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Permalink Reply by Eric Walker on December 17, 2010 at 13:13

We are eating our last cabbage of the year today. I had to dig through a foot of snow to find them. My neighbour looked over the hedge saw me digging & asked what I was doing, I said " I know I have some cabbage somewhere". I've just been up the garden & took a photo  of the brussels & leeks. When the deep snow melted the pigeons attacked the brussels so I put a net round, that stopped them.

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• Brussels & Leek Beds 17th December 2010.jpg, 139 KB

Permalink Reply by Matt Brown on January 1, 2011 at 14:15

i do like the size of your garden eric, i'd love enough room for more veg,

 

my brussels shot up and started producing sprouts, i stripped the lower leaves as i always do and after a wile they stopped growing. they are about the size of small marbles. my leeks are getting bigger hopefully in the spring they will finally be ready.

Permalink Reply by Eric Walker on January 2, 2011 at 12:45

Did you set your brussels & leeks early enough Matt? Gloria sets the seeds in a propagator in the house in March or April then transfers to the greenhouse. When they are big enough we pot the brussels & set the leeks in 2" deep rows close together in the greenhouse. In July we transfer them to their beds in the garden. The beds are 12ftx4ft & they hold 24 brussel plants or 161 leeks they are set 6" apart & I make the holes 8" deep with a round crow bar. Before setting them the ground needs firming , I sprinkle 3 or 4 grains of growmore in each hole & trim the length of the leek roots & leaves to stop them flopping they need a long growing season but should be ready for Christmas.

Permalink Reply by Eric Walker on January 5, 2011 at 10:08

I've just been up the garden & dug some leeks, ground just thawed. photo attached

Attachments:

• Leeks.jpg, 1.5 MB

PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Phil Voice on January 5, 2011 at 11:59

Leeks always taste better after being exposed to frost and snow eh Eric?

Eric Walker said:

I've just been up the garden & dug some leeks, ground just thawed. photo attached

Permalink Reply by Eric Walker on January 5, 2011 at 17:15

 Thats true Phil I never dig them before Christmas.

Permalink Reply by Matt Brown on January 8, 2011 at 14:22

i planted mine out august or september. the leeks are about half inch diameter, the brussels dont look very good either they are not much bigger than my thumb nail, i'll take some photo's later

Permalink Reply by Eric Walker on January 11, 2011 at 11:31

I dug  more leeks yesterday but broke my spade shaft. I've set them to deep, I was to enthusiastic with the crow bar, I must fit some device to limit the depth to about 6".

Permalink Reply by darrell on January 27, 2011 at 20:57

Peter Ward said:

What a big space to grow veg, the allotment we have is pretty small but we still get lots out of it.

 

I had to pull my leeks after the snow/frost spell as they were going over, shame but the tasted good.

My purple sprouting broccoli looks like it hasn't survived, i tried to keep it going but the cold spell was too much. Such a shame as it takes forever to produce.

On a brighter note my white sprouting broccoli has survived unscathed, must just be tougher.

 

 

we were lucky with this plot it is approx 60m in lenght by 6 m width

 

a bit of work had to be done to make it pratical  it was full or weeds and boggy when i had taken the plot over  and on heavy clay ground.

i had to put in a drainage chanel due to a small  brook /stream collecting above the plot but now it is basically a 60 x 6 meter raised bed  and  i have also taken over the half of next doors plot  the size of that is 30 x 6m will update photos later this year.