By Casey Kelly Barton

Looking for a virtually indestructible plant for your vegetable garden? Try Swiss chard. I'm in love with mine. I planted some "Orange Chiffon" seeds in early spring and harvested the baby greens for salads.

Summer, beating the heat

Winter, shrugging off the cold

In July, right before a weeklong trip out of state, I bid my summer garden farewell and left it to wilt in the heat. I came home to thriving chard.

In late summer, cottontails invaded my garden, established a command post under the shed and proceeded to mow down my bean plants. They left the chard untouched.

I harvested cuttings a couple more times and left the fallen leaves from a nearby hackberry tree as mulch when the weather turned cool. I planted broccoli and cabbage seeds and watched as their baby leaves were shot full of holes by insects. The chard's leaves remained glossy and whole.

We've had a couple of freezes this month, and with only a cotton sheet thrown over the rows on the coldest nights the chard looks better than ever. If I can keep it going until March, my plants will have lasted an entire year.

I plan to add more "Orange Chiffon" in the spring, filling an entire bed with chard and strawberry plants. According to my veggie bible, Texas Organic Vegetable Gardening by Howard Garrett and Malcolm Beck, you can plant chard seeds in the Austin area between February 1 and March 10 and again around October 1. I found my seeds at John Scheepers' Kitchen Garden Seeds. If you know of other sources, please add them in the comments.

Readers: What's indestructible in your vegetable garden? 

Image credit: author's private collection.

Casey Kelly Barton writes, gardens and wrangles critters in Austin. She blogs and podcasts at Redneck Mother.