The Zimbabwean Gardener Issue 6 Spring 2013 | Page 22

This season’s vegetable

Beetroot
While you can eat the leaf of the
beetroot, it is actually a much more
tender and some would say tastier
leaf than chard – the more common
focus on this vegetable is, as the name
suggests, its root.
When to grow?
Beetroot grows all year round in
Zimbabwe. So, get some growing in
your garden right away. They are a
pretty versatile vegetable: excellent
in a traditional borscht soup, pickled,
raw in salads, as well as a deliciously
healthy when juiced – so they’re
an excellent component of any
garden. Remember that as it is in the
Chenopodiaceae family; you shouldn’t
grow it in the same bed as chard or
spinach for at least three years.
Preparing the bed
Beetroot, like other root crops, prefer
a light, sandy soil, so that the bulbous
root doesn’t find much resistance when
forming. However, it can grow in any
fertile soil. It also likes a bit of sun. If
you’re thinking about a rotation, you
can plant beetroot after a crop that
has had a well-manured soil. Remove
any large stones as they can cause the
roots to fork, and level off the ground
with a rake so that you get a fine
surface.
Planting beetroot
It’s possible to get seedlings from a
nursery or buy yourself a packet of
seed and work out a successional
schedule, so that you have a steady
supply of beets for your kitchen. If you
plant once month, you’ll always have
beetroots. The seeds are multi-germ,
which means that several seedlings
could come up from a single seed. I’ve
found that it does well when planted
in modules but you should make sure
you plant them out when they are
very small, as the roots don’t like to be
disturbed.

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WE GO BENEATH THE GROUND WITH ANOTHER V