The photos just can't do it justice: the elongating stem of the Swiss Chard looks exactly like beautiful art glass. I never have seen anything like it! You should know that all of my prior attempts to grow chard failed. Miserably. This year I put the plants in in mid-fall, and have been harvesting all spring. Now the plants are huge, each leaf blade (not counting the stalk!) measuring 18 inches. The fact that some of the chard stems are elongating so rapidly into these beautiful art glass vases makes me think that soon the plants will go to seed for the year. But, see the new leaves growing at the base of each old, harvested stalk? Maybe I will snap off the tops of the plants that are shooting up, and see how much secondary growth I get. But, not yet. They are too beautiful!
The chard leaves are tender and soft; one huge leaf makes an amazing salad for two when I add a few lettuce leaves from the next garden bed over. So, although not nearly as flashy, I also have added a photo of a row of mixed salad greens. (And, yes, that is a tomato plant in the same row. It will take over when the lettuces are done in by the heat.)
