There was work to do in the lotties, even if the weather was not agreeable. We have spent the past two days hauling manure, raking out compost and changing the compost bins, as well as moving the wood pile to make room for a little flower plot. The fotos don't really show the amount of work that it was, but I'll bet you can hear me groaning all the way from there. ha ha ha'. The first foto shows the last leeks harvested for this year. What a good smell they have.
I love the smell of newly dug leeks too Sjoerd. Somehow shop bought ones just never quite have the same aroma do they? It certainly looks as though you'd had quite a bit to do on the lotties over the last two days. I hope the weather stays fine for you and that the aches soon ease off.
Gosh you did do lots of work in the lottie.I have never tried a leek .We use onions around and another veggie I never tried is parsnip.I must try them.
Looks like lot of work getting all that compost shifted! Yes, I can hear you groan. Your leeks look wonderful. I tried them once but probably didn't feed them enough, so they were small and thin.
Oooo lovely compost there Sjoerd. Lots of hard work waiting. I once tried leeks and mine looked like little spring onions in the end.
Those look great! I love leeks, especially with some fresh carrots sauted in a little olive oil an butter leaving the carrots with a little crunch. mmmm. That looks like a lot of work an I don't even know what a lottie is, lol. Wish I had that much compost, so will you try an preserve any of those leeks an if so I'd like to know how you will do it. Glendann b4 I used up any space I bought one at the grocery store (I know its not the same) but it at least helped me decide if I wanted to bother with them. I found I really liked them cuz of there mild flavor. They just have a long growing season. Try starting them early spring for harvesting in winter when the carrots are ready. Parsnips are on my to try list to. Sjoerd I hear you groans, go take a long hot bath an take it easy for a while.
Thank you trudy .I may not try this year but maybe next.A lottie is and allotment to have veggie garden in.I think thats the way it is.
Here is where all that compost went. The plot is ±20x5 meters. It's a shame that the ground is still too wet to work it all in just yet. Eileen, you are right, the shop-bought ones do not quite smell the same. It's such a good smell to my nose. Droopy, I am surprised that you did not have good luck with your leeeks. How did you plant them? We have a somewhat elabourate method of planting them here...plus, I feed them throughout the summer as well. Even small and thin ones can be used in soups and stirfries. Palm Tree---you had the same prob as Droops. How did you plant your leeks? I am really curious about this. Oh dear, Trudy--I wish you hadn't told how you fix them. It's got me drooling a bit. mmmmm is right! Glendann has already said what a lottie is, but I will just add that "lottie" is a shorteniung of the word "Allotment". It's the only english word that I know for this. In Dutch, it's volkstuin. The lottie is a parcel of land that one rents from the local government, or as in our case, from the gardening club of which I am a member to grow flowers and veggies on. Originally it was ment to grow exclusively veg...but that has changed now. In Great Britain, they call folks who have an allotment--"allotmenteers". It's great to have a place to grow things, but I have to say that the social aspect of gardening on a lottie complex is the icing on the cake, if you know what I mean. The leeks were naturally way too much to eat on the night that they were harvested, so we simply chopped them up and froze them in to be eaten from time to time throughout the summer.
Thanks Sjoerd, I haven't tried to preserve leeks but figured they could be frozen like onions. Your garden looks wonderful with all that black soil. I wish mine looked that rich.
Gosh Sjoerd - I did not even compost properly those years and could hardly look after them properly while I was still in formal employment. I was just happy to at least get something because the people who were at home deos not garden and do not even water the poor garden when I was not around. I did not bother to plant them again after that season because of my erratic gardening and work schedule.
Good evening CajunBelle, Well, there's no secret really. As you must know there are umpteen different ways to make compost, and one thing that I have learned after trying several is that they all work...just that some are faster than others. Having said that, I must say that for me there are a couple of essentials, or at least what I believe to be essential and they are: DO'S Chop your waste as fine as you can. Turn the compost every 2-3 weeks. Do not let it dry out or become waterlogged. DONT'S Use chlorinated water. Add diseaded leaves or plants. Add potato waste. Use insecticides etc. to kill things like ants, earwigs, rolli-polli's and the like that you find inhabiting the compost bin. The way that I do it is like this basically-- --Begin in March with an empty bin. Use a palet or a collection of thickish twigs and/or hollyhock stalks, corn stalks etc. on the very bottom to allow for aeration early on. --Try and have a mixture of brown(dead) organic bits along with green cuttings/clippings. --I like to use fresh grass clippings sparsely mixed through the other constituents as often as there is some available. --I alternately use things like bone meal, blood meal, EM, fresh horse manure and manure tea applications every few weeks to keep it going. --I use a thin layer of garden dirt in-between the layers of cuttings. --I use a covering of old carpet or tarp most of the time...it depends upon the weather. Compost is such an integral part of gardening in my opinion but I believe that one has to do it their own way; that is to say, to find the technique that works for for them. You just keep in mind what is going on at a micro level and know what sort of compost you want to have. One year I used a "garden toy" (an aerator) to quantify the heat in the bin. It was a plastic staff with a purple flap on the end. This flap turned various shades of pink, depending upon the amount of heat there was in the bin. Fun, but not essential. You are also supposed to stick it in and pull it back out a few times, the flap opens-up and loosens the clippings as you withdrew it, supposedly allowing oxygen into the depths of the compost. You can see the aerator sticking in the bin- The lavender/purple (cold) flap- The pink (hot) flap-
