Gardening with Chip

Swiss chard: one fantastic vegetable

Chard, also called Swiss chard, is a close relative of beets; but, unlike most beets, chard is grown for its tasty, vitamin-rich greens rather than its root. The large green leaves have a texture like spinach and have edible, fleshy red, yellow, orange, or white stalks.

Chard is amazingly cold hardy, and a planting often lasts through the winter. Unlike spinach, it does not bolt to seed as the temperatures warm, allowing harvests all summer long. Plant chard seeds about 30 days before the last frost date in your area. For the lower Columbia area, the last average frost is about April 5, depending on elevation.

Plant six to 10 chard seeds per foot, an inch deep in nitrogen-rich soil. Plant chard rows 18 to 24 inches apart. Thin chard plants to aproximately 12 inches apart. This gives the seedlings space to grow to their mature size of two to 2.5 feet tall and about 1.5 feet wide. Plants removed at thinning time can be used as salad greens. When plants get about eight inches tall, side dress them with a nitrogen-rich fertilizer. Keep evenly watered throughout the summer. Unless your family freezes or cans chard, eight plants may be enough for a family of four.

The most serious pest is a leaf miner. This rascal lays eggs on the leaf, and the larvae burrow in between the upper and lower-leaf surfaces, cleaning out all the good stuff and leaving a translucent, papery blotch. The little pellets of leaf-miner poop are a giveaway. The best way to deal with these pests is to cover the chard with row cover that keeps the insects off the plants.

Chard can be harvested throughout an entire growing season, beginning when the leaves are seven to nine inches tall. Cut outer leaves first, one inch from the soil surface with a sharp knife. Be careful not to damage the new inner stems and growing points.

Harvested chard can be stored unwashed in the refrigerator for a few days. For long-term storage can or freeze chard. Chard can be eaten as a steamed vegetable, stir-fried, and added to soups and casseroles. My preferred chard preparation involves stir-frying some thinly sliced onions until slightly brown, adding sliced chard stems, then ribbon-cut chard leaves, then some golden raisins, and some toasted hazel nuts. After this, you season it all with a little soy sauce and some freshly ground pepper or chili pepper flakes. Sometimes I add curry powder to the mix. Serve hot. I like chard with mixed stem colors for appearance, but all chard will work well in this recipe. OSU Extension Service recommends the following varieties of chard: Fordhook Giant, Rhubarb chard, Bright Lights, Bright Yellow and Silverado.

Fordhook Giant has white stalks. Rhubarb chard has dark green leaves and red stalks and can be an attractive plant for a flower border. Bright Lights has a mix of different colored stalks and is truly stunning enough to be in an ornamental border. Bright Yellow has yellow stalks, and Silverado has silvery appearing stalks.

Rose pruning

Roses, along with much of the rest of the woody landscape, need attention this month. The first cuts on a rose are for removing dead wood. If a rose has been limping along for years, remove the rose plant something better. Rose rejuvenation usually involves tough love. A small cane cannot produce a bigger one. In most cases, it is wise to remove all canes smaller than your little finger. Generally, four well-spaced canes are left but you may only have two that are suitable to build the rejuvenated rose on. If possible, dip your pruning shears in a disinfectant solution between each rose.

Fertilize in the spring and control black spot to give the plant the leaves to build a new life.

This we don’t need to hear

A plant physiologist from USDA’s Global Change Laboratory is concerned that rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels will preferentially favor many weeds. As if invasive plants like Himalayan blackberry, Japanese knotweed, Canada thistle and Scotch broom weren’t already the “plant Godzillas” in the neighborhood. The scientist is also concerned that plants may produce more pollen in response to rising CO2, thus increasing allergy potentials. One research project demonstrated that in a carbon dioxide enriched environment, poison ivy produced more of the stuff that makes you itch. None of this is good.

Take excess produce to the food bank, senior centers, or community meals programs. Cash donations to buy food for the food banks are also greatly appreciated. This is especially true now, since many of the federal food funds that helped the food banks have been cut hard. Sign up for Gardener training in either county.

Very helpful information sources are your local Extension offices. The Columbia County Extension is 503-397-3462; the Wahkiakum County Extension is 360-795-3278; and the Cowlitz County Extension is 360-577-3014. Those of you in Columbia County should get to know my replacement, Janhvi Pandey. He is a very nice and talented person with a strong agricultural and gardening knowledge. The Extension Service offices offer their programs and materials equally to all people.

Advice on future garden topics is always welcome by emailing me at chip.bubl@orgeonstate.edu.