0:15 well hello everyone and welcome to
0:17 another very exciting episode here on
0:19 the my gardener Channel I'm so excited
0:21 for this complete growing guide because
0:23 of the fact it's one that I've never
0:25 done before and I know a lot of you have
0:27 been asking about this and it's Swiss
0:30 chard Swiss chard is one of my favorite
0:32 greens if not my favorite it's just very
0:35 colorful super nutrient dense and it
0:38 grows so prolifically that if you're a
0:41 family of three you can plant four or
0:43 five plants and you're still going to
0:44 have more than you know what to do with
0:46 your to be thrown in the freezer you're
0:47 going to give it to your neighbors and
0:49 shoving it on them and it's a lot like
0:51 tomatoes you don't need that many to
0:53 feed your family obviously we go away
0:55 more than that because we give some away
0:57 to friends family food the soup kitchen
1:01 and we we so many so many greens during
1:02 the summer time because it's just it's
1:05 so expensive in the store to buy and
1:07 that's why I love growing the stuff like
1:09 that is because we could buy broccoli we
1:11 can buy corn so we don't grow as much of
1:14 that but the greens and those are the
1:16 those are the the ones we focus on a lot
1:18 in the garden here so that's why we grow
1:20 it so let's get right into this growing
1:22 guide and let's talk about kind of the
1:24 temperature that you want to aim for
1:26 when drawing Swiss chard so the ideal
1:28 temperature that I find for Swiss chard
1:30 is just about as soon as you can work
1:32 the soil Swiss chard or something that
1:34 can tolerate very low temperatures and
1:36 you want to wait till it's about a week
1:37 before your last frost they can tolerate
1:41 31 32 degrees but I prefer not to put
1:43 them through that because they are a
1:44 more temperamental green they're
1:47 something that's that's seen as very
1:49 cold tolerant but something that if it
1:51 does get frost it's going to let you
1:52 know because the leaves are going to
1:54 kind of turn a little brown and and
1:56 withered now let's talk about the pH of
1:59 the soil the pH for Swiss chard is just
2:01 about the same as all the other leafy
2:03 greens about pH of neutral so I
2:06 basically say pH of compost because the
2:09 compost is going to have a very good pH
2:13 buffer of 7 and that's neutral so you're
2:14 not going to have something that's too
2:15 acidic you're not going to have
2:16 something that's too alkaline
2:18 so instead of getting caught up with all
2:20 these different numbers of like a 5.5 a
2:23 6.5 an 8.5 you know that just confuses
2:25 people so I keep it really simple and
2:26 just say a PA
2:28 of compost because if you're using
2:29 compost it's going to be right around
2:32 the perfect pH so all of our garden soil
2:36 is 100% compost and so that also answers
2:38 the type of soil that I like to use for
2:41 growing in it's a very rich organic soil
2:43 that's full of compost
2:46 once all compost it's pure compost which
2:48 is full of leaf mold and grass clippings
2:51 and it's just a very nice rich matter
2:53 that that has worms in it as well and
2:56 different fungi and stuff that helps the
2:59 plant grow better so I don't get too
3:01 scientific when it comes to the right
3:03 type of soil I just typically look at
3:05 what nature does and say if I can get
3:06 something even close to that my plants
3:08 are going to do great now one thing that
3:11 I can say about soil is you can't in
3:13 close we check out the spacing and
3:14 planting portion of this growing diet
3:16 really the easiest part of the growing
3:19 guide by the way the soil also has some
3:21 sanded it and what I like to do is I
3:23 like to mix in the compost and sand at a
3:26 one-to-one ratio because I find that
3:29 often times adding sand to the to the
3:31 bed it also helps increase the drainage
3:33 and that's something that I've always
3:35 made a practice of it doesn't
3:38 necessarily add any nutrients it doesn't
3:40 really help out the the soil in any way
3:43 as far as the nutrients go but when it
3:45 comes to drainage and helping the roots
3:47 have something nice and fluffy to
3:50 penetrate and go down deep it really
3:52 helps with that so your soil is going to
3:53 clump a lot less with sand and I find
3:55 that even when I'm using compost
3:58 sometimes the grass clumps that are from
3:59 the compost can kind of stick together
4:01 and map together and you'll find that
4:04 that can kind of be hard sometimes for
4:05 the roots to go through so by adding
4:07 sand it helps are going to break up that
4:09 matting and keep everything really nice
4:10 and free-flowing which you'll see in a
4:11 second so come on close and let's check
4:13 this out alright so this is kind of what
4:14 I was talking about with the whole
4:16 matting thing this is actually finished
4:19 compost believe it or not and it's it
4:20 was dry in one of our other beds but I
4:22 wanted to show you kind of what I mean
4:24 by the fact that it really mats together
4:27 and it produces these little kind of I
4:29 don't know it kind of looks like little
4:34 sheets little sheets of compost and and
4:36 they kind of just peel apart but it's
4:37 very difficult for the roots to get
4:39 through so what we do is we add that sand
4:40 sand
4:42 and now instead of the clumps look at
4:46 this I mean it's just unreal how how
4:49 loose and crumbly it is so you go from
4:50 this stuff which is very great rich in
4:53 organic matter but it clumps together to
4:57 adding some sand and now it's just Wow I
4:59 mean that's all you can really say is Wow
4:59 Wow
5:02 so now let's get into planting what do
5:04 you want to do is you want to space your
5:07 plants out about every 8 to 10 inches
5:10 same as a lot of your other leafy greens
5:12 because the fact you're going to be
5:13 harvesting a lot of things people say oh
5:16 spaced out about a foot and I just say
5:19 to them why you know why do you want to
5:20 space your plants out a foot are you not
5:22 harvesting from them you know what are
5:26 you gaining by that so ideally 8 to 10
5:28 inches is going to be great because you
5:30 could pack it in there and what that's
5:32 going to do is going to give you a
5:35 couple extra plants per square foot that
5:38 you wouldn't normally get by following
5:41 their their spacing methods and also
5:42 what you're going to do is you're going
5:45 to be able to obviously produce more
5:47 food so I like to go high-intensity and
5:49 I produce way more food in my square
5:51 footage than most people and they say
5:53 you know man out of this 30 square foot
5:54 bed you're producing the amount of food
5:56 that I get out of a hundred square foot
5:57 bed and I say well you know what's your
5:59 spacing like and then once you look at
6:01 their spacing it's very evident why
6:02 they're not getting as much as I am so
6:04 that's just my little secret to getting
6:07 more food for less space which is nice
6:10 too because I think as a society that's
6:12 where we're going to be going it you
6:14 know we need to we need to look at ways
6:17 to produce more food organically than
6:19 how we normally do and I see absolutely
6:21 nothing wrong with this spacing
6:22 whatsoever and this is how I've always
6:25 spaced mine and they've done great so
6:26 there you go hopefully you all enjoyed
6:28 hopefully you all learned something new
6:31 I highly suggest growing Swiss chard
6:32 like I said it is such a nutrient-dense
6:38 vegetable high in vitamin K E C a fiber
6:41 protein it's just unreal it's got lots
6:44 of iron as well so it's an all-around
6:46 amazing green worth growing and it's
6:48 something that I think a lot of grocery
6:50 stores even have really neglected to
6:52 carry I've hardly ever seen Swiss chard
6:53 in our local
6:55 or Surrey store and it's a shame too
6:57 because it's probably one of the most
6:59 delicious greens out there you know
7:01 kales really delicious is very versatile
7:02 but it's a little hard sometimes so in a
7:05 nice salad it's kind of difficult to
7:07 incorporate for some people's tastes but
7:08 you you throw it Swiss chard and they
7:10 treat it just like any other lettuce
7:11 they don't even realize it's in there so
7:13 it's a very good transitional vegetable
7:15 to get people interested in gardening
7:17 without turning them off too much
7:18 because some some things in the garden
7:20 are a little bit of an acquired taste I
7:23 find but I love it but as far as me
7:25 trying to get all the people eating
7:26 vegetables is what I'm trying to say so
7:29 hopefully you all enjoyed hopefully you
7:30 learn something new and hopefully you're
7:32 having fun in the garden whatever you're
7:33 growing as long as you're growing
7:35 something that's all that matters so I
7:36 will talk to you later this is Luke from
7:38 the mi Gardner channel and I'll see you
