French Methods for Growing Leeks

Raised Beds

• Leeks, like most vegetables, need well-draining soil in a sunny location. Planting leek seeds or seedlings in raised beds allows more intensive planting, better weed control and easier harvest in a garden environment with good drainage. Raised beds are easily constructed from simple 2-by-4-foot lumber, cement blocks or even old tires cut in half, lined with a layer of sand topped with gravel and filled with good garden loam and organic matter. Dedicate a raised bed to a whole crop of leeks or interplant leeks with parsley, chamomile and calendula.

Succession Planting

• The French potager, or kitchen, garden provides the kitchen with staples and delicacies for as long as the weather and seasons permit. Cool-season vegetables, such as lettuces, peas, broccoli, spinach, kale and Brussels sprouts, are some of the first vegetables to tend. Sowing the next crop right at harvest ensures a continuous supply of fresh vegetables and herbs for the table and pantry. When temperatures are too high for cool-season vegetables, warm-season plants, such as tomatoes, peppers, squash, melons and many herbs, fill the garden beds, usually in an early and midsummer planting for more than one harvest.

Blanching

• Blanching is a gardening technique that involves covering young plants keeping out light that produces pale vegetables. Planting seedlings slightly deeper than normal and mounding dirt up all around the plant accomplishes blanching. It produces more delicately flavored and softly textured vegetables, preventing the vegetables from growing too fibrous or strongly flavored. Vegetables grown with blanching include leeks, celery, chicory and asparagus. Sow leek seeds in a 2 inch deep trench dug with a hoe, covering them lightly with a loose mixture of sand mixed with loam or seed-starting soil mix. When they sprout and start growing, pile rich loam around the growing stems regularly, daily if necessary.

Early Harvesting

• Many vegetables in French potager gardens, including leeks, are harvested when very immature for milder flavors and softer textures. Pick onions, lettuces, beans, corn, root vegetables and herbs well before their fruits and roots have reach full maturity. This provides a harvest of baby vegetables that are tender and sweet for delicate salads, steaming, soups and savory dishes.