Growing swiss chard

I haven't had much success with Swiss Chard in the past, in spite of it being an 'easy' vegetable. My fertilizer challenges (uh, I studied native plants, not nutrient-hungry vegetables) are evident in this regard, but I'm trying to mend my ways.

Compost, aged manure, mushroom compost, etc. as soil amendments aren't enough to maintain fertility, in continually cropped beds (eg. my main and satellite vegetable garden areas at home in the Piedmont- in the Southeastern US). So I've been mindful of the benefits of adding organic timed-release fertilizer (Espoma is one brand that provides a nice range of major and micro nutrients).

My new raised beds, in the mountains, though, have been (so far) quite supportive of leafy greens, being filled with compost and composted manure.

I've been delighted with the lush lettuce, radishes, arugula, and swiss chard that have been part of the early plantings, and have been in harvest mode recently.

This swiss chard is the nicest-looking that I've grown; it's not hugely lush, but hey, I'm quite pleased with it. And I'm sure it will taste good, too.

(But, stir-fried lettuce with sesame oil, onions, mushrooms, and garlic was on the dinner menu tonight!) And, I've warned my gardening companion that there's more lettuce to come....

Vegetables and nutrients

I have such a hard time realizing how MUCH I need to fertilize vegetables, conditioned by the sparse habits of native plants and their parsimonious ways. 

I always think I add plenty of compost, and dig in composted manure, and add Espoma organic fertilizer, etc. etc., but in looking at Jim Wilson's excellent new vegetable gardening book, obviously I'm not producing anything close to spinach and lettuce with the size of the leaves shown in the photos. Vegetables are definitely nutrient and water hogs, being domesticated, to be sure.  And then I see that he recommends a 1/2 cup of organic fertilizer at the base of each transplant.  Yikes.  No wonder my vegetables are modest in size.

It'll be interesting to see how the tomatoes, peppers, and other vegetables do in the raised beds this summer in the mountains.  The 'soil' is essentially straight compost with additional composted manure.  I'll take a sample for a soil test this weekend and see what I have.  And I'll do the same for my Piedmont beds.

I think my leafy greens do well in flats because I've heavily amended the potting mix with organic fertilizer!

My guess is that in my home vegetable garden areas, the soil may have become somewhat depleted of nitrogen and other nutrients, since I haven't been adding lots of extra fertilizer (I do fertilize, but not a lot).  Adding mushroom compost,  composted cow manure, and homemade compost helps, but in our warmth and humidity, it decomposes quickly.