Radishes and Leeks (gouache style)

Radishes belong to the cabbage family and are among the fastest crops you can grow. Summer kinds such as 'French Breakfast' and 'Cherry Belle' are small and peppery, while winter radishes are larger and slower. Leeks are alliums, related to onions, grown for their long white shanks and blue-green leaves folded into a fan. 'Musselburgh' is a hardy old variety from Scotland. The leek is also the national emblem of Wales.

Sow radishes thinly outdoors from March to September, a short row every two weeks, and keep them watered so they don't turn woody or too hot. In midsummer they'll bolt in hot, dry ground, so a little shade helps. Leeks are sown in March or April and moved to their final spot in June or July when they're pencil thick. Drop each one into a deep dibbed hole and fill it with water, not soil. They can be harvested from September through to March.

The picture shows a bunch of pink radishes and a handful of leeks laid on a weathered wooden table outdoors. Putting the two together brings the quickest and the slowest crops on the plot side by side, freshly gathered and ready to be carried into the kitchen.