Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 13th March: the Spring of Deception
One of our gardeners sent through a very appropriate reminder that we are currently experiencing the ‘Spring of deception’ where you get all excited and raring to get going, but that it could all go horribly wrong if we get too carried away. The problem is the weather on the horizon is looking reasonable, and we have filled practically all of our seed trays and the cold frames are full. It is so exciting to see all the little shoots starting to pop up above ground both in the trays and in the garden. New this week is the very first hop and asparagus shoots; however we will have to remain most patient about the asparagus as the beds still have another year to mature until we can start to harvest just a few spears in April 2023.
Many of the buds on the fruit bushes and vines are starting to burst, and the kiwi vines poised to scamper up the canes. The Goji berries are already in acid green leaf and are under threat of being relocated if they do not perform and produce more berries this year. To be fair they did get attacked by climbing snails last year which probably ate all the flowering buds.
Many thanks to Diane who contacted us with a gift of a blackcurrant bush dug up from her Sandgate garden which was surplus to requirements. We certainly have a place to put that!
Seeds sown this week were dill and chervil, peas for pea shoots as well as Mange tout peas, more radishes, beetroot, spring onions, lettuces and spinach. The broccoli which failed the week before has been replaced by a new sprouting batch which will be thinned out this week to give them more room.
The kale which had gone to flower last week was removed and the stalks composted, all the autumn raspberries were cut down to the ground as the new shoots are just starting to show through, (however, summer raspberries are not cut right back in this manner). The enclosure containing the last of the wood chips was emptied, and the wood chips spread about on the paths.
We are pleased to welcome Miracle to the garden, not quite our youngest member but certainly younger than most of us. She is working on her Duke of Edinburgh award and has been busy sowing seeds and tending to the hop plants so far. We hope she will enjoy her visits and gets to absorb what community gardening is all about.
What’s next?
- Cut back the butterfly bush this week
- Pot up more seedlings just starting to appear, for relocation
- Tidy up the chard beds ready for their last fling
- Random onions still need removing from the Choke berry bushes
- Collect new hop twine and re-string the hops
This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.
