Question

Is it warm enough in your area? The times I've had difficulty with Swiss chard, I planted a little too early in the Spring or too late in the Fall. Other than that, I'd question the age and quality of the seeds.

Hmmm. Five weeks ago the chard was looking encouraging. From my experience, chard is not difficult to start or picky about soil - as compared to other plants. If you have slugs, they will eat sprouts & you'll have to provide some kind of protection for any young plants. If you have a lot of gardening unknowns, you might want to consider the option of starting some chard or other greens in flats so you can observe & care for them more closely & set out the transplants when they grow to a robust size. I have grown a lot of vegetables as transplants because of our short growing season @ 6,500' in the mountains. You can grow transplants in the kinds of planting mix & flats/cups the nurseries provide - they will usually give some away to you. Also, I highly recommend Speedling flats, which can be found via the company online. The way the flat cups are shaped keeps roots from circling & also root-air-prunes the roots if they exit the bottom of the container. This keeps the transplants viable much longer than cups. Speedling flats are well worth the price & I have never had any *wear out.*