Swiss Chard: A Spinach Replacement

If you like spinach (fresh or cooked), we suggest never growing it again.  


Huh?  


Instead, try Swiss chard.  They are very similar to each other when eaten fresh or cooked.  There are some key differences.  Spinach bolts and becomes inedible when summer temperatures arrive, where chard continues to thrive.  The leaf shape of spinach traps dirt and is difficult to clean, while chard rinses easily and grows in a more upright fashion that keeps its leaves cleaner to begin with.  Spinach is dull green, where chard adds beautiful colors to your table.  Spinach only gives a leafy product, where as chard stalks are colorful celery-like treats in addition to the leafy goodness.

Yeah, we really like Swiss chard.


Swiss chard comes in several varieties, distinguished by the stalk color (white, red, yellow, and orange).  We prefer a rainbow seed mixture just for pure aesthetics.  Some claim texture and taste difference between varieties, but we haven't experienced this.








Tips and Tricks:

• Plant seed directly into the ground 2-3 weeks before the last frost.  This would mean seeding about April 1st in northwestern Arkansas.  It's not too late to seed some now though.  Go ahead and get it going!
• Pick smaller, glossy leaves for fresh eating in salads.  Use the larger leaves for cooked greens.
• The crunchy central stalk can easily be removed by folding the leaf lengthwise and running a sharp knife between the leaf and stalk.
• Remove and discard old leaves to encourage growth.  Chard grows from the inside out, so leave the smallest inner leaves for future harvest.

Putting Up the Harvest:

• Swiss chard is so hardy that it grows almost year-round reducing the need for storage.
• Freezing
• Blanch for 2 minutes. 
• Plunge into ice water for 2 minutes to stop the blanching process. 
• Pat dry and freeze in an airtight container.
• Dehydrating (good for adding greens to soup!)
• Blanch and chill as above.
• Place in a dehydrator on its coolest setting until the leaves are brittle.
• Store in an airtight container.

Sweet Basil

Sweet basil should be found in every garden.  Just brush up against it and the surrounding area is filled with its sweet scent.  It adds flavor to a fresh salad, Italian dish, freshly made pesto, or oil and vinegar salad dressings.


Commonly Used Cultivars:


Sweet basil (aka bush basil) - Seen in the picture above, this is the traditional basil that you will likely find seedlings for at your local big box store.  It is the most common type and one of two that we are growing this year.  It has a wonderful flavor and grows about 18" tall.


Genovese basil - The second type that we are growing this year.  Used in pesto and is fast growing.  Grows about 18" tall.


Lemon basil - Has a very lemony flavor.  Good in chicken dishes or tea.   Grows about 2' tall.


Thai basil (aka holy basil) - Used in Thai and Vietnamese dishes.  Grows about 18" tall.


Tips and Tricks:

• Pinch off any flower stalks as soon as they appear
• Harvest small bits often to encourage the plant to bush out instead of growing tall and lanky
• They love full sun as long as the soil is kept moist (not wet)
• They do very well in pots or the 4" x 5" x 8" openings in the upturned cinder blocks that make up our beds
• In many big box store offerings, the plants can be subdivided with a sharp knife to give more plants per dollar spent
• They do not tolerate frost or even cool weather well, so wait until the nights are in the 50's before planting

Putting Up the Harvest:

• Drying 
• Basil can be dried by cutting off the stem and hanging in a warm room for a week.  To maintain flavor, pick off the leaves and keep them in an airtight container after drying.
• Freezing
• For a pesto base, process the leaves with a small amount of olive oil in your food procesor; then freeze in whatever airtight container you wish.  
• For whole leaves, place in an ice tray with enough water to cover the leaves and freeze.

Weekly Gardening Outlook

This will be a continuing series. Each Monday we will look ahead at the coming week in gardening for the Northwest Arkansas area.

This week we will see our first 90+ degree days. It is normal for a plant to appear slightly wilted during midday with these kind of temperatures. You should only be concerned if the edges of the leaves turn brown or the plant doesn't perk up when watered.

Things to be on the lookout for:
Maintain even soil moisture. Uneven watering can cause poor fruit development and unhealthy plants. Try to keep your soil as damp as a just wrung out sponge. It is perfectly normal for the top inch of soil to dry out and develop a crust, but below that it should be lightly damp to the touch. Check your soil each day, but water no more than once a day (preferably in the morning).

Check the underside of the leaves on squash plants (especially yellow squash) for clusters of small orange to dark red eggs. If found, crush them. These are squash bug eggs. If squash bug nymphs or adults are found on your plants, a dusting with diatomaceous earth (DE) will help control them. DE is the crushed remains of ancient algae. It gets into the crevices in the bodies of insects and physically cuts them apart. It is organic and chemical free, but wear a mask when applying to avoid getting it into your lungs. Also, keep it off of the squash flowers to protect bees.

Continue to be on the lookout for imported cabbage worm on your broccoli, kale, and kohlrabi and for signs of powdery mildew and downy mildew on your squash, cucumber, and melons. Read my previous post on these problems.

Squash, tomato, and watermelon tip:
Save your eggs shells, let them dry, crush them into small pieces, and then mix them into the top inch of soil around your squashes, tomatoes, and watermelons. These plants are susceptible to blossom end rot which is caused by a calcium deficiency. The egg shells will boost the calcium in your soil.

Weather outlook:
-Hot, climbing into the mid to upper 90's
-Chance of sporadic rain throughout the week
-Ten day forecast

What's being harvested:
-Garlic scapes
-Baby squash and zucchini
-Celeriac leaves
-Basil, mint, and other herbs
-Squash blossoms
-Loose lettuce (probably the last week for this unless your lettuce area is heavily shaded)
-Turnips
-Radishes
-Strawberries
-Green onions

What's coming soon:
-Broccoli heads are getting really close (harvest when the individual buds in the head are the size of match heads)
-Peppers and early tomatoes are putting on fruits
-Kohlrabi is starting to head up

Trellising, Caging, and Staking

One of the biggest advantages of the raised bed design that we use is the ability to grow a lot of food in a relatively small space.  So how can we grow space hogs like watermelons, cantaloupe, tomatoes, spaghetti squash, cucumbers, and the like with such a small ground footprint?  As I am sure you have guessed, the answer is we support them and grow them vertically into the air.

Cattle Panels:

The most useful trellis material that we have found are 16' x 50" cattle panels.  They are strong and flexible, have holes large enough to put your hands through for harvesting and guiding the vines, and at $15 each are CHEAP for the value they bring to the garden.  They can be bought at your local Tractor Supply, Lowes, etc.  With a pair of bolt cutters they can be cut into custom sizes and shapes in minutes.  If you don't have bolt cutters, ask the people where you buy them from and they will probably cut them for you.


In the picture above you can see three trellises.  The rainbow shaped trellis on the left will support the spaghetti squash that you see in the wooden bed.  If you have the space to do it, a curved design works better than a strictly vertical trellis as it gives the vine more solar exposure and more support for heavy fruits.  If the vine is well supported by the trellis, it will usually be strong enough to support even heavy fruits.  If the fruits do become too heavy, they can be supported with a sling made from breathable fabric such as old pantyhose.  


Coming from a cinder block bed on the right of the picture, watermelon vines (personal sized variety) will grow up this arched trellis which connects to the spaghetti squash trellis.  Spaghetti squash and watermelon vines grow particularly long (15-20 feet!!!) so full length 16' panels were used.  

Between the two wooden beds we created an arbor by bending a full length panel to fit.  Green beans (pole beans) are planted in each bed and will climb up both sides of the arch.  These vines and fruit weigh very little and just the stiffness of the bent panel will support them.


Due to space constraints in our garden area, our cucumbers are growing vertically on a half a cattle panel (8' tall) secured to two 8' tall t posts.  

Green beans ready to grow up the trellis

Connecting the panels:

The spaghetti squash trellis is connected to the wooden bed with fencing staples at the bottom and at the top it is connected to the top of two t posts with electric fence wire.  The watermelon trellis is up against the cinder block bed at the bottom and is secured to a t post with the electric fencing wire to keep it in place.  At the top it it connected to the spaghetti squash trellis with electric fencing wire.  While we are on the subject, electric fencing wire is marvelous stuff to have around the garden and home.  It doesn't rust and is useful for a ton of things.


Tomato Cages:

The soil in our raised beds is so loose and friable that taller plants need support or they can fall over.  Tomato cages aren't just for tomatoes.  These cages completely surround the plants and provide good support for crops such as eggplants and peppers.  There are many styles available, but we prefer the conical, premade type because they stack inside one another for easy storage through the winter.  Hint: wire the cages together at the top with electric fencing wire to provide more stability.  Many people have good luck with welded wire fencing rolled and wired together to form a cylinder.  One method that we are thinking about experimenting with next year is the Florida weave.  If anyone has any experience with this, let us know in the comments section.


Staking:


Almost anything can be used as a stake. Bamboo, premade plastic covered stakes, and wooden stakes are common.  Put the stake in before planting to avoid damaging the plant's root system.  As the plant grows tie it LOOSELY with a soft material to the stake.  Strips of old pantyhose work great for this.  Ensure that the stake is tall enough for the plant's final height and that it is in the ground deep enough to avoid toppling over during a wind storm.

Apple Trees

When we bought this house 7 years ago, it came with a large, overgrown apple tree in the backyard.  We have harvested a lot of small (2-3") green apples from it over the years.  They made passable jelly and apple sauce.


Tired of small fruits, we decided to try to increase our fruit size and quality.  We started by pruning this unruly tree in late winter.  Then, as the fruits appeared in early May, we thinned them by hand. What a difference it made!  It turns out that our tree is not a green apple tree after all!  The apples are growing much quicker than previous years and are starting to turn red.  Our apples were never ripening.  It will be interesting to see what kind of apples this tree is supposed to produce!  We added to our "orchard" with two dwarf apple trees planted in pots this spring.


Thinking about planting apple trees?  It's not difficult.  Here's what you need to know.


All apple trees consist of a tree grafted to root stock.  The tree portion determines what kind of apples your tree will produce, while the root stock determines final tree size.  The neat thing about this is that an apple tree can be made to fit in almost any yard.

Dwarf trees (pictured at right)

• need as little as 8' of horizontal space
• grow 4-8' tall
• can be harvested and sprayed without ladders
• some varieties can be grown in pots
• produce 30-40 full sized apples per tree when mature
• must be staked as they grow larger because dwarf rootstock does not hold a tree up well

Semi-dwarf trees (pictured below)

• need 15' of horizontal space
• grow 10-16' tall
• require pruning to maintain shape and height
• require ladders to pick the upper branches
• produce a large crop when mature

Standard trees

• need 40' of horizontal space
• grow 30' or taller
• require a cherry picker to prune and harvest the upper reaches
• produce a large crop, but thinning and picking all fruits is virtually impossible

Tip and Tricks:

• It takes 3-5 years to get fruit, but apples trees can produce for decades so start as soon as possible
• Plant from late fall to early spring
• Water new trees very well for the first year
• Don't plant in low pockets of land as these places will hold cold air in the spring, potentially frosting blossoms
• The fruits will try to grow in clusters (see picture above); when they reach the size of dimes pick off the smallest fruits leaving only one apple per 6" of branch 
• Prune vertical and interlacing branches each winter
• Plant at least two different varieties of apple trees (a crabapple will work as well) for cross-pollination making sure that the trees will bloom at the same time in the year
• Planting dwarf varieties that mature at different times of the year can ensure a constant harvest without consuming much yard space or producing too many apples at once
• Plant the graft juncture above the soil line
• Contact your county extension agent for advice on which varieties work best in your area
• Also contact your county extension agent if insect or disease problems arise (if you want to stay organic, make sure they know that)

Strawberries

Last spring we planted 20 everbearing strawberry plants from rootstock into the cinder blocks around the raised beds.  In the first year we got a few berries here and there.  Just enough to eat fresh in the garden and make us dream of next year.  Now it's next year and we are harvesting 10-20 strawberries a day. We mostly eat them fresh, but also use them in smoothies.


There are three types of strawberry plants:  


June Bearing - These are best if you plan to freeze berries or make jams and preserves.  They are the traditional commercially grown strawberry producing large fruits in a 2-3 week span of time in early summer and then ceasing production.  


Everbearing - We prefer these for fresh eating through the whole growing season.  These are what we are currently growing.  They produce medium sized berries in 3 to 4 waves from spring to fall.  


Alpine - Small statured plants that provide a steady production of small, but very flavorful berries throughout the summer.  The entire plant is claimed to have many medicinal uses.  Our experience has shown that adding the dried leaves to herbal tea does indeed seem to help with menstrual cramps.


          Strawberry runner

Tips and Tricks:

• Trim off runners as soon as they appear to encourage the plant to put its energy into fruit production.
• Plants should be replaced at least every 3 years to maintain good production.
• For an endless supply of free new plants, choose a few of your plants to allow runners to grow on.  Once these runners have a well developed daughter plant on the end, transplant them into the desired location.  These will be genetically identical to the parent plant.
• Birds will take bites out of some berries as they ripen.  If this becomes too problematic, we have found that bird netting is an effective means of prevention.

Weekly Gardening Outlook

This will be a continuing series.  Each Monday we will look ahead at the coming week in gardening for the Northwest Arkansas area.


With the warmer days, insects are beginning to arrive.  Don't be disheartened to see large numbers of insects in your garden.  Most of them are beneficial or harmless! 


Things to be on the lookout for:
Imported cabbageworm is a pest of broccoli, cabbage, kale, and kohlrabi.  If you are growing any of these be on the lookout for small white moths fluttering about, large holes in leaves, and small (up to 1 1/2" long) green caterpillars on the undersides of leaves.  They like to align their bodies with the central vein of the leaf to better blend in.  If you see any of the signs of this insect, spray both sides of the leaves with Bacillus thuringiensis to control them.  This is very effective and organic.


Powdery mildew and Downy mildew are severe diseases that can quickly kill squash, cucumber, and melons.  If you see any white powdery spots or small yellowing spots on the leaves of these plants, take action immediately.  There are many treatments, but our favorite organic solution is neem oil.  Be sure to spray it in the evening hours to avoid direct contact with bees.


Watering tips:
-Avoid getting water on the leaves if possible to lessen fungal problems
-Water in the morning (evening if you must)
-Do not water during the heat of the day
-It is better to water very well once than to water lightly often


What's being harvested:
-Squash blossoms (they are good fried!)

-Loose Lettuce (enjoy this now, because this hot weather will soon have them turning bitter)

-Turnips

-Radishes

-Strawberries

-Mint

-Green onions


What's coming soon:
-Broccoli heads are forming
-Pepper and squashes are putting on fruits


Weather outlook:
-very warm (mid 80's)
-chance of rain Tuesday-Thursday
-10 day forecast