Chard is a nutritious leafy green that is best, meaning sweetest, when grown during the cool months of the year.  Typically, chard is planted into the garden between September and April, however, in our mild coastal climate, chard really does well during any month of the year.  When transplanting chard into your garden, add 3 handfuls of compost and one handful each of landscape mix and worm castings into the immediate area that you are placing the plant.  The harvest of your chard can be maximized by continuously taking the outer leaves of the plant as they mature.  Individual plants will produce harvestable leaves for about one year before they decide that it is time to bolt, at which time their leaves will turn bitter and the plant will put its energy into flowering.  Chard leaves that get left on the plant for too , and don’t look so good to eat, make a great soil mulch, when they are laid down flat on the ground that surrounds the plant.