Chard

Winter Protection for Your Raised Bed: Fleece, Film, or Nothing at All?

Does your raised bed actually need a winter cover? When does fleece help, when is mulch enough – and when is nothing at all the right call. An honest guide.

Sowing spinach in September: plant now for winter and spring

Sow spinach now in September and you'll harvest in autumn — then again in March, long before the first spring crops are ready. The short mid-September sowing window is one of the most useful in the whole gardening year.

Overwintering chard in your raised bed: decide now, harvest till December

If you don't pull your chard out now, you can keep harvesting well into November and December. Chard is hardier than its reputation. Here's what to do — and what to leave alone.

Beetroot in the raised bed: when it's actually ready — and why you shouldn't wait for it to get big

Mrs Schneider let her beetroot grow until the roots were the size of tennis balls. Now they're woody and difficult to cook. The thing most people get wrong: with beetroot, smaller is usually better — and the right moment is written right above the soil.

Chard in the raised bed: why it gives you more the more you harvest

Mrs Schneider harvested her chard once in mid-June. Then she left it alone, thinking it needed time to recover. By July it was fifty centimetres tall. She thought she had done something wrong. She hadn't — she'd just stopped harvesting.

The garden in July: what to sow now — and what's already on the plate

July is the loudest time in the raised bed: the first courgettes, cucumbers and tomatoes, and at the same time your last chance to sow for autumn. What still goes in now, what comes out, and the one trick that keeps freed-up gaps from sitting empty.