Leek Ideas, Tips & Guides

Native to the Western Mediterranean, three-cornered leek is a bulbous perennial with white spring flowers. It’s also known as stinking onion, for reasons which become obvious when close by. In other countries, it’s known as onion grass or onion weed. Part of the allium family, it’s related to edible and ornamental onions as well as cultivated and wild garlic. However, since its introduction to the UK in the mid-18th century, three-corned leek has spread to become an undesirable invasive plant, forming dense colonies and crowding out native plants. It’s an offence to plant or dispose of it in the wild.

Growing perennial vegetables can mean longer harvest periods, less maintenance once established, and even improved soil structure. But selecting the best ones for your grow zone and conditions is key.

Hen and Chick plant propagation is easy and doesn’t need much work. Don’t worry; we’ll tell you how to do it in different ways and which is the easiest.

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The fall is the perfect time to plant garlic in your garden. Compared to spring-planted garlic, fall garlic produces larger bulbs, matures earlier, and often has fewer disease problems. Additionally, certain types of garlic, mainly hard-neck types like Rocambole, will not mature in time from spring planting.

The perfect Sunday for me would be to start with a bit of bell ringing (still not allowed to do that yet because of this pandemic, but hopefully back fairly soon), then when I get home, grab a cup of tea and then go straight out into the garden and be there for the rest of the day.

This weekend was mainly spent pricking out various seedlings. Some individually, but others in little clumps of 5 or 6 seedlings. When doing little clumps you don’t have to count them exactly, they will just clump in groups naturally, so if there are a more in some clumps and fewer in other, then that’s fine.

It’s still January, but only just and I’ve just sown my January seeds. I’m not late, I’m just in time!

Yesterday I read that Trump adviser Myron Ebell, a climate change denier, thinks that the green movement is the greatest threat to freedom.

Happy Easter! It has been so wet the last few days that a canoe would be of more use than a wheelbarrow. The forecast for the week ahead doesn’t look any better, but today it has been dry all morning. Since it looks as though I am going to be crazy busy with work this month, I thought I would take the opportunity to do the next batch of seed sowing, and so I headed out into the garden. I was greeted by the first asparagus spear of the season – and we get to harvest some this year!

In a typical year, I do my garden planning before Christmas. But last year wasn’t normal, and normality (whatever that means) has yet to return. I thought I’d thought about it, but it turns out – not so much.

The news that Iceberg lettuces are being rationed in the UK, due to supply shortages, has made me ponder the nature of salad. When I was growing up, salad was Iceberg lettuce, sliced tomatoes and cucumber. I didn’t eat salad.

The garden and I have become strangers this year. It wasn’t supposed to play out like this. In the original plan, I was going to work hard during the spring and have the summer to play in the garden. But feast or famine is the freelancer’s curse, and I found myself constantly in demand.

The last of my root vegetables and Leeks are now consumed and a distant gastronomic memory. New baby salad leaves have been available but I do not take enough care to be able to binge on them until later in the season. Rhubarb once again is prolific and abundant so that I and the neighbours are enjoying the fruit of my labours literally.

Homegrown  vegetables are definitely worth the time and effort and organics are even better. Growing vegetables will reward you with a fresh and tasty supply of your favourite vegetables. You can also have the reassurance of knowing how they were grown without the unnecessary spraying of countless chemicals.

This natural pattern of succulent leaves was spotted in my garden as the Autumn flowering Sedum Spectabile burst forth this Spring. This follows the patten in the leaves at the end of a branch of Monkey Puzzle Tree and set me thinking. Many gardeners spend a lot of time and effort to get patterns of colour and texture, variety of shape and form or harmonious patterns to please the eye but nature does it best.

I first went to a Leek show in the North East one September about 40 years ago and the Pot Leeks on show were really something to behold. It is an art, a science and a bit of black magic that helps create a show stopper in this region renown for its prize leeks. Pot leek exhibition standards require a blanch of up to 6†which can give a circumference of 28″. Intermediates are up to 14″ blanched length and Long leeks are anything in excess of this.

Show Onions

March 11th and today I have finished harvesting my Leeks from last year. St Davids day whose symbol is the Leek is celebrated on March 1st every year so I am a bit behind the times. I have also sown the 4th and last batch of this years seeds for indoor germination. I may try some direct into the ground in early April.

I first met Deb Perelman in my former life, when I worked for Martha Stewart. It was late 2007 or early 2008—a millennium ago in internet years—and we’d invited in a group of bloggers we admired to get better acquainted.  Deb sat to my left (and beyond her was Heidi Swanson of 101Cookbooks.com, with the founders of Apartment Therapy and theKitchn.com across the table, and more). I think that gathering is what crystallized my intention to start a website: such an inspiring group.But I digress. If you haven’t visited Smitten Kitchen, prepare to be entertained, educated, and called to action.DEB PERELMAN is a self-taught home cook, and is funny in that self-deprecating way I love (often using the cross-out strikethrough key on her editing dashboard to good effect). On the blog, and in the new cookbook, Deb invites you into her kitchen, and family, teaching you (her Tips section online alone is worth a visit, let alone all her recipes) while tempting you. You always come away hungry…until you get out the ingredients