Has anyone tried mixing in swiss chard with their perennials

Something like Bright Lights with the brightly colored stalks.

Was wondering if anyone had given it a try, how the chard 'behaved' among the other plants, etc. We used to grow vegetables when I was a kid but never swiss chard.

Thanks!

We grow swiss chard Bright Lights...thanks to a good friend...and it does beautifully. It doesn't run and grows mainly upright. I'd give it a bit of space width-wise so you can see the those lovely stalks. Here it probably gets to be about 3ft tall and less wide. If you want it to continue during the summer, don't let it 'bolt'...form flowers. I think it would be great in a border. I've grown peppers and other things that way.

Okay, thank you so much for the advice!! Appreciate it!

I had the same swiss chard plants growing in my garden for three years. Just make sure that there aren't lots of "old" leaves on it, as I read that that causes them to bolt. Don't know if it's true, but so far, so good...

Okay, I'll be sure to get rid of the old leaves just be on the safe side. Thanks!

Almost all of the chards, except some of the grand old traditional chards like 'Lucullus' (which really get far too big to belong in most perennial beds) are great among plants where you get full sun and want an additional, fairly tall & straight foliage accent. All need to be seeded in place for best results. I know, lots of stores sell chard in cells for transplanting, but chard naturally forms a long, strong taproot (it is, in fact, a leaf beet), and the root on those cell-grown plants is stunted and the plants don't grow nearly as well as those grown in place from seed. Sow thinly! Chard seeds are actually multigerm structures, each one containing 2-5 true seeds, so you need to pull out or clip the excess when seedlings are very small. This is great with "Bright Lights", because you can thin for the colors you want.

"Bright Lights" will show pale green, yellow, pink and occasionally orange and red stalks, although all the leaves will be a light (or 'bright') green. Stalks are very thin, so the colors don't show well in a mixed planting unless the plants are near the front or in open "gaps".

"Charlotte" has wonderful long bright red stalks and deep green "dimpled" foliage. Although it also has thin stalks, it can really be stunning!

"Rhubarb" has thick, deep red stalks and fairly smooth leaves, but with veining the same deep red as the stalk.

Finally, a personal favorite: "Silverado"! Silvery/greenish white stalks with lush, deep green dimpled leaves veined with the same silvery/greenish white as the stalks. The sun-lovers big-leaf hosta! Great with silver-foliaged plants and orange, red, pink and/or yellow flowers! And it's tasty, too.

Chard is a biennial. Meaning? Plant it in the Spring (or Fall in warm zones) and it will give you foliage (and cut-and-come-again greens) the 1st year; survive the winter (and continue to give you good edible greens in all but the most extreme conditions) and then "bolt".flower and go to seed in the second year. Sometimes it bolts in the 1st year, but this is usually due to stress brought on by a failure to keep it well watered in the dry summer. It will ALWAYS bolt (if it doesn't die) in the 2nd year. That's what it does. Cutting off leaves won't change that.

If you find you like chard (and I do; I loved beet greens when I was a kid, and I have half a dozen recipes for chard!), there is nothing like skiing doen the garden in late January, kicking through the snow, cutting a big bunch of chard, and eating greens that evening that remind you of summer and not of how far away the Safeway/Kroger/Albertson's produce is from its home!

In the end, it's like all gardening: play with it; have fun; if you like it, do it again; if you don't, try eggplants (aubergines), They also make a great pseudo-perennial in the flower garden and have cool flowers even if they never produce fruit!

Potagere

Wow, very thorough - thanks!

OK Potagere, I want to know more about eggplant in the perennial garden :0)!

Hi lisabees!

Since you're out in those hot, dry flatlands of Arapahoe Co., you should have no trouble raising eggplants.

Unfortunately, they are not nearly as interesting in their foliage as chard: these are WalMart guys: one style suits all! But an impressive style it is, because if you give them a chance, they'll get tall, and their leaves can get to the size of a large calladium. But they're basketballers, not footballers: while they get tallm they won't elnow out their neighbours. In fact, like their cousins, the peppers, they like "rubbing elbows".

Flowers are all pretty much the same: small pinkish=purple bell-shaped blossoms like miniature datura; which could be expected, since they are close cousins. So, in that respect, there is little to choose from among the various varieties: they all make pretty much the same display: pretty, pinkish-purple, and usually provoking the question: "What IS that plant?"

Ah, but so much to play with in the fruit! There's the typical "Italian Mafia" fat purples; the slick, smooth deep purple "Northern Italians"; striated purple & white from Firenze; original white eggplant (from which the plant got its English name"; as well as "long green Thai"; streaky pale purple long Japanese; fingerling (scarey, kind of) eggplants in purple or white; and really cool for the perennial garden: exotic varieties like the orange-and-purple-striped Udumalapet or Striped Toga; the fat, tomato-like Africans like N'Goyo and N'Drowa Issia; or the Thai & Laotian miiature that sometime look like shelled peas om a branch!

Nice plants. Nice neighbours. Perennials at home. But not in Arapahoe winters! [On the other hand, I've dug them up, potted them, kept them inside in good conditions, and kept them producing fruit for 3 years. But veggies are my thing and flowers are fillers!

Potagere

I grew 'Bright Lights' in my perennial border last year and they did fantastic--even lasted through most of the winter. Definitely a good neighbor to many blooming plants, and quite pretty.

Wish I didn't have to wait until Spring to plant some!

MM,

Why wait?
Most chards are 55 days from planting to picking.
It's usual to put in seed in late Summer to pick in the Fall.
Put it in 1 August, and you'll have "Bright Lights" among your perennials by end of September!

Potagere,

Good to know eggplants can be left to grow for more than one season. My green peppers were left in the garden as an experiment, and I am happy to say that I have been harvesting fresh peppers throughout the winter.
I tend to leave my chili peppers (just pruning the plants to tidy them up a bit) and they are getting ready for their fourth year...

Elsa

Wow, Elsa! Wish I could do that! Do the crops improve as the plants age and grow?
I understand that tomatoes are naturally perennial, as well. Have you tried to keep them going?

Sorry, I thought you had to plant swiss chard in the spring here. Guess I'll be sowing seeds this weekend then! Thanks, potagere!

Be sure to let us know how it turns out, MM!
I'll be putting mine in about the end of next week after I clear out the peas!

I will!

Oh, and BTW, I will also sow the "mustards" for Fall & Winter eating!
Some of these also work well with perennials:
There are the usual Bok Choy/Pak Choys, of course, but there are also:
Mizuna, with its spikey/frilly leaves
Tat-soi, whose tight little rosettes make it strongly resemble a larger, darker colored Hosta "Teaspoon", but with edible leaves!
And for color, "Osaka Purple's" crinkly leaves are a great foil for silvery=foliaged plants or orange flowers, and Red Giant is almost as good, although it gets real "pushy".
I grow all of these and a bunch of others and, with the chard, have greens all winter, even if I have to dig them out from under the snow! But the ones maentioned above are the ones that would work well with perennials.

In fact, this has given me an idea for a new garden bed for next year! I'll just mix a bunch of veggies with interesting foliage with a few bright annual flowers and see what the effect is!

Oh pictures, please!

MM, I gotta admit:
I just eat this stuff, I never thought it was worth photographing!
Still, I bet if you search DG Plant Files or fo a Google or Yahoo! search on any of these plants, you'll get lots of pictures.

Potagere

I grew a cool arugula in one of my beds this year. The taste of it was a bit bitter, but the plant was awesome in there. I harvested some seeds and plant to put it in with some containers next year as well as in the beds.

Potagere, I usually to get rid of my tomato plants at the end of summer because they look untidy and worse for wear - but I had some seeds germinating in the beds this winter, and they are flowering at the moment even though our Spring Date is only 1 September.

Regarding the peppers, they definitely produce more in subsequent years. Last summer I had more chili peppers than I could use, and the sweet peppers are having lots and I mean LOTS of small peppers at the moment - especially the "Chocolate Pepper".

tggfisk, I received some arugula seeds in a trade this past winter. Glad the plant is nice looking. Will get them started in the next week or so...

Oh, Elsa, I am forever pulling out tomato volunteers. I think that, because they ARE natural perennials from tropical/semi-tropical regions, they just indiscriminately germinate whenever!

And, now that you mention it, arugula, too! Wish I had never planted that! I have it everywhere! Even in the cracks in the terrace! I love the stuff in salads, but it's a beast in the garden!

MMMMmmmm! Wouldn't I love to have LOTS of Chocolate Peppers!

That's funny...arugula in the cracks in the terrace! I haven't seen any strays at this time, let's hope it stays that way, lol! Probably won't be a problem since my tomatoes don't germinate all over. Although I have had volunteers come up after using my compost. Ditto on the chocolate peppers:-) Yummm! Wish my peppers would overwinter.

Potagere,
Dmail me your address - I have some seeds from the chocolate pepper if you are interested..

Maxsmomma,
I have been growing Bright Lights chard with my other annuals for years-its so pretty! Right now I have it growing with a bright red salvia behind it -nice color combo with the yellow, red and orange stalks of the chard. I even use the Swiss Chard in flower arrangements. It always receives lots of compliments. Have fun with it!
Debee

Debee, What a great idea! I am always looking for green leaves to include in flower arrangements, but it never occurred to me to use chard! Duuhhh! Thanks for that! Maybe thinking processes slow down as we age?

Thanks, Debee! Which salvia are you growing? I've heard mixed issues on salvia doing well here in Zone 6 and didn't try any this year - but if it works for you in Wisconsin, it will work here in Pennsylvania. Or at least I'm hoping...