All the Dirt on Gardening

Leek seedlings Lancelot Leeks are those beautiful, mild-onion-like vegetables that are easy to grow in our zone 7. And, they don't require the deep, fertile soil that beets and other root vegetables need. We live on a rocky hill and have had zero success with beets, turnips and other roots but leeks work just fine. In years passed I've allowed one or two to go to seed and kept the same crop going for four or five years before the seed failed to return. This year I've ordered one bunch of starts (30 seedlings $14) from Dixondale Farms . They won't be delivered until mid-February 2018 - at planting time. I ordered now because by then they will be hard to find. Planting Leek Seedlings Like all vegetables, Leeks need lots of organic matter in the soil. Since I'm emptying one of the compost bins right now, I'm putting buckets of compost into the bed where they'll be planted. At planting time, an 8-inch deep trench is made and the leeks are planted ...

Garlic, onions and shallots are planted in late-fall here. Sometimes as late as New Year's Day with pretty good results, depending on how early the first freeze arrives. Shallots with onion If yours isn't in the ground yet, there is still time. Our garlic seeds are in but the onions still remain. We are in zone 7 so short season varieties are the best choices for us. It's based on sunlight hours: short day, 10 to 12 hours; intermediate day, 12 to 14 hours; and long day, 14 to 16 hours. Dixondale Farms catalog just arrived yesterday in the same mail as the shallot seeds from a new vendor I'm trying. Dixondale has a good, online reference for planting at http://cdn.dixondalefarms.com/downloads/OnionPlantingGuide.pdf Park Seed Shallots can be confusing: You can purchase small shallots now and plant them over the winter to harvest in the spring. Or, you can plant seeds now that will become those small shallots. If you plant the seeds in the ground they will...

Last summer I let one leek flower and go to seed. Then, I laid the seed head on a bed, moving it every couple of weeks. Leeks grew over the winter from those seeds. The photo below was taken last November. Today I did a third harvest and took out all but two that will go to seed for next year's crop. We cleaned off the green tops and root bottoms after a couple of runs under the hose. The tops went to the compost pile. In the house the leeks were trimmed more and the trimmings went into the stock pot. The perfect pieces from the bottom were sliced lengthwise about one-fourth inch wide. Those slivers were popped into a hot nonstick skillet with a little olive oil, herb salt and a whisper of sugar and cooked until soft. Tonight they go under a pile of oven-roasted fresh asparagus.