Young leeks

I'd never grown leeks before, but was fascinated that one of our main vegetable commercial growers (in the US) was providing them to the garden centers of big box stores (Lowes and Home Depot) as well as to independent feed and seed stores.

I bought a pot full of MANY small leek seedlings this spring, and struggled to separate out the tiny seedlings. I transplanted some to containers, some to places in the garden, and then ran out of steam (they were very small seedlings).

But I harvested a young leek today, just to check on their progress. (I didn't follow regular leek protocol for our region of sowing seeds in early fall, but obviously this seed/transplant company didn't either.)

Hooray. It was tender and nice. Tomatoes, peppers, red cabbage, and squash were also from my (neglected) garden.

Peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant

This evening's harvest yielded Corno di Toro peppers, a poblano pepper, 'Holy Mole' peppers, various tomatoes, and Lao and Thai eggplants.

It's just about the last of the spring-planted tomatoes at this point. Maybe I should have been giving them more TLC with compost and organic fertilizer, but I've been distracted. The rains basically stopped over six weeks ago, so production has depended on watering.

The mid-summer plantings of squash and tomatoes are looking good, and it's almost time to sow greens!