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Re: Root crops, hilling leeks

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

Mels OG article (2/96 "Ten New Square Foot Gardening Tips") instructs one to
dig a hole 12" deep and transplant Leek (and or Green Onions, for blanching)
seedlings in compost at the bottom, filling in w/ compost as they grow. He
offers the same instruction for Potatoes.

My problem with this method is that his nice, neat, 12" square, straight
sided holes will shadow the plants growing at the south edges and that they
will lag behind those on the northern side, at least up here at 47 deg
latitude.

My solution is to create a planting level 2" below grade and, as the plants
grow, place toilet paper roll centers over the plants and fill in w/ compost
around the exterior of the TP centers. As one raises those lovely little
hard centers, the compost fills in around the plant and will not be found in
the plant layers when cleaning for use.

This past Spring I had a raised area about 8-10" above grade which was all
lovely compost ready to be reused and all Winter and Spring I had marvelous,
long necked, tender Leeks for steaming, soup. . . . .

It was a lot of work but well worth it


Regards,
DT (aka Dore Tyler)  dee_tee@msn.com
Doing his own thing in the privacy of his own garden.
USDA Zone 8b, Tacoma, WA
-----Original Message-----
From: Kim Kiernan <kkiernan@home.com>
To: Johnny Vann <johnnyvann@excite.com>
Cc: sqft@listbot.com <sqft@listbot.com>
Date: Saturday, June 26, 1999 11:30 AM
Subject: Re: Root crops, hilling leeks


>Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html
>
>I just wait until the tops seem to have gotten big enough.  Also, in my
>soil the top of the root will slightly be raised above the soil.  I also
>mulch though, so to check how they're doing I just brush the mulch
>away.  You could also just pull one up and see, harvest it as a baby
>veggie (very gourmet, you know!)
>
>Do you hill your leeks, so you'll get a nice long white leek part (the
>tender part)?  This brings to mind a problem I had last year growing
>leeks.  How do people effectively grow crops that need to be hilled in a
>square foot garden.  You can't start growing the leeks 8 inches below
>the rest of the garden and if you mound it on top the dirt just gets
>washed away from around the part you're trying to blanch.  Any ideas?
>
>Kim


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