This week in Stephanie’s Kitchen Garden we have been pruning our asparagus plants down to the ground. The fronds have begun turning yellow and dying off so it is the perfect time to tidy up. After pruning they were given a very generous mulch of well rotted home made compost.
The big autumn tidy up will continue with our runner bean and climbing French bean plants. They are now looking very tatty and have yielded the last of their crops. The frame will be moved into its position for next year’s crop once the ground has been dug over and enriched with manure.
In the staff garden, the tidy up has also taken place. The squashes and pumpkins had to be pulled up as they developed a horrible mildew and everything just started to rot.
We have dug the beds over our raised beds and added in some soil improver and our very own compost from our tumbling composter to which we have just planted out our onion sets!
We are trialling a new pop up cloche on our raised beds at the moment – which is keeping our cabbages safe from pests! 
We seem to be very lucky with brassicas – we have kept a close eye on them and spray regularly to keep away any invaders.
We are trying our luck at planting up some strawberry runners in hope that we might have a bumper harvest next year.
A bit of weed clearing was in order this week as well as they seemed to be popping up all over the place
We are currently growing Tat soi,Choi Sum,Chinese Cabbage,salad leaves, leeks, radishes and garlic chives.
Next week we will be having a greenhouse blitz – clean the glass & pots wash it all down and tidy up for the winter months.
