Many of the things I learnt as a child have stayed with me for years, but in recent times I’ve tended to stray. I always used to cut the tops and roots off my leeks before planting them for instance, something many gardeners do religiously.

However one year I abandoned the practice and just dropped my young leeks into their six-inch deep holes and filled them up with water. My leeks grew well and now I would never dream of trimming the roots and tops again. My top British-bred F1 variety, Oarsman, has been my favourite for four or five years now. It produces leeks that stand well, giving me a crop between October and early March. The leeks are tender and kinder on the stomach than the traditional leathery Musselburgh. Being an F1 variety the germination is excellent with Oarsman and generally I can produce a pencil-thick leek by midsummer. Most years my leeks do most of their growing in September, so I never panic if they stay small in summer. Often when I plant them out they almost disappear into the hole, but the holes still need to be six inches deep so that the blanched lower stems are tender and white. Leeks, like all alliums, are shallow-rooted so after their initial ‘puddling in’ as you plant they will need extra water in dry years, if anyone can remember what a dry year is! It’s also vital not to let the young leeks dry out before you plant them out. I sow my seeds straight into modular trays full of good seed-sowing compost, usually in late March, one seed per module. Then they go in the shadiest position in the greenhouse so that they hopefully don’t suffer water stress. Cutting the roots off leeks is an ancient practice that can be traced back to the 4th century when a Roman writer called Palladius Rutilius recorded the process in his book Opus agriculturae.

This was reprinted in the Middle Ages and an English translation, On Husbandrie, still survives from 1420. This parchment book was found in the library of Colchester Castle. A copy is also held in the Bodleian Library, although I am not sure if this is available to public gaze. The technique was repeated by Thomas Hill. He was the author of the first popular gardening book The Gardener’s Labyrinth published in 1577. He writes that “the skilful Neopolitan Rutilius instructeth, that when the Leeks be grown to a bigness, by cutting the baldes halfway, and the hary roots”. There is an available paperback reprint of The Gardener’s Labyrinth edited by Richard Mabey. It contains some fascinating illustrations that tell us a huge amount about gardening in the Middle Ages. By the time Hill’s book appeared, gardening was a national passion so his book sold well. He dedicated The Gardener’s Labyrinth to William Cecil (1520-1598), the Tudor statesman and diplomat. Cecil is said to have spent enormous sums on this gardens. One of his residences, Theobalds, was in the charge of John Gerard, the renowned author of the ‘herbal’.

Cecil’s nephew, Francis Bacon, lived nearby and Bacon possibly had Theobalds in mind when he wrote his essay on gardens in which he describes gardening as ‘the purest of human pleasures’. That idea is definitely not outdated in my book.