LEEKS are now in season, adding flavour to casseroles or simply as a stand-alone vegetable. They work well in soups or cooked with lardons and can be harvested from October through to spring.

Sow seeds in pots in March, keeping them somewhere cool and frost-free. They should be ready to plant out after hardening off, following on from early crops such as early broad beans or peas in late June or July. The plants should be around 20cm tall and pencilthick when they are ready to plant out into their final position.

If you want a lot of plants for a vegetable plot, sow the seeds in drills 1-2cm deep and 15cm apart, sowing thickly as the thinnings can be used for salads.

They will germinate at fairly low temperatures but in colder areas cover with cloches or garden fleece.

The soil should have been forked deeply and given general fertiliser and a thorough soaking. By August and September, leeks planted with a dibber should have a long white stem, while others can be earthed up as they grow by drawing soil along the row to increase the length of the blanched stem.

They don’t need protection from the cold, but don’t lift them from frozen ground. If hard frost is forecast, lift a supply of leeks and heel them in temporarily in a sheltered part of the garden near the kitchen. Good varieties include ‘King Richard’, which is ideal for a quick crop of winter leeks which can be pulled in bunches and used as a substitute for spring onions, and ‘Bandit’, which has some resistance to leek rust.