The first week of December has turned out mild. It’s not been a particularly pleasant week though with the gale force winds of Thursday and very little sunshine throughout the rest of the week. Mild days have been followed by frost free nights. How long will it last?
We harvested some leeks on Friday. These were grown through weed control fabric and have produced some good sized leeks.
This is how our leeks looked back in September. The weed control fabric had done its job and certainly hadn't affected the way the leeks had grown. At planting time we hadn't given any thought to how we were going to harvest our leeks and decided the best planting method was to simply cut crosses in the fabric, make a large hole with a dibber, and plant the leek seedlings. There’s nothing wrong with this method until it comes to harvest time. As we don’t want to damage the fabric the leek has to be harvested through that same planting hole which can be done for small but not any larger leeks.
These are leeks, Prizetaker, harvested on Friday. They've been trimmed up but on close inspection you can see that some of the leeks have broken as I attempted to extract them from their planting hole leaving a section of stem and root in the ground. Leeks do tend to produce a big strong root around their bases which doesn't help. So a rethink is needed for next year. Certainly using weed control fabric is a must to cut down weeding which not only saves time but allows the leeks to grow without competition from weeds. We might need to cut out a long strip in the fabric as we've done to sow peas, carrots and parsnips. This might mean a little more weeding to remove weeds that germinate along the rows of leeks but it will make harvesting much easier.
There always seems to be something to change, improve or copy from someone else for the following year. There’s the challenge to do better next year even if we don’t always manage to achieve it.
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Could you maybe roll up the end of the weed control fabric to where the first leeks are and lift them with the fabric, then trim off the roots so that the roots don't have to go through the fabric, but the tops stay on top. If that makes sense. Then put the fabric back down until next time.
ReplyDeleteI think I know what you mean and we have given some thought to lifting the fabric as we dig some leeks and then replacing it. The only worry I have about doing it this way is securing the fabric back down again each time it's lifted. I might see if I've some old timbers about on the plot to hold the fabric down and give the method a try.
DeleteYour leeks look so stunning. I can't plant leek in my garden, too hot. In the high land tropics it grow very well.
ReplyDeleteOur leeks have done well this year. I always expect plants to grow better the warmer it is.
DeleteExcellent looking Leeks Sue. Mine are fairly good but got set back earlier in the year with Leek moth.
ReplyDeleteI keep seeing nasty reports about Leek moth but so far we've avoided it.
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