🌈 Swiss chard

Swiss chard is one of the most useful and decorative leaf vegetables, with large glossy leaves and bright coloured stems in red, yellow, orange, pink and white. It is hardy, productive and easy, and a few plants give leaves for months.

Chard is more tolerant of heat and cold than spinach, with less tendency to bolt, so it can be cropped from early summer right into the following spring in mild areas. It suits borders and containers as well as the vegetable bed.

Varieties to try

Bright Lights (multicoloured stems)Fordhook Giant (white stems, large and reliable)Rhubarb Chard (deep red stems)Lucullus (pale green, heavy cropper)Yellow Chard (golden stems)

Sow in April to June, 2–3 cm deep, directly into well-prepared, fertile soil in sun or light shade, in rows 45 cm apart. Chard seed is a cluster of several seeds, so each sowing produces several seedlings; thin to the strongest at 30–45 cm apart. You can also start seeds in modules in March and April under cover.

Sow a second batch in July to August for autumn and winter picking, which will crop through the cold months with a cloche or fleece for protection. Soaking the seed overnight speeds germination. Chard also grows happily in large pots at least 30 cm deep.

Top tips

• Thin each cluster to the strongest seedling.
• Soak seed overnight before sowing.
• Sow again in July for winter leaf.
• Use pots at least 30 cm deep on a balcony.

Keep plants watered during dry spells, and mulch to conserve moisture and suppress weeds. Feed with a general fertiliser once or twice in summer to keep the plants producing. Cut off any flower stems that appear to extend cropping.

Chard is rarely troubled, but leaf miners can tunnel in the leaves, slugs eat young plants and birds may peck seedlings. Pinch off affected leaves and use traps or nets as needed. In cold winters, cover plants with a cloche or fleece to keep the leaves usable.

Top tips

• Pinch off leaves with leaf-miner tracks.
• Mulch to keep the soil moist.
• Cover in hard frost.
• Cut flower stems to keep cropping.

Watch out for

Leaf minerSlugsBirds on seedlingsDowny mildew

Pick baby leaves from about six weeks, and full-size leaves from eight to twelve weeks. Cut or twist off the outer leaves about 3 cm above the base, leaving the centre to grow more. Take only a few leaves from each plant at a time, so it can keep growing.

Plants keep producing for many months, and overwintered plants give a second flush of leaves in spring before they flower. Pull out the plants once they run to seed and the leaves turn tough. Frost can scorch leaves, but healthy plants will recover.

Top tips

• Pick the outer leaves first.
• Take no more than a third of a plant at once.
• Harvest stems and leaves together.
• Pull plants out once they bolt.

Chard is two vegetables in one: the leaves can be cooked like spinach, and the thick colourful stems like asparagus. Strip the stems from the leaves, then cook the stems for about five minutes and the leaves for one or two. Use them in gratins, quiches, pasta, soups and stir-fries.

Unwashed leaves keep for three to four days in the fridge in a bag. For freezing, separate leaves and stalks, blanch for two minutes (leaves) or three minutes (stalks), cool and pack in portions. Raw baby leaves are good in salads.

Top tips

• Cook stems and leaves separately.
• Use baby leaves raw in salads.
• Blanch before freezing.
• Add garlic and lemon to sautéed chard.