Uneaten Leeks Never Go To Waste

We recently visited a friend who has a very large and beautiful garden, an area of which, she has dedicated to growing fruit and vegetables.  Last season, she had a surplus of leeks and rather than pull them out of the ground, she decided to leave them as they were.

As they are part of the allium family, they continued to grow and eventually transformed themselves from vegetables to flowers. 

On a hot summer day, the shades of greens, purples, pinks and lilacs looked spectacular with this display of 3 foot tall, architectural flowers.

And apart from attracting all types of bees, it was also a haven for many different types of butterflies - such as this gorgeous Peacock Butterfly ...

Have you noticed how many butterflies there have been this summer?  There must have been record numbers from about mid-July to the first few days of August.  I haven't seen any official figures yet, but feel very optimistic, and it'll be interesting to see what the Big Butterfly Count makes of this, once all the figures are in and have been analysed