Kitchen garden tidy up

Today I felt a bit too fragile to work on the plot as it catches the cold winds on a breezy day. So I worked in the Kitchen Garden instead. It was long overdue.Firstly a few pics of the state of play before I started. This photo shows the rh beds before the sun got to them. The far right one has brussels and broccoli in. The one one the left has gladioli bulbs just beginning to die back. In front of them some winter radish. Black and very hot!The left front bed has field beans as a green manure. It was heavily mulched with mowings last time we cut the grass....this has all but disappeared!The front right bed has a few salad leaves in it....the rest is bare.
Here are the next 4 beds. The far left one appears in the next photo so I'll mention it later. The far right one has spinach, under cloche to stop the cats "manuring it. I sowed these a while ago and I haven't looked lately to see how they are getting on. There is also a couple of brussels sprout plants....still quite small so they'll possibly follow on from the others. The marigolds at the front of the bed are still strong looking but I don't suppose there will be any more Flowers. In the front garden they flower all winter but the back garden is shaded by the house so is not so warm.The front bed has what's left of my leeks. The rest of the bed now has a deep layer of compost.The one behind, with the green netting on, is completely sown with onion sets. They seem to be coming up.

This is the back bed. The cloches cover some more sets...shallots this time. On their left is the garlic, which looks pretty good. This now has a heavy compost mulch too.Behind the garlic are a few broad bean [plants...the end of a packet, just filling a small square. The main lot of these are at the allotment.Front left is my little bed of salsify. What do I do with them then? I grew them as an experiment. I have no idea if they are ready, or what to do with them if they are...!

The asparagus (started Spring 2006 from seed and in this bed since May I think) was at last turning yellow so I have cut the tops off, weeded the bed, and put a 2 inch layer of compost on the crowns.The strawberries were trimmed back some weeks ago now. I weeded them again today and put a good mulch of compost around these too.

But the main job of the day was sorting out the compost bins. See next post!