[al78]

Found this growing in one of my borders. It seems to be a cluster of plants that individually look a bit like a small leek, but I haven't tried to grow any leeks in that area for three years. Any idea what they are?

[mumofstig]

Does the foliage smell oniony/leeky?

Small leek bulbils may have been left in the soil when the leeks were harvested.

[sunshineband]

It does look remarkably 'leeky' doesn't it? I know you said you haven't grow leeks there for a while, so I wonder where it has come from?

[al78]

I can confirm that when I broke the tip off one of the leaves it did have an oniony smell. I'm just trying to think now exactly which year it was when I tried to grow leeks (without success). It might have been 2011, What happened was when I sowed them I forgot to take into account the growth of the surrounding plants and they got swamped and then died from lack of light (or so I thought). Is it possible that a bunch of them could have struggled through and had their growing lifecycle extended?

[al78]

Here's a close up of an individual plant.

[mumofstig]

Did you sow seeds in situ? Some might have decided to germinate later than the others.

If not it is just small bulbils from the base of the old plants that have decided to grow.

[al78]

Did you sow seeds in situ? Some might have decided to germinate later than the others.

If not it is just small bulbils from the base of the old plants that have decided to grow.

Yes I sowed the seeds direct in the ground in spring 2011. I thought they all died so I didn't get any harvest at all. I tend to adopt a no-dig attitude to my garden, just putting the contents of the compost bin on the beds as mulch every year, so I guess it is possible there could have been some survivors that have looked after themselves all this time, but it is very surprising if that is the case. I expect vegetables to be high-maintenance plants, not something you can just chuck in the ground and leave for a year or so. That is amazing to me that a leek can survive like that with no input from me whatsoever.