Leeks

[Alison]

Mine are definitely beginning to look a bit sorry for themselves, and I'll pull them up shortly - but last year I left a few thanks to Alison or Rusty Lady's advice (sorry, can't remember which of you it was...), just to see if they'd seed themselves in situ. They were amazing! I didn't transplant them, just left them where they'd been growing, and planted around them. They grew positively stately and towered above the squashes and things underneath, and then flowered - fabulous! The bees worshipped them, and even the drying heads looked pretty. I left them to 'grass', and some did root, but sadly seem to have died off over the winter. I also moved a few into pots in a cold frame, and those seem to have survived OK, and I put a whole head into a bed in the polytunnel where a few have rooted into the soil and some have died off, probably through lack of water. I now intend to do the same thing again, if only for the beautiful flowers . Thanks Alison and/or RL!

Don't remember saying that so it was probably RL but as it went well am happy to take the glory


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[Penellype]

The main issue with Leeks is not that they flower, but that the stems start to go woody and tough. How fast this happens may well depend on the variety, but once they do this they are not really very nice to eat.

[Tripmeup]

Every year when we still have some left over I promise myself that I will transplant some to the ornamental part of the garden, and enjoy the flowers. I don't know if they would resent being transplanted though?

Every year, I still have leeks in the ground around this time, and inevitably, they are where I want the space for something else..So I dig a hole elsewhere, pull them up and heel them into the newly dug hole with some compost...They stay there until taken for eating.........Always works for me

[Loubear]

Definitely going to leave a couple in to try a self seeding experiment, thanks for the tip!


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[Florence Fennel]

I pulled half the bed on Sunday and made leek & potato soup, which is very tasty. They were various thicknesses and there's still half left for another batch. My leeks in the stayput are about 3" high, sowed them about a month ago