Harvesting Leeks and Parsnips, More Digging

Leeks

Down to the plot around 4pm – it’s great now the nights are getting lighter. I always feel guilty going down early in the day ? the boss complains about me not getting any work done!

First task was to get some leeks for a stew. The leeks aren”t the biggest and certainly wouldn?t win any prizes but they taste well. Anyway, I think small ones are sweeter. That?s my argument and I?m sticking to it.

Parsnips

The next task was to get the parsnips up. I should have really got them out of the ground last month but they?ve kept well in the ground, mainly. Two full carrier bags of parsnips are more than enough for us.

There were a few suffering from canker or some sort of rot and more suffering from forking. I?m going to apply some ideas I?ve picked up at the NVS meetings for my carrots and parsnips this year. I don?t want six foot long monsters ? just good shaped roots and the way I think I will achieve this is to incorporate a lot of sand into the soil where I grow them to lighten the soil.

More digging

Having cleared the parsnips and leeks from the top end of plot 5, I dug the ground over. It?s very wet underneath, could hear the water sucking. Left it in rough clods so the wind my dry it a bit before I use the rotovator on it. I want to plant out the rest of the garlic in pots near to the other onions. Not really ideal to follow on leeks with another allium, but I don?t think it will matter too much.

Wind

Talking of wind, the cloche over the shallots had blown loose. So that was reset and I popped a few sticks to help hold it in place. It?s real benefit will be to stop the birds from eating them. There were quite a few birds around on the site today, including a pair of magpies. I think magpies are handsome birds with their white waistcoats, busily inspecting the plots, unlike the pigeons, who seem to be getting fat on my brassicas. I?m sure they sit discussing whose plot provides the best feed and what?s being planted next for them

The site was deserted but seeing how wet the soil is still, there?s not an awful lot you can do. Last year everyone was much further along.

I snapped a few pictures around the site and headed back about six.