Chard Growing Masterclass: Tastier and Easier Than Spinach!

Swiss chard has it all: it’s fantastically prolific, loaded with nutrients, tolerates most growing conditions, and is exceptionally good-looking. It’s so talented, it’s almost unfair!

But while it might look like a diva, it’s in fact pretty low maintenance and very reliable. Chard will work really hard for a place in your garden. I’m going to share my go-to tips for ensuring the very best chard leaves – and lots of them – on the very healthiest plants. Let’s sow!

Sowing Chard

In my mild, temperate climate (equivalent to around hardiness zone 8), I tend to sow chard anytime from spring through to the second half of summer.

Early sowings give plants for harvesting throughout the summer months, while seeds sown in summer will produce plants that grow on into the autumn then sit patiently through winter to explode into productive life the moment it warms up in spring.

To sow chard direct into the soil, make holes hole about 1 foot (30cm) apart, then drop in two or three seeds. Each knobbly-looking chard seed is in fact a capsule containing a cluster of seeds that will give you up to three or so seedlings. Once the seedlings are up, pluck out any excess seedlings to leave just what you need.

Having said that, I prefer to start my chard off in plug trays or pots. This means that I can have strongly-growing chard seedlings ready to plant as soon as another crop is finished off in the garden, and it also gives me a slightly earlier start at this time of year while it’s still cool and light levels are quite low.

The seedlings come up pretty fast, and they grow fast too, so choose bigger plugs to give their vigorous root system room to explore. Fill your plug tray with all-purpose potting mix, screened to remove any woody bits, then pop in two chard seeds per plug. Bury them about a half inch (1cm) deep. If the weather’s cold bring them indoors to germinate, but otherwise they can be left in a greenhouse or cold frame.

I’m blessed with a climate that’s rarely gets too hot or cold, but even if you’re gardening in the extremes, chard has your back! In climates with intense, hot summers you can sow early in spring to have plants cropping up to the point it gets too hot. Then sow from late summer or early autumn for leaves throughout the autumn, and potentially through much of the winter too, followed by lots of leaves in spring.

Or, if you have bitterly cold winters with weeks of frozen-solid ground, stick to spring sowings for leaves throughout the growing season.

For a more precise range of sowing dates try our Garden Planner, which uses your nearest weather station to calculate sowing, planting and harvesting dates specific to your location.

A Rainbow of Opportunity

Chard is renowned for its lively stem colors, which range from yellow to red to pink to plain-old, though still rather fetching, white. As an easy-growing, no-dramas crop, any variety of chard is going to do well, so choosing which ones to grow is mostly down to a question of what colors you fancy.

I can never decide, so tend to opt for a seed mix that offers a range of colors such as ‘Bright Lights’ or ‘Rainbow Chard’. But if you want a specific color – a shock of lipstick pink for example – there is a variety for that too! On the other hand, if determination, cold hardiness and sheer abundance is your priority, opt for the ivory-stemmed, award-winning ‘Fordhook Giant’, aptly named for its muscular stems and outsized leaves.

If you’re growing a rainbow mix of chard, you can always select from the seedlings for the stem color you’re after, as this is easily seen even on small seedlings. If that’s important to you, simply select the seedlings you want and plant those, perhaps creating an alternating pattern of colors to really liven up garden beds!

Because they’re so prolific, as few as five or six plants may be enough for a bunch of leaves of every week, though I reckon it’s worth growing more for their good looks and because they are so versatile in the kitchen. They’re great in smoothies, with meals of course, and blended into batter mixes for extra-nutritious pancakes.

With their colorful stems I also think it’s worth growing them as an ornamental addition to a flowerbed.

How to Plant Chard

Once the seedlings poke through in one or two weeks, remove excess seedlings in each plug to leave anywhere up to three in each. There’s no exact science to this – if you want bigger leaves and larger plants you can thin to just one seedling, but if you’re just after plenty of leaves of a more modest size, growing in clusters works rather well.

While chard enjoys a sunny spot it will grow respectably well in a mostly shaded spot, and will actually relish a cooler position in hot summers. Plant into soil that has been previously improved, for instance with compost and leafmold and perhaps a scattering of nitrogen-rich chicken manure pellets for good measure to boost leafy growth.

Space plants about 1’1” (35cm) apart. Make a hole with a dibber (or just your finger), push the seedling out of its plug, pop it in the hole, then fill back in around it with soil. Nice and easy!

The best time to transplant chard early in the season is around mid-Spring, a few weeks before your last expected frost date, once your soil is workable and not cold to the touch. It’s best not to plant too early because too many chilly nights could cause plants to bolt (flower prematurely), which will reduce the size and number of the leaves.

Chard also does very well in containers. It produces a pretty hefty taproot and root system, so pot that’s at least 10 inches (25cm) deep. Fill it with a mixture of garden compost and potting mix. Because the potting mix is quite rich compared to garden soil you can space plants closer, about 6-8in (15-20cm) apart. Keep an eye on watering, because containers will dry out quicker.

Growing Swiss Chard

Good nutrition and regular watering in dry weather is essential to keep chard producing plenty of leaves. Prioritize your chard when you pass by with the wet stuff, and your plants – and you – will be happy! I also like to sprinkle a mulch around plants once they’re a bit bigger. A mulch of grass clippings, shredded leaves, or straw will shade the soil, slow down evaporation, lock in vital soil moisture, and make it harder for weeds to push through.

Even more reasons to love chard: it’s overlooked by most pests, and suffers from few diseases. Slugs may nibble young plants early in the season, but the damage is usually negligible. Leaf miners can sometimes be a nuisance. The leaf miner grubs appear later in spring, tunneling within the leaves as they feed to create blown, papery areas. If this happens, remove affected leaves as soon as possible to stop them spreading, and crush or smash the leaves to kill the grubs before adding them to the compost pile.

Leaf miners are hunted by tiny wasps, which are also pollinators, so my strategy this season will be to plant a ring of sweet alyssum and calendula around my chard to tempt in those leaf miner-munching wasps. Just one of the reasons I absolutely love alyssum and calendula!

How to Harvest Swiss Chard

Chard may be ready to enjoy as soon as a month after planting, starting with smaller leaves for salads and then, as plants mature, we can start picking off fuller-sized leaves for cooking.

Chard has none of the bitter taste that kale sometimes has, and those juicy, almost buttery leaves are absolutely loaded with vitamins and antioxidants – this is a leafy superfood!

To harvest, simply cut or twist free the outermost leaves, leaving the central ones to continue growing and produce the next harvest. Pick leaves so that the bottom inch or two of stem is left intact, to avoiding damaging the base of the plant from where new leaves will emerge. And – here’s the best bit – as leaves are harvested, more light will be able to get to the younger leaves, speeding up their growth so you get the next harvest sooner!

While large leaves are certainly impressive, more modest-sized ones have a better texture, so harvest before they larger than a foot (30cm) in length.

Chard is very generous yet surprisingly expensive to buy in the grocery store, so it makes total sense to grow it. If you find you’ve got too much, a bunch of colorful, nutritious leaves make the perfect gift for friends and neighbors (who you might just be able to bribe to look after the vegetable garden when you’re away!).

Keep the plenty going for longer as cooler weather approaches in autumn by covering plants with a cloche or row cover to protect them from the cold. Time your sowings well and you can be harvesting into winter, then have new plants gearing up into full productivity during the notorious ‘hungry gap’ of spring when pickings are pretty thin elsewhere.

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Swiss Chard Grow Guide

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Leaf Miner Guide

Slug Guide

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