Growing Swiss Chard! A Year-Round Nutritious Green

Swiss chard can last for a year in the garden, but is it worth growing? And does it even taste good? I first heard about Swiss chard when I read this book called the Edible Front Yard. And it was all about these plants that are edible but actually beautiful. She called them like divas or something like that. And I think eggplants were on the list, but Swiss chard was definitely at the top of the list. So when I started my business, I was sure to put Swiss chard at the front of all the gardens I set up. And you can see this in lots of my books, like in Kitchen Garden Revival, I was sure to have Swiss chard on my back and in the front photo, too. So I started putting Swiss chard on the front corners of the gardens, mostly for the looks. But it took me a while to start to really appreciate what this plant has to offer. And it's a lot more than just being a diva. Swiss chard is in the goosefoot or the amarantha sei family that five times fast, same family as beets and spinach. So if you think about how healthy spinach and beets are for you, this plant is just as much, if not more so. The difference with Swiss chard. And by the way, Swiss chard is not from Switzerland. It actually originated in the Mediterranean. I don't even know why we call it Swiss chard. But this plant is different than spinach and beets because it will last longer in the garden. It's called a biennial, if you don't know the terms. Annual plants grow like 60, 90, 100 days. They die off, produce seed, don't come back the next year from the plant. Perennial plants, they last through the garden for the whole year. The roots, the top may die off in the winter, but then the plant comes back from the root year after year after year after year. We're talking three to five. Some plants, you know, 10, 20 years. Trees, they're perennials. Then we have right in the middle called biennials. And just like Bicycle 2, right? So instead of just one year, it's two years of growth. So Swiss Chard, innately in its DNA, it wants to last in the garden for two years before it produces seed. Now, most gardeners grow it as an annual. But the coolest part about these plants being biennial. And also we've got, like, kale and parsley. Those are biennials, too. So you're going to find these are special in the garden because they want to hang on like a lot of people. See the Photogr. My first book And I have these huge Swiss chard plants in this back garden. This is in Houston, Texas. And these plants, we took this photo in May of 2019. These plants were planted in January of 2018. These exact Swiss chard plants had been in this Houston, Texas garden for 18 months. That's why they look so huge and so beautiful. And that's the magic of Swiss chard. It wants to stay in the garden and for at least two years. So if you're looking to get, like more bang for your buck, if you feel like when you plant a plant, it's done before you even got to enjoy it, Swiss chard is your new favorite plant in the garden because of its biennial nature. So Swiss chard is the definition of a cut and come again green, which means you can cut from it, come back later and cut again. And you can see on this Swiss chard how I've done just that. So the older leaves are going to be on the outside of the plant, and the newer leaves, they'll be on the inside. So anytime you want to harvest from Swiss chard, you're going to cut right around the outer edge of the plant. And in that way, you're not just harvesting to get food, you're also pruning the plant for optimal health. Because as you can see in this plant, the more you go into the inner parts of the plant, you see that little leaf right there? That's new growth. That's going to be your healthiest part of the plant, the newest part, and the sweetest part of the leaves. So each time you go to harvest, cut from the outer and lower leaves, leave the interior. Unless you're looking for a really nice, soft, sweet salad, then you would cut these softer middle leaves to make a salad like that. Greens in the garden are notorious for having pest and disease pressure. And you are going to have some pest problems with your Swiss chard, but none of them are life threatening to the plant. So the most common one is a leaf miner. Leaf miners are little insects that get inside the plant and literally mine their way through the plant cells. You'll start to see larger holes form, and these could also be from caterpillars, but about eight to nine times out of 10, they're going to be from leaf miners. My best way to deal with pest pressure on a Swiss chard is just to remove the leaves themselves, all the affected leaves, and then let the plant regrow from the center, which it will definitely do. So I just cut any kind of affected leaves from the base of the plant. I Will not put these in a compost pile that I'm going to put back into the garden later. I may just kind of throw them in the woods, let them decompose on their own, but I wouldn't turn these into garden compost. You'll also start to see as the season wears on. When it gets really hot, you might see signs of sun scalding, but also these brown spots on the leaves. This can be from a fungal disease, but it can also be just further signs of stress from either aphids or leaf miners. Again, super easy way to deal with this is just to cut off the affected leaves. If you give the plant time, it will bounce back. One of my favorite philosophies in the garden is vitamins instead of antibiotics. In other words, instead of spraying and killing pests. Instead I try to help the plant be as healthy as possible. So I just cut away the affected leaves and then I add some rich mushroom compost around the base of the plant that serves as like a vitamin for the plant to get the nutrients it needs to support itself. This plant wants to keep growing. It does not want to die, nor does it want to be ruined by pests. So when you cut away that pest pressure and get those new leaves to take over the plant and add a little bit of compost to the base, generally you're going to be just fine. If you keep having pest issues, then you can use a garlic spray. I make just a homemade garlic spray that I'll spray on the leaves to make the leaves more bitter to the pests and also not have that smell that would attract caterpillars, aphids or leaf miners in the first place. But again, I mostly just treat pests by removing the affected leaves and adding some compost and letting the Swiss chard plant do its thing. Cuz this plant, it may look kind of dainty and beautiful, but it's actually a very strong plant that knows how to defend itself. Now if you see little spots like this on your leaves, that is actually caterpillar poop. And that's a sign that you don't have a leaf minor problem. You have a caterpillar problem. So caterpillars are climbing up the stem from the soil level and getting onto your leaves and literally eating holes in it. So if your Swiss chard is starting to look more like Swiss cheese, then you have a caterpillar issue. The best way to deal with this is to remove all the leaf litter around the base of the plant. You want to clean up the base of the Plant really well because that's where the caterpillars are coming from. Maybe step out, check your plants in the late evening. That's when the caterpillars start to make their way, when they're not as visible. And then, of course, remove the affected leaves. And. And if you keep having holes like this and you keep seeing the caterpillar poop show up, then you might want to go ahead and spray the plant with that garlic spray or with a castile soap spray. Both of those will help make the leaves less delicious to the caterpillars. So a question I get asked most often about all this Swiss chard is what do you actually do with it? And does it even taste good? And let me tell you, oh, my gosh, it tastes good. And there are so many, many ways to use this plant. In fact, I like to say this plant is like a three in one kind of vegetable. So first off, you have this stalk of any greens that you grow. Most of the stalks, they don't taste good. They're like, rubbery or thick or bitter. But not the stalks on the Swiss chard. In fact, I treat the stalks on Swiss chard like celery. And if you look at this, doesn't it look like celery? And it tastes like celery, too. It's got the crunch, it's got that fibery texture, and it's a perfect base for toppings like ranch dressing or peanut butter. It's like celery, but so much easier to grow. And you get so many more stems for every seed you plant. Next up, you get these huge greens. So these are not these tiny little spring mix lettuce greens. These are huge leaves that you can do so many things with. So, so you can make wraps with these leaves using this instead of like a tortilla or a pita. You can make all kinds of warm dishes like sautes. One of my favorite dishes with this green is Swiss chard lasagna. Thank you, Martha Stewart. So you use these Swiss chard leaves and the stems, cook them up with onions and tomatoes, and that is your base for your lasagna between pasta and cheese. Oh, my gosh, it's so good. You can also treat these the same way you would treat kale. So you know how we make kale chips in the oven? You can, you can take these same leaves, coat them with a little bit of butter, stick them in the oven, and you'll get these nice, crunchy chips that you can dip in all kinds of dips. So delicious to eat and a snack even the kids might try another way. I love using Swiss chard is in smoothies. So I'll substitute out spinach or kale with Swiss chard leaves, mostly because I get so many of them. It's a great way to make a green juice or a smoothie right from the garden. Now, the neat thing about Swiss chard is it is that cut and come again variety. So as you cut these larger leaves, you're going to get smaller leaves on the interior of the plant. They keep coming. And these little leaves, these are different than the huge leaves. They're going to taste different. They're going to be sweeter. They're more like a salad green. You get these tiny little leaves that you could make an entire salad with. You get these huge leaves that you can make bigger meals like sautes, lasagnas, and wraps with. Then you also get these stems that you can eat as snacks and you can even pickle. To me, Swiss chard is a must in the vegetable garden. It's beautiful. You get so many harvests for the few dollars that you put into each and every plant. The pest pressure is really not that big of a deal. And you'll get a green that you can eat from the garden almost every single day of the entire year. Swiss chard is not just another pretty face in the garden. It is a must have. Thanks so for listening to the Grow youw Self podcast. You can keep listening anywhere. You love getting your podcast delivered on Apple podcasts, on Spotify, iHeartRadio, you name it, we are there for you. And if you want to read the notes and get our free resources to help you grow more, you can go to gardenary.com podcast.