Garden: The Year of Disastrous Leeks

While the summer might be all tomatoes and aubergines, courgettes and basil, the winter is all about deep hearty stews, cheesy gratins and satisfying pies. 

Leek, lentil and smoked sausage.

All of the latter need leeks - leeks, lentils and smoked sausage cooked cassoulet style in the oven with a bread crumb topping stirred in half way through is about as good as it gets after a day on the slopes. Baked leeks under a blanket of cheese sauce - strong cheddar back in the UK or a mature Cantal home in France - served with roast spuds and parsnips and some deep green crinkly cavolo nero makes a powerful alternative roast when we have vegetarians visiting, or have just run out of cash for the month. Leek and bacon pie, double crust and oozing with smoky juices, or a simple leek and mushroom quiche, served with chips, of course are the things I like forward to in the colder months. Frugal yet flavoursome food that relies on a few bought staples and the garden's bounty.

This year will be rather different because I spent most of yesterday digging up and binning my entire leek crop. In late June I spent two back breaking days in mid-thirties heat planting out over two hundred little leeklings - dib hole, drop in plant, add a scoop of garden compost and water, then repeat two hundred or so times. The next day I replanted the twenty or so that an inquisitive blackbird had pulled from its hole.

Mid November and still healthy.

Over the course of the summer I waged a battle with the wretched voles who have been very destructive this year: they tunnel just below the surface and eat the roots of plants. I've lost aubergines, courgettes, tomatoes, cabbages, a budleija and many, many leek plants. About a third had gone by mid November which was a worry as we don't usually see many losses much before February or March.

First week in December and the plants are collapsing.

Voles are not the main culprit this time, but allium leaf miner. This pest is not new to the garden; in previous years maybe one in four leeks might have had a single line of eaten leaf and the telltale tiny brown pupae of the fly. 

Rotting plants and lots of maggots and pupae.

This year every single plant has dozens and it is so bad that the plants are simply rotting away. To avoid making what is clearly an infestation even worse next season I decided to get rid of the lot, carefully digging out each plant to avoid dropping the pupae into the soil, and chopping out any good bits for freezing later.

The entire harvest - enough for three or four meals.

What a waste of time, effort, soil space and seed! The debate now is whether or not to skip a year of leek growing next season, and indeed should I even be considering planting garlic in the next couple of weeks?