Kitchen Garden Autumn Tidy-up

Progress so far. The rh end of the kitchen garden is much tidier now. The bed around the edge of the garden is weeded out and I've put in pansies and daffodils. These should cheer me up come spring.

The beds you see here have some of our winter veg supplies in them. The far one has leeks, Chinese cabbage and Fennel. The rh bed has celeriac and parsnips. The foreground bed is a bit empty. It still has one volunteer tomato with huge green tomatoes on it.....might try fried green tomatoes (battered!) with them if they don't soon ripen. Also in the bed are some broccoli and some kale, Cavolo Nero. The bed behind has 4 short rows of the autumn carrots I also sowed at the plot. I have netted them against the cats. Behind that I have put the irises I got from Cayeux for the front garden when it is ready. (We are having the drive re-shaped and getting rid of the front lawn. I want one iris bed as it is so dry and hot in the front they should do well.)

I also spent two days sorting through the compost piles and sifting the made stuff. The result is that the rh Dalek is full to the brim with half made compost. The black Dalek is more than half full of beautiful sifted compost to be put on the veg beds (which are still occupied with the beans and tomatoes etc The lh tall green dalek is empty....waiting for new stuff, and the very lh one is for kitchen waste through this winter.

The black dustbin is also full to the brim with made, sieved compost.

I am very sorry to report that I disturbed three mice whilst I was turning the compost. I usually like to do it before Autumn is too far advanced so that they can find somewhere new before it gets too cold. One was actually speared on the fork. I think it was only through his loose belly skin but when I pulled him off the fork he shot off before I could finish him off. I couldn't find him. I hated myself for quite a while after that. I hope he either recovers quickly, or that he died quickly.

We had a bonfire of all the twiggy bits that didn't seem to want to rot down. The garden seems much tidier now.

I have a full programme of stuff still to do in the back Kitchen Garden.....starting tomorrow....