Category Archives: Fall gardening

How to grow great leeks

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If you want to grow really awesome leeks this is the way to do it. Because you typically won’t find them (or anything else if you’re a northern gardener) in nurseries it’s important to learn how to do it yourself. 

Start these inside in early summer. Mine were started on June 11th. You’ll want to plant them in a container that’s deep as the picture shows. If you start them in something that’s too short, you wont’ be able to do the next step. It’s now time to plant them outside. All you do is pull the entire soil block out of the metal container and begin to separate into individual leeks. Then, and this is the important part, drop them into a hole thats 6-8 inches deep. A small amount of leek will be above the soil. At this point, don’t fill the holes with soil. Water in immediately. After a weeks time your leeks will be fully covered naturally with soil. 

When it’s time to harvest you’ll pull your leeks out to discover a white shank that’s 6-8 inches long instead of the normal 2-3 inch leeks you buy at the grocery store. It makes a huge difference. 

Square Foot Gardening: planting garlic

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Garlic is a crop that takes a long time to grow for us northern gardeners. When grown at home and harvested, garlic is milder and sweeter than what you get at the store. There’s no need to get fancy starts-just buy a clove of garlic at the market, separate into individual cloves, and then peel off the paper. 

In the square foot gardening system, you’ll plant 9 per square. Need more? Then plant another square. Even more? Then plant a third square to give you 27 heads of the best tasting garlic you’ve ever had. When I peel off the paper and place in the garden, I push each clove down about 2 inches and then cover with soil. 

It get’s a good start before the harsh weather gets here and then in early spring you’ll see the greens start to break the surface. Maybe even sooner if it’s a mild winter. 

And now harvesting leeks

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It’s been another bumper crop season for me and also time to learn more. The biggest lesson this year? I’ve been overwatering my tomato plants for decades! I’m putting in a pool this summer and the workers have destroyed about a third of my garden. They also broke all the water lines going to the garden so it was all manual watering this summer. I watered less than I ever have and had the biggest tomato crop ever! 

 

Take a look at these leeks. Notice the 6-7 inches of white on them. All easy to do and you won’t usually find this amount of white on leeks at the store. But, that is the most prized part of the leek for chefs. These happen to be king Richard leeks and I wish I had grown more of them. You really need to plan for these and plant early in the year. For the winter I’ve got Megaton starts all ready to go into the garden this weekend. These are so good. If you’ve never had homemade leeks, you’re really missing out. Give this one a try: they are classic to put into something like clam chowder.

Planting leeks in your square foot gardens

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Leeks are a winter and early spring favorite in our home. They aren’t particularly hard to grow, but it is difficult to buy them with the white stem portions any bigger than 2 inches. I’ve learned how to make that white section 8 inches tall to give you a lot more to use in those delicious soups. 

I like to start my leeks in a container where they will grow until the size of skinny pencils. I then use the end of a  cut off piece of push broom at about 12 inches. I’ll mark the end of the broom at 8 inches, push that into the SFG soil until the top of the soil is equal to the 8″ mark, and then I drop an individual transplant of leek into that hole. I don’e even worry about covering them with soil. I just let the water fill in the hole over the course of a few days. When these are harvested, you’ll have the biggest white portion of leeks you’ve ever seen. Give it a try. 

 

Thinking about the winter square foot garden

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Here it is-almost the second week into July and we’r already talking winter. Though lots of fun summer harvesting is still ahead, it’s time to think about what needs to go into the winter garden. In a few weeks it’ll be too late to think about crops such as leeks, and green onions. You certainly won’t be able to find them in the nurseries around here. And what ever happened to parsnips? Nobody grows them anymore! If you’ve not tried them you should. They are so good in the winter garden as the colder temperatures make them very sweet. I’ve always started these three crops this way. The reason? I’m not telling yet. But you’ll see when they are harvested. You can grow them better than anything you’ll find at the market.

I’ll have a few gardening classes coming up for those interested. The first couple will be the fall square foot gardening class. Immediately after that will be the square foot garden winter classes, complete with how to build protection, what crops do well here, and when to plant. These are both done at my home in a very comfortable setting where you learn how to do it. 

Come Labor day when most people start thinking it’s time to close the garden, yours will be up and producing a huge harvest. Stay tuned.