My Kitchen Garden in September....

The rain put me behind at the plot and here at home. We also had a lot of visitors this summer. Anyway I finally have time to devote to tidying up my kitchen garden and sowing more seeds for the over winter crops.

This run of photos show the garden before the tidy up. I actually did do a little clearing of spent crops a couple of weeks ago (look at the compost Daleks for evidence!!!) so these beds don't look too bad. I have actually cleaned all these beds today and taken down the wigwam. I also weeded out the perimeter bed to the right of the deep beds, and planted some daffs bulbs and some pansy plants. Oh and I also put the gladioli that I moved from another area of the garden into this perimeter bed too.
In the background of the rh deep bed I have cleared away the far wigwam. That was Lady Di runner beans which have finished. The Red Rum variety which were started later are still cropping well.
The beans in the nearer rh bed here are borlotti and some pea beans on the two teepees. They are both still going so I just tidied the bed a bit.

The salad bed on the right is feeding us every day, and the tomatoes in the background are beginning to ripen. The strawberries in their long troughs are waiting for the bed to be freed and then they will go into that bed for the next three years, with leeks planted in the bed and mustard whilst the soil is bare between the plants over the winter. (I read to do that in my Companion Planting by Gertrud Franck....a wonderful book which is sadly out of print.
The front bed here was strawberries for the last three years. It is now cleaned up ready for over wintering onions.
The asparagus bed is my pride and joy. We will be able to eat these next year as the plants, which I raised from seed myself, have now reached three years old. They have been in this bed for 2 years now. I pulled out a raw new shoot on the asparagus and eat it without cooking....it was beautiful!
My compost Daleks and my pot dumping area. Both of these need a lot of attention. I need to sieve the made compost and move the compost which is still being "made" from Dalek to Dalek along the row. There should be quite a bit to spread. I'll watch my back with the sieving as last year I put my back out when doing it.

Tomorrow I'll post pictures of the after shots...