As far as vegetables are concerned, beets aren’t very sexy. They are chubby and have hairy roots and spend most of their life fattening up underground. But I like them anyway. I can’t resist how soil clings to their skin in tiny clumps, like the earth didn’t want to let them go. And how they smell kind of like brown sugar mixed with soil. And that you can eat their roots and their leaves, too.

If you take a close look at beet leaves, you’ll surely notice their uncanny resemblance to chard. That’s no accident. Beets (Beta vulgaris, Crassa group) and chard (Beta vulgaris, Cicla group) are actually two different types of the same plant. Beet leaves are smaller and more succulent than their cousin’s, and their flavor tastes like a happy marriage between spinach and chard, which is pretty much a match made in greens heaven.

Sowing
Beets aren’t too picky. All they ask for is loose, well-drained soil to sink their roots into, consistent watering, and persistent weeding.  Choose a spot that gets at least 5 hours of sun a day. Before planting, get rid of all the weeds in the bed. Then, dig 1 inch of compost into the soil to fluff it up and remove any big rocks, hard clods of soil, or crop debris that might get in the way of the beets’ growing roots.

Start planting beets in spring about a month before your last frost date. Beets grow best when daytime temperatures stay below 70 degrees F, so take a break from planting during the hottest part of the summer. If you want fresh beets in fall, start sowing again about a month before your first fall frost.
Sow the seed about ½ inch deep and 2 inches apart. If your garden has compacted soil, build a rectangular mound of soil that’s 6 inches high and 18 inches wide. Then, sow your beet seeds down the middle of the mound. I plant the equivalent of a two foot row every two weeks to feed my two person family.

Water the newly planted seeds in with a gentle stream of water (I like to use a watering can for the first few waterings). Beets can take a bit of shade, so try mixing up where you plant them. I like to sow them in a ring underneath tomatoes or along the bottom of a pole bean trellis.

Growing
When you plant a single beet seed a cluster of tiny beets usually germinates. If you let this cluster continue to grow without thinning them out, you’ll end up with a hopeless jumble of malformed roots. You can dig up the clump when each plant has two true leaves, tease out each little beet and then replant them 4 inches apart. Or (my favorite) you can thin the beets, leaving a single plant every 4 inches. To thin, simply take scissors and snip off the unwanted plants at ground level. Toss the thinnings into a salad, not your compost pile!

Weeds crowd out young beets and steal water and nutrients. So you must keep weeds in check if you want a nice crop of beets. Instead of spending tons of time weeding, apply a three-inch layer of grass clippings around your beets after thinning. The mulch acts like a nice, snuggily blanket for your soil. It shades out the sun, which means that all but the most persistent weed seeds won’t germinate, and as it decomposes it adds organic matter back to the soil.

Mulch also helps keep the soil consistently moist. And that’s important. Beets grown in dry soil tend to get woody, stringy, and tough. Plus, they are more likely to go to seed. To get extra tender roots, give your beets a drink of diluted liquid fish emulsion once a month. Just mix it up in a gallon container and pour it alongside the plants.

Eating
As the beets grow you can judiciously harvest a few tender, new leaves here and there for salads. I harvest young beets when their shoulders push aside the soil. These lottery ball sized vegetables grill up nicely, or you can steam them and toss with melted butter and a few snips of fresh dill. I also always let a few beets mature to baseball size for roasting. When you harvest beetroots, make sure to save the long, mature leaves and braise them with a little broth, onion, and garlic. Or sauté a bunch and use them as a bright green nest for lentils.

Tasty Varieties
‘Bull’s Blood’. This variety has dark red leaves designed to harvest for salad. After thinning the beets, allow the remaining vegetables to grow leaves that are about 3 inches long. Harvest these baby green by using scissors, leaving an inch long stub. Be careful not to cut off the new leaves that are emerging from the middle when you harvest. The leaves will regrow quickly. When they reach a nice salad size, cut again. You can usually get two or three harvests. After the final harvest, don’t forget to pull up the small, tender beetroots.

‘Chioggia’. This Italian heirloom is rosy pink on the outside, but a quick slice reveals red and white bulls eye rings on the inside. I love vegetables with a surprise on the inside!

‘Golden’. Digging up these roots is a little bit like finding buried treasure in your garden. They are a bright, deep yellow and so very sweet.