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SDGC: Meet Leeks

A weekly online column from the South Delta Garden Club
Leaks garden column
Make your trench deeper, with rich soil, and amaze all with your produce. A small space can grow a leek capable of multiple meals. Think ahead to winter harvests now.

Leeks are heart-healthy and versatile. Add them to traditional soups, stocks and stew.

Sauté them lightly in butter and serve as a side-dish. Slice thinly into salads, or as a garnish on stewed tomatoes or fall/spring peas. Their flavour is much milder than onions.

Leeks are super-economical in space, however, they are heavy eaters.

Between now and mid-June, dig compost (or well-rotted manure) and 1/4 cup fertilizer with micro-nutrients into an area 1 m/1 yd long and 45 cm/18" wide. Scoop out three thin trenches about 15 cm/6" apart and 15 cm/6" deep along the length. Leave the scooped out soil along the sides of the trenches. Place two or three seeds 15 cm/6" apart in the trenches. Lightly sprinkle a bit of the soil over the seeds just to cover them.

The trench and spacing is the only work part. Weekly, as the seeds sprout and grow, cover with soil from the trench side to within a thumb's height of the plants. They'll be covered by August, and developing fat white stalks under the soil. Harvest individually any time from October to frozen ground.

Editor’s note: The South Delta Garden Club is providing a weekly article to the Optimist, which will appear on-line on the Optimist website every Tuesday.