Winter chard

I decided to make an effort to have some sort of greens through a good part of this coming winter. I've got some kale and tatsoi going in the main veggie garden, but I want more.


I decided some colorful Swiss chard would be worth a try. I grew it this spring, and the plants made it through the heat this summer and are still going strong. More would be good.


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So I'm going to use the small triangle box this fall and winter as a chard bed.


I've cleared out all of the small pots that spent the summer here, but the malabar spinach growing overhead needs to be cut back a bit. It's gotten too cold for it on one or two nights, and it looks it:



So I chopped most of it, providing more access and better lighting:



There are still vines overhead, but I'll get those soon.

These little bulbs might be Muscari:


They were growing in a container, and they'll go back into one.

With the bed totally clear now I mixed in my mound of manure and turned to the plants:


I'm pretty sure I can divide this into individual plants, right? I've not tried this with chard before, so I hope it's not sensitive to root disturbance.


Some of them were too close together to separate, but I still ended up with a nice little bed of color:



Once it starts getting much colder I'll build a little frame around this bed, cover with plastic, and create a nice little greenhouse.


If the chard doesn't work I'll plant some spinach or other greens.

As I said, I'm determined.

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Looking to land  – (October 23, 2012 at 9:42 AM)  

Nice. I didn't know chard spreads and can be divided liked that. Mine always fall victim to rabbits or grow too slow for regular picking. It is probably too late to sow seeds now? BTW, thanks for letting me know about the Schlafly garden event. I got a lot of seeds there and met Jack, Nolan and other gardening folks. It was great.

Gerhard Bock (Succulents and More)  – (October 23, 2012 at 10:04 AM)  

I love chard as a plant--so colorful. Time to start our winter veggie garden, especially since we've had our first rain. Your post was a timely reminder.

Alan  – (October 23, 2012 at 2:05 PM)  

Looking: glad you had fun at the Schlafly event! Chard doesn't spread -- this pot had several plants all jammed together. It was intended as a fall ornamental, but that's just a waste of chard, isn't it?

I'll post an update in a while to see how these are doing, but they seem to be fine after a few days, so I think no harm done.

Lisa  – (October 23, 2012 at 8:43 PM)  

Chard is beautiful AND delicious! The perfect plant!

Barbie  – (October 24, 2012 at 4:12 AM)  

You can't go wrong with swiss chard - mine seems to go on and on :-)
I love the colourful ones - I have them this season too. Malabar spinach....I must look out for this .I have a new arch in the veggie patch and it can grow up and around this.

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