How to Harvest Swiss Chard

We have some beautiful swiss chard growing in the garden and some of it is just about ready to be harvested. The leaves should be about 18inches tall and blemish free. Grab the outer leaf that you want at the base of the plant and pull down forcefully it should snap off, leave the center leaves intact. The outer leaves will regenerate and we will have swiss chard again in a month. Check out this great video volunteer Heide found for us http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-harvest-swiss-chard.

Mrs. McAtee's Class Rules

Mrs. McAtee's morning class came to the garden with a very cool gardening tool; their rulers. We used the width of the rulers to make straight row indentations for the seeds we planted. We lightly pressed the rulers into the soil since the carrot, beet and swiss chard seeds we sowed only need to be planted 1/8"-1/4" into the soil. Then we used the rulers to measure how far apart the rows should be. We planted a rows of Red Core Chantenay Carrots, Dragon Carrots, Yellowstone Carrots and Chioggia Beets. Then we planted rows of Multi Color Swiss Chard seeds close between the carrot rows so the swiss chard would shade the carrots as they grew. The swiss chard will be ready to harvest as the carrots are getting bigger and then leave room for the carrots to grow. Mrs. McAttee's class- you rule!