Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 1st May: Tomato down, fence up, bench built, but the rain is AWOL.
There is still no rain for Sandgate and very little promise of any on the horizon. Apparently we had 21.1 mm of rain this month which must have come on the very first day or so, or crept in during one night!
The plants have to really put down their roots to find any moisture in the soil and clearing any of the plots to make way for new plants is a fight. Some of the roots and stems seem welded into the soil or set off in concrete, whilst others are sitting within a dust bowl; such is the difference between contrasting areas of the same garden.
The spinach from last autumn had gone to seed, and the parsley was trying to do the same, there are new plants of both and so the compost heap gained a deep new layer of vegetation. The sweet peas got planted with two newly positioned wig-wams near the pond (where they are sheltered from the wind). A liberal dollop of horse manure got added too, providing a mulch as well as fertiliser for such hungry plants.
An executive decision was made to plant the tomatoes this Saturday. The temperatures are fine both day and night, but the wind can be a threat and so they have been netted just for a couple of weeks to get them settled in. More will be planted this coming week, and we will start to plant in spaces along the wall. The beans, courgettes and squashes are following along just a week or two behind them, so we have time to concentrate on one thing at a time.
Concentration was certainly not happening when a complete idiot (me of course), managed to drop an entire tray of pots full of seedlings just on their way to be pricked out into larger pots. Fortunately we had some patient and capable volunteer gardeners there, who carefully salvaged all they could from the situation, and seedlings were saved but many were lost. Luckily, and on the very same day, Rosie turned up with donation plants she had grown and potted on at home for us. Thank goodness for that.
Thanks also go to Rosemary from the Romney Marsh community garden as she had even more seeds to share with us and a few plants for the Incredible Edible plant sale and seed swap which is next Saturday 7th May from 10am to 2pm outside the United Response Community Network in Cheriton High Street. If you are a keen gardener or looking to fill some spaces in the garden or house, then this is the event for you, and the place to get some terrific plants for a small donation. We will be providing some potted herbs as well as spare tomato plants, courgettes and squashes if they hurry up and get a little bit bigger for the day. We also have some garden plants and some of our very decorative tree spinach too.
Always looking for recycled additions for our garden, Rita offered a beautiful slab of slate retrieved from a neighbour throwing it out from a house renovation. We matched the slab up with some concrete blocks, hid them from view with strategically placed logs and we now have a new bench, just in front of the pond, a great place to have a sit and a chat, or a seat to work from.
We are indeed very fortunate at the garden for all the kind people who donate time, energy, or other gifts to make the garden what it is today. A very special thank you to Paul for making such a fabulous job of the boundary fencing, now finished, it just looks terrific, and we are receiving many compliments on how good the Sandgate Community Garden is looking – now all we need is RAIN.
What’s next?
- Finish planting up the second tomato bed and start planting along the wall.
- Repot the winter squashes
- Clear some of the beds and prepare for replanting
- Check on the number of hop shoots per plant
This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.