Planting leeks

On Tuesday 12th July we had our biggest leek planting session so far this year, and now have about 3000 leeks hand-planted in the Market Garden. These are the four earliest varieties of the eight we will be growing this year (the rest are yet to go in...).

Four lines in, five to go.

Working on the fifth line - Arran, Mira, Ben and Deborah.

The ground was tractor-rotovated, then marked by string-lines 80cm apart. A strip of municipal compost was laid along each line, then 10cm deep holes were dibbed along the string at 20cm spacings. The leeks were dug out of our polytunnel nursery bed (sown on 28th February), and one bare-root transplant was dropped into each hole. The soil/compost was then pushed back into the hole, and each leek watered by can.

Many thanks to everyone who helped with our leek day - Arran, Ben, Deborah, Romain, Mira, Franziska and Jackie.