Am in NE England - just planted out Swiss Chard - do I need to protect this?
I never have and it has survived okay.
I find that the plain green ones are the toughest. I love the coloured ones, but if anything dies, they do.
Mine lived right through the big freeze last year without.
Some of the outer stems suffered a bit in the big freeze, but the central ones were still fine so I wouldn't bother... :-\
Thanks for this post folks, I was going to dig mine up. I had not realised that it would survive through the winter. Or is this only the freshly planted ones, mine have been on the go for months.
We crop April to May with Chard and Spinach beet..
That is to say a row established in April will crop through to the following May. A new row sown in April will be ready to crop when the old row is bolting at the end of May so you can have some all year round... :)