Chard

Swiss Chard: 

I grow Swiss Chard on my allotment because it is a bit like growing two vegetables for the price of one.

Chard can be sautéed whole and when the chard is a bit older, you can cook the leaves and use the rib in a stir fry.

Although Swiss chard can be seeded straight into the ground, I prefer to so mine in plugs and plant them out after a few weeks. I sow them the first week of april and plant them out the third week of may.

I place the seedlings about a foot apart and grow four plants, this gives us enough produce for the kitchen.

Leaf miners usually show up in the first week of june and can ruin young tender leaves. I deal with this problem by removing the spoiled leaves and wait for new growth. Because leaf miners have definite life cycles.it generally means if one flush of leaves is infested, the successive ones will not be. In fact I find in some years, I have no trouble at all. 

By mid-june when the leaves reach 4-6 inches long, you can start harvesting young leaves  at the base of the plant of the ribs so that plants continue to grow. Do not forget to separate the leaves from the ribs before cooking.

You will find that Swiss chard will put up with sever temperatures, so that you can enjoy fresh chard right the winter. 

This continual harvesting of chard means that I usually avoid dealing with the huge size leaves that you will find in the supermarket. It can be, however that you sometimes end up with large chard leaves. That is fine because you can cook the leaves and ribs separately.

Chards high water content means that the crop will not store very well. So when I have some in my fridge for a few days, I thoroughly wash it by dunking it up and down in a sinkful of luke warm water. This seems to do the trick.

How I decide to use the chard depends on its age.

Chard which has rubs with less than half inch wide needs nothing more than a quick wash in water. Anything bigger than that, I cut off the stem and use separately.

When the ribs are more than one inch, I not only cut off the leaves but also trim some of the heavy ribs that run up the back of the leaves. I also peel large ribs like celery. Taking a knife, I start at the end of the ribs, cut slightly into the flesh, and pull slowly down-- the strings peel off. .

My favorite way to cook chard is to saute the whole baby leaves and ribs together. You will find that older chard seems to darken when cooked.

I nearly always steam my chard.    

How do you learn to garden?

How do you learn to garden? 

It was the custom for gardeners to invest their labors and achievements with a mystery and secrecy which might well have discouraged any amateur from trespassing upon such difficult ground. 

"Trade secrets" in either flower or vegetable growing were acquired by the apprentice only through practice and observation, and in turn jealously guarded by him until passed on to some younger brother in the profession.

 Every garden operation was made to seem a wonderful and difficult undertaking.  If you are a beginning  you will not do just as well as the experienced gardener. However, you can lear by talking to other growers.

This garden business is a matter of common sense; and the man, or the woman, who has learned by experience how to do a thing, whether it is cornering the market or growing cabbages, naturally does it better than the one who has not. Do not expect the impossible the first time, look and learn.

This time of year, you need to make a plan.

What do you want? Better food, better health, better living--all these the home garden offers you in abundance.

Write down what you eat and read about times of sowing etc and get on with it.

A word of warning: Do not grow too much...only you know how much time you have.

Summer Garden

In summer the garden is in the zenith of its glory. The geraniums and salvias blaze in the autumn sun; the begonias have grown to a small forest of beautiful foliage and bloom; the heliotropes have become almost little trees, and load the air with their delicate fragrance.

However to-night--who knows?--grim winter may fling the land with a heavy frost which will advance across the land, by every roadside and into every garden-close; and to-morrow there will be but blackening ruins with strong winds.

Our gardens are in the mid winter: bare and bleak.

So what should you do?

Jan. Send for catalogues. 

       Make planting plan.       Order seeds.

Fresh veg.

Many people are turning their backs on super-markets, homogenized and bland bread in favour of something natural and nourishing. And what can be more natural than growing your own - with seeds, water, and care. Once you've mastered the growing - the vigorous little  seeds need  a bit of tender loving care and you're well on your way to a great-tasting  supper. You'll be amazed not only by the flavour and variety of fresh veg.

Winter can be hard.

Winter can be hard, dull and cold or it can be bright. When you try to protect yourself from the cold and discomfort the winter can become an overwhelming season of resistance and complaint.

Or you can walk in the cold, turn your face to the clarity of the moment: then winter will become a great exhilaration to sharpen your life.  

I am still digging and using my mulched and covered  beetroot, cabbage  as well as stored potatoes and onions and garlic.  Leeks are still on the go,my chard keeps refreshing itself. The snow and frost did not affect the crops. 

Weeds

Weeds use two strategies to spread: by spreading out with roots or by scattering seed.

So the way to get rid of the weeds: pull off the flower heads and put them in a bucket to rood down before you add them to the compost heap.

Make sure you dig the roots out rather then just trying to pull up the weed.

Seeds can make a journey of long distances. They can be blown on  the wind or hitch themselves to a passing animal, and so  arrive without warning in your garden. 

Annual weeds rely on this method to get anywhere, while perennials can fall back to an underground approach to keep marching on. We dread this lot.

The  loathsome types are brambles (rooting stems), buttercups (runners or stolons – stems that creep along the ground), ground elder and bindweed (rhizomes – subterranean stems), dock and dandelion (tap roots), mare’s tail,  Japanese knotweed (both rhizomes) and creeping thistles (spreading roots and seed). If you  dig them out and leave bits of root behind , in all likelyhood, they will regrow.

The  only way to deal with the biggest weeds will be to  dig them out nonetheless. 

There is a form of gardening called “Lasagne gardening” – where you layer sheets of cardboard and rough biological martial  on top of the soil –  This method, they say can defeat them, however that is not so. Take away the cardboard and up they come. 

In the deep mid winter

In the deep mid-winter; there is the light, where the winter sun shines in from the north.

Lighting up corners that you never see and throwing shadows that you never see. While at night the sky is deep and clear. You can see the Milky Way splashed across the sky, guarding the blackness of the deep.

Take a moment to look up and wonder.

Where do weeds grow.

Weeds: you think that they are unpredictable and turn up anywhere, however not so. I know where they will grow and when.

This is knowledge  which means that armed with this “know how’ you can have a weed free plot.

Weeds will turn up on any bare patch of ground....how quickly depends on the season.

So armed with this knowledge: never leave a bear patch.

Cover the soil with plastic or cardboard or what ever. Do not give the weeds a new growing patch.