Started April 22

Rainbow Chard

White has a mineral edge to its taste, red has an earth sweetness and golden chard a mild nutty flavor. 

Size: 12-24 inches high by 12-18 inches wide

Location: Prefers full sun to light shade with rich, well drained soil

Matures in: 30 days for baby leaves, 60 days for full size

Native to: Europe and North Africa.

Why did I Choose it? Why grow one color when you can grow them all?

Uses? The leaves are mainly used in the same way you would use spinach and the stems can be used as you would asparagus. 

Specifics:  All chard varieties are descendents of the sea beet, a wild seashore plant found growing along the Medditeranean and Atlantic coast. Rainbow Swiss chard cultivation dates back to 1636 but it wasn’t until the 1880s that it made its way to North America as a food crop and ornamental. Rainbow chard is simply a combination of the many different colors chard naturally occurs in. 

High in vitamins and minerals it can withstand higher temperatures and minor drought more easily than other nutrient rich greens like spinach.  

Companion Plants: 

Choose plants that mature before or after the chard so as not to not be smothered by it. Good companions are tomatoes, members of the brassica family, alliums, beans, radishes, lettuce and celery. 

To repel nematodes plant marigolds a full year before you plant chard in that bed. 

Avoid: 

Most herbs with the exception of mint. 

Potatoes, corn, cucumbers, melons. 

Personal Notes: Hathorn’s germination rates say 87%. Of the 30 I planted April 22, 12 were sprouted by May 10. By June 1 I had planted out 26. 

They seemed to take awhile to get established but once they started we had fresh chard until snowfall. The colors really were beautiful and bright. I was very pleased with this variety. 

We cut most into ribbons and froze them for additions to meals during the winter. Any of the leaves that I missed that got really huge and bug eaten the chickens thoroughly enjoyed. 

I wonder if I had cold frames if we couldn’t have had an even longer eating eason into the late fall. I may try to put something together for next year.

Next up Mexican Sour Gherkins