Beta vulgaris subsp. cicla
Swiss chard
Common names: Chard, Silverbeet
Photo: mercedesfromtheeighties · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Source
Description
Chard is a rewarding cut-and-come-again vegetable that you can harvest again and again over months. Stem chard supplies broad, tender stalks like spinach asparagus, leaf chard lush foliage. Colourful cultivars such as ‘Bright Lights’ with yellow, red and pink stems are real eye-catchers in the bed.
Care instructions
Sow it from April (week 16) directly into the bed in a sunny to partly shaded spot. Keep the soil evenly moist, then it stays juicy and tender. Harvest the outer leaves continuously from the outside in, then the heart keeps growing on; protected with fleece it often overwinters.
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
humus-rich, loamy, well-drained, nutrient-rich
Feeding
Medium feeder
Companion planting
Rather not
Companion planting is partly traditional gardening lore. Where the reason is known, it is given.
Varieties
5 varieties‚Bright Lights’
The *‚Bright Lights’* variety offers a colorful mix that produces stems in yellow, orange, pink, red and white, each…
‚Fordhook Giant’
A productive white‑stemmed stem beet with wide, fleshy ribs and large, strongly curved leaves.
‚Hunsrücker Schnittmangold’
An old landrace from the Hunsrück, grown purely as a leaf chard: slim stems, but plenty of tender, dark green foliage.
‚Lucullus’
A proven white-stemmed chard with broad, fleshy ribs and coarse, blistered leaves.
‚Vulkan’
A brilliantly red-stemmed chard with dark green, red-veined leaves; the strong colour holds even after a brief steaming.
Notes from real gardens
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