seeding onions

I really enjoyed reading this blog post from Gathering Together Farm about seeding onions.  It’s fun to see behind the scenes at a farm and to see an electric seeder machine up close.

Now I would like to show you how Curious Farm seeds leeks:

Using our favorite tool — benign neglect — we allow some of our leeks to bolt and flower.  We say it’s for the bees.  Bees love onion and leek flowers.  Did you know that?

Then the flowers dry up and fall over, get rained on, and become papery skeletons of their former selves.

Then one day in winter, we go outside to put some dried leaves and other garden debris in the compost pile.  When we pick up the leek flower, we see the seedlings growing right there where the dead flower fell over — hundreds of them, just from one of last year’s forgotten flowers.

leek seedlings

In a few days, we will separate these hair-like leek seedlings and replant them in a new bed.  Many will survive and produce beautiful leeks.  Because this seed grew on its own from leeks that were happy in our soil, they’ll have an even better chance of growing well than other leek seedlings.

Curious Farm :  we take lazy gardening to new heights.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*