The onions have toppled over, a sign that they are ready to be lifted and dried, and once done, the ground was covered with the last of the saved compost and planted up with more beans and cucumbers. We have put extra windbreaks along some of the beanpoles to give the beans as much chance as possible.
We planted a few basil plants, kale, and Brussel sprouts, all kindly donated by the new mayor of Folkestone, Michelle Dorrell. Michelle is a keen allotment holder it seems, and has joined the Incredible Edible movement which some of us are involved with locally. She is yet to visit the community garden, and hope she can find the time to do so this summer.
Everything is starting to grow fast, the courgettes and the sweetpeas are almost in flower, and so it will not be long before we can expect to be picking more. Most of the time we have enough for the volunteers to have a taste, and occasionally a visitor to the garden will ask if anything is available, and go away with something too. With the onset of the summer glut, we hope to be able to get the vegetables to even more people – not forgetting we are also sharing with the wildlife (most of us have not seen a strawberry as yet!). Before the virus overtook, we would take produce to the library or perhaps the Sandgate Society at the Fire Station; and so now we are thinking we could make it known that we may have some seasonal veg available at the gate, on Wednesday and Saturday mornings from 10am until midday.
Thank you so much to all the kind and friendly visitors we have that come up to the garden to lean over the fence and take a look at the changes, compare notes, or ask questions. We really do appreciate all the positive comments we have had, and hope that more of you may find the time to do the same. We are interested in promoting the growing of seasonal fruit and vegetables locally, as well as supporting wildlife. Many of our volunteers are growing at home too, even if they only have space for a few pots, and below are a couple of photos from two of their gardens. There was a request for the photographs to be listed for easier identification, so hopefully they should now make more sense!
What’s next?
- The mint has still not been potted up!
- Sow more beetroot and chicory
- Remove some of the finished pea shoots to make way for more lettuce plants
- Remove spinach as it is bolting.
Sheila’s wildflower section in her garden 
Theresa’s vegetable pots 
Onions drying Salad leaves from the garden
