The Leeks Have Bolted

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 The Leeks have bolted! 

A mini disaster has beset the veg patch with the Leeks all bolting/going to seed. I have had to accept the inevitable and dug the lot up! Each and every one had gone, all forming bulbs rather than nice long slender stems. 

Some will say I planted out the seedlings too early, I put them out over the Easter Weekend in early April, but I have done this many times before and all has been fine. I think it is a simple case of the weird and wonderful weather we have had this year with it so unsettled - hot when it would normally be chilly, wet when you'd expect it dry and cold when it should be time to slap on the sun cream! 

With the French Beans also basically done I have cleared half the big bed in total, dug in some Chicken Manure Pellets and sown a Green Manure mix over the bare soil. 

Poultry manure is a useful source of nitrogen and I also scattered a fair helping around the Strawberry plants as I do every autumn. I will naturally add other fertilisers such as Pot Ash and Growmore in due course as Poultry manure is low in Potassium and Phosphorus. 

If you have never used a Green Manure they're a handy trick to add nutrients back into your soil without having to get yourself bags of Horse Manure from your local stables. In short Green Manures are sown to help hold on to nutrients in the soil preventing them being washed away by winter rain and snow and when dug in the following spring they release nutrients back into the soil. They also have the added bonus of keeping down weed growth as they cover the soil and are beneficial to a number of insects when few if any plants and flowers are around in late autumn and early spring. 

I was able to enjoy some of the fruits of my labour this weekend with family and friends over for a roast on Sunday. Carrots, Runner beans and French beans from the plot were served with lovely shoulder of pork - the spuds for the roasties were shop bought. A generous helping of raspberries was scattered over the younger diners ice cream deserts and you know you are doing something right when a nine-year-old asks for extra raspberries! 

Cheers 🍺


Location: London Borough of Havering, UK

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