Silverbeet - Rainbow (Chard)

DESCRIPTION

Rainbow silverbeet, otherwise known as rainbow chard, is a beautiful plant and a powerhouse in the garden, producing large, nutrient-dense leaves for over a year, even in winter. This colourful heirloom mix was created by breeding a few varieties of beetroot with white silverbeet. You can try this experiment yourself and see whether the seeds you collect from this plant vary in colour again.

POT CARE AND PLANTING

Silverbeet is easy to care for in a pot temporarily, but you won't get the best harvest from it - transplant into a larger pot or a garden bed within 7 days. Soil level should be 1mm below the start of the lowest leaves.

WATERING

Silverbeet is a medium to heavy water consumer - water it a little bit longer than other things in your garden when it gets bigger, once per day (early morning or late afternoon is best in summer).

SUN EXPOSURE

This vegetable needs as much sun as possible to flourish. I recommend planting it in an open and sunny area of the garden, but towards the back or centre of your plot, because it'll get very tall by the end of its life cycle.

COMPANION PLANTING

Silverbeet eventually gets very large, especially if you want to save seeds from it. As a vegetable it will grow up to 50cm tall and 30cm wide, but when it bolts, the flower spikes can reach 2m tall. It will grow best close to other amaranths, asters, brassicas, and apiums, leaving enough space for the largest plants to expand. Silverbeet can be used to shade other vegetables that need more shelter from the sun. Doesn't appreciate competing with legumes and solanums, so don't plant them too close.

HARVESTING AND EATING

Both the leaves and stems of silverbeet can be eaten at any time, as long as a handful of leaves are still left on the plant. In the early stages, the leaves can be eaten raw as a baby green like spinach leaves, and later on they are better cooked - steamed as a side, or added to stewed and stir fried dishes for a colourful boost. Silverbeet is an amazingly balanced food. It contains oxalates, which can contribute to kidney stones in large quantities, but oxalates are reduced by cooking and neutralised by calcium - an abundant nutrient in silverbeet. The leaves of this vegetable are also loaded with iron, as well as the vitamin C required to absorb plant-based iron. Boost these nutritional properties by consuming silverbeet with dairy and citrus, for example, with feta cheese and lemon as in the Greek dish Spanakopita. The colourful stems are high in a pigment called betanin, which is believed to have further health benefits, so don't waste them!

SEED SAVING AND PROPAGATION

If you leave the plant in place over winter and into next spring, eventually huge flower spikes will form, bearing unusual green flowers on colourful stems. They'll take a while to finish their life cycle, but when you see that the rest of the plant has died back, cut the spikes off and dry them whole in a paper bag - you'll probably need a few if you harvest all of them! Break up the dried seed clusters with something hard and discard the larger pieces of material - these seeds will be good for at least 3 years. You can re-sow your own crop right away, or save your silverbeet seeds over the winter in something airtight. They're easy to germinate - simply cover with about 10mm of soil and keep moist, when daytime temperatures are above about 12 degrees. Seedlings should emerge after a week, with multiple sprouting from each seed - carefully cut the extras in half with scissors and just keep the strongest one.