Swiss chard ~ a plant everyone should grow

If there were only one thing I could plant, I have come to the conclusion that I think it should be swiss chard.  And you need not have a garden in order to grow it.  It is a beautiful and colorful addition to your landscaping.  My favorite kind of plants are, number one, easy to grow.  Swiss chard fits this bill amazingly well.  It requires next to no care and will grow year around in a warm winter like the one we are having now.  In past years when we actually had a winter, the chard died out after a few nights in the 20s, but sprang right back to life in the spring.

Here are two of my plants, picture taken in mid-January.  I have since cleaned out all of the dead leaves and it is much prettier and quite less full since we have been using the nutrition packed leaves for juicing the past few weeks.

My favorite kind of plants are, number two, pretty.  I know that I should consider nutritional value over aesthetics, however, I can't help it, I love to grow pretty things.  Pretty things that grow with little care are all the better.  And pretty things that grow with little care and are a nutritional powerhouse sound like just the perfect thing to grow! 

That brings me to reason number three for my favorite kind of plants, nutrition.  For my family this is a two fold deal, it could be the most nutritious food in the world but if it tastes terrible, we won't eat it.  Well, sadly I must admit that my first year or two of growing swiss chard this is exactly the category that swiss chard fell into.  Then one day I read an article of how to cook with swiss chard and decided that we should attempt to eat it.  Chopped and tossed into a soup in the last few minutes of cooking, it was delicious.

Suddenly we lost our swiss chard phobia.  The kids noticed that baby chard leaves were in the salad mix they were eating.  We started juicing this summer and it only seemed natural that we should include swiss chard.  At first, I was scared to add much to the juice for fear that it would be too strong, but just this week I went a little crazy with the amount of chard and yet the juice was delicious. 

It has taken me a while to mature into a well rounded swiss chard grower, but alas, if today you were to tell me I could only plant one thing in my garden, chard would be the one!

Comments

[KellyM]

I agree, it *is* beautiful! I have to admit, chard is not my favorite green, but since mine seems to be growing well, too, I hope to become more adventurous with it this coming year.

[portal flash game]

I agree, it *is* beautiful! I have to admit, chard is not my favorite green, but since mine seems to be growing well, too, I hope to become more adventurous with it this coming year.
+1