For the Love of Rhubarb

Rhubarb is the best, most prolific, a monkey can do it, perennial for our harsh climate. I swear the second the snow melts I can see the plants getting ready to leaf up. The plants have big tropical giant leaves and are so pretty in a yard....especially a yard surrounded by tundra.

I decided to make a rhubarb fence a couple years ago and it is getting better each year. The back of my lot is lined with lush big leafed plants that I harvest and harvest and harvest. It is the first thing people comment on and they are dumb-dumb easy to maintain.

Basically you just plant a bulb-like start and they grow and grow and grow. Mine grow in crappy glacial-silt sand. I have one runty one but the rest are fabulous. Every year (or two) you can/should divide the "heads" with a shovel. You can see the divider spots and it is seriously hard to kill them once they are established. If you don't use a shovel to take off a couple heads every 3-4 years it can kill off the plant.

I have, and you can, start them from seed. It is slower going though. It takes about two seasons to get them off and running. I have had lightening in a bottle results with established roots that you can just plant straight away. 

The first year you should not harvest anything. Then the sky is the limit. In my short growing season I can usually get 4-6 harvests per year. I typically do not take all of the leaves at once. I more or less "prune" the plant. When it is getting cold and frost is eminent I take them all.

With Rhubarb only eat the stems. The leaves are actually poisonous. I turn the leaves into organic pesticide. They really are the best, easiest, most under-utilized plant in the gardening world.

My favorite use of rhubarb is a raspberry rhubarb pie with streussel topping. I usually don't use recipes but I will try to make one and post it at some point. Mine are kind of tart and I use coconut milk instead of butter. Yum!