Sandgate Community Garden: Update 7 July 2019

It has been a warm week, and we have been working hard to water all those thirsty plants, and they have rewarded us with more salad, some courgettes and pak choi .

The leeks, kale and purple sprouting got planted, and now here is where the fun begins!  As soon as the very warm weather arrived, and the kale and purple sprouting got to a decent size, the first of the cabbage white butterflies started to make an appearance, to seek out those seedlings and lay a few eggs all over them!  So if we are not to surrender our plants to the caterpillars, we will have to be observant, and remove any eggs before they devour the lot!  If you are not sure what you are looking for, there are two pictures of what the eggs look like, with this newsletter.  More salad has been sown, but July and August are months when it is best to avoid sowing certain seeds as they tend to bolt or set seed before their time.

Kalpana, a representative from the Nepalese community visited the garden this week to talk about Nepalese growing and cooking that is possible in the UK.  It was really interesting to hear about how the food is grown mainly in back yards, and is an important part of family life and diet.

We have been so busy with watering and searching for butterfly eggs, or being on holiday, that some of the jobs from last week will reappear again on this week’s tasks.  This may be an ongoing theme for a few weeks until holidays and dry, warm weather are out of the way, and we can get down to some more serious planting and sowing yet again!

What’s next? –

  • Watering, if this weather continues
  • Remove pesky butterfly eggs or caterpillars from the brassicas
  • Keep pinching out tomato plant side shoots – unless it is obviously a bush tomato!
  • Hoe those weeds on the paths, and dig out any of that bindweed making a re-appearance
  • Two raised boxes to finish
  • Ground to be cleared between the water tank and the fruit trees