat everything from ulcers to dandruff. But more importantly, it tastes delicious.

The best Swiss chard you'll ever eat is that which you grow yourself, and fortunately it's easy to cultivate. Swiss chard only needs 50-degree soil to germinate, and the plants are quite cold hardy, so in many places it's not too late to start some seeds for a late fall/early winter crop.

The plants are also pleasing to the eye, so you can tuck a few almost anywhere. Swiss chard does exceptionally well in containers, which means even apartment dwellers have no excuse not to try growing some. Containers should be at least 12 inches deep and 12 inches across; three or four plants will fit comfortably in a 14-inch-wide pot.


Young Plants In The Greenhouse Last November

A packet of Swiss chard seeds will set you back only a dollar or two. I order mine from my two favorite seed companies, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds located here in Missouri and Pinetree Garden Seeds in Maine. Fordhook Giant, introduced in 1924 and pictured in the top photo, is a popular variety with large, dark green leaves and white stems. I grow it along with more unusual varieties such as the two pictured above, Pink Lipstick and Canary Yellow, whose brilliant yellow stems are stunning.

Last spring I excitedly planted several new (to me) varieties in my garden, including Vulcan, an improved rhubarb chard developed in Switzerland; Sea Foam, said to have great flavor and texture; and Orange Fantasia, which boasts light icy green leaves and bright orange stalks that hold their color when cooked.

Unfortunately my entire crop was destroyed by an army of ravenous blister beetles. Boy were they bad this year. Fortunately I've learned to live by the motto Never plant the entire packet of anything at once, and the remaining seeds I direct seeded last week have already sprouted. The blister beetles are gone for the year, so all I have to worry about this time around is the weather and the deer. At this point I'm quite hopeful.

If space is at a premium or you can't make up your mind what kind of Swiss chard to plant, you might start with Five Color Silverbeet, an Australian variety often sold as Bright Lights or Rainbow Chard. You'll get near-neon shades of pink, yellow, orange, red and white chard from one packet of seeds.

Growing:
Before planting, soak Swiss chard seeds in warm water for 15 minutes to speed up germination. Sow seeds 1/2-inch deep and a few inches apart directly in the garden when the soil is at least 50 degrees F.

Or sow them indoors anytime in standard-sized, 10-inch by 20-inch plastic flats of individual plugs filled with a soilless seed starting or potting mix (place 1 or 2 seeds in each plug) and transplant seedlings into the garden when they're 2 to 3 inches tall.

Thin seedlings so they are 4 to 5 inches apart — or 8 to 10 inches apart if you plan to only harvest the outer leaves.

Plants do best in full sun but will tolerate some shade. They can endure light frosts in spring and moderate freezes in fall (though tiny seedlings are more tender). My Swiss chard has withstood temperatures well below freezing protected by nothing more than a piece of heavy plastic or an old sheet, and it survives in the raised bed greenhouse during our Zone 5 winters.

Maintenance is minimum:
Mulch your plants with compost and/or grass clippings to add nutrients and discourage weeds, and use a natural fertilizer such as kelp or manure tea (a must for container growing). Provide moderate, even watering. (As a rule, properly moist soil will crumble evenly into small granules when you grab a handful and squeeze it.) Most pests ignore Swiss chard, though more than once the deer have happily munched down my entire crop.


New Growth Is Already Visible

Harvesting:
Another reason I love Swiss chard is because it's a "cut and come again" plant, which means that one crop can supply you with beautiful bounty for months. Growing your own also allows you to enjoy the tender baby leaves, which can rarely be found for sale. You can either continually harvest just the outer stalks (scissors work great; start tossing the tender leaves into salads when plants are about 6 inches high) or cut whole young plants off an inch or two above the soil and wait for them to regrow.

Between the plants outside and in the greenhouse, I literally had Swiss chard available for all but three or four weeks of the entire year. Even Whitey The Chicken was enjoying freshly picked greens in January.

Just before a severe cold snap in January, I cut nearly all the leaves from the many large plants in the greenhouse. This huge bounty kept just fine for several weeks in our 40-degree pantry. I covered the remaining chard 'stumps' in the greenhouse with floating row covers, old bed sheets, and lightweight blankets. Bamboo stakes (they have so many uses!) stuck in the ground around the plants helped keep the heavier coverings from flattening the plants. When the temperature outside dropped into the single digits, I put an oil-filled radiator heater (they're fantastic and very safe) in there on the lowest setting. This kept the plants in a sort of holding pattern.

As soon as things warmed back up a bit, they went right back to growing, and long before spring, I had 22 thriving plants in the greenhouse and almost more chard than I could eat. If you're in a warmer climate you could easily grow Swiss chard year round outdoors with little or no protection.

So what's your favorite way to enjoy this glorious green? Do tell!

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