I’ve always loved rhubarb. When it shows up in the garden, I know my favorite time of the year is coming around for another visit.
I have a vivid rhubarb memory as a little guy, age 4 or 5, living in a Canadian prairie town. I was walking the gravel path that ran behind the yards of the homes on our street. Each neighbor’s yard had rhubarb shoving its leaves through the fence– as if each one was trying to escape.
Rhubarb is a crazy slap in the taste buds and a great excuse to make flavorful desserts. As a little guy I would eat it while dabbing the stalk end into a bowl of sugar. I always eat some stalks each year ‘as is’ straight out of the soil.
“As a gardener: If you slam some rhubarb in the soil within easy sight of the road past your home, passers by will likely be convinced of your gardening prowess.”
With its ‘ginormous’ green leaves and brightly colored stalks it’s both a generous and gracious plant. It always keeps its promise to be your first harvest every spring and asks for very little in return.
The rootedness of rhubarb means it stays put and keeps on growing in the same spot year after year – it’s a perennial! So, when you’ve chosen a sunny location to plant it you can be sure that you’ll be enjoying rhubarb from that very spot for many years to come!
Friends don’t let friends buy rhubarb plants! It’s the simplest plant to share with others. Using a shovel you can slice right through the rhubarbs roots. Don’t be shy, punch straight down and deep into the soil. Voila, you’ve got a rhubarb plant to share with a friend.
In many ways, rhubarb is one of those plants that you can love and leave. However, I’ve found that it thrives with a few simple steps being attended to during the year:
- compost and lime in spring – at least a month before I expect any leaves to shoot out of the ground, I place a thick (maybe 4” – 6”) mat of compost around each plant. This will help provide nourishment to the new emerging shoots, discourage weeds growing up to compete with the rhubarb and retain moisture as the season gets warmer and dryer. I was suspicious this spring that a large tree nearby my rhubarb had been slowly acidifying the soil i.e. lowering the pH resulting in the rhubarb taking up fewer nutrients. So, I put down a handful of dolomite lime prior to placing the compost. The rhubarb has taken off at an unprecedented rate of growth, and with far more stalks per plant, then I’ve ever seen before!
- water in summer – drip irrigation is a beautiful thing b/c it places the moisture only where the plant needs it, the root. Nothing is wasted. If you don’t have a way to drip irrigate your rhubarb, use a watering can and target the center of the root system with a generous weekly watering or two in the hot and dry months.
- mark and mulch it in fall – if you’ve never seen it before, you might think it’s magic. Come late fall the rhubarb disappears! If you’re not mindful, you could actually forget where those underground wonders are by the time next spring comes around. So, each fall before they are ‘all gone’ I push a stake or marker of some sort into the center of each plant. This way it won’t mistakenly get uprooted, planted overtop of etc I also use this time to top dress the plant with grass clippings, leaves, compost – anything that will provide some insulation and love through the winter months while it’s ‘hibernating’.
Harvesting rhubarb is gratifying and it’s simple to do. Remember the leaves are the plant’s source of solar energy so you can’t take too many away at one time. Only harvest 1/3 of the stalks at once. Select the largest stalks/leaves. Grasp stalks down low and bend sideways while pulling. The stalk will separate itself from the root. Cut off the leaves for wonderful nitrogen addition to your compost (they’re poisonous so don’t consider a stir fry with them!)
Rhubarb freezes beautifully and is quickly ready to cook or bake with. Chop it into ready you use pieces and store it dry in freezer bags.
Our family has a bunch of Favorite recipes that use rhubarb including: stewed rhubarb, rhubarb muffins, crumble, pie and platz (it’s a Mennonite thing akin to sweet, fruit themed, flatbread).
