Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 29th May: When life gives you lemon trees, and a world of guerrilla gardening.
It was a week of cancellations due to the fact we had even more rain, bringing the total so far for this month to a whopping 47.2 mm!
Anyone who has not seen the garden for a couple of weeks is amazed by the lush green growth and how quickly everything has shot up and matured. Very little watering to do, just some of the pots, and a few new plantings, but otherwise everything seems quite happy. We have been eyeing up the fig trees as they seem to be doing particularly well and quite laden with fruit this year.
The cucumbers got planted, as well as some of the flowering annuals, new coriander plants got planted, and a few celery plants. The garlic had to be lifted as it had rust again and will fail to thrive. It made small bulbs, but very edible and much appreciated. We had this problem with garlic last year so it may be a good idea to see if we want to tackle the situation next year or give up the garlic.
The compost bins 1 and 2 got turned, and bin 1 which was empty, is half full already. We just seem to have got out all the tender plants and made room in the cold frames and before we know it, we have to start thinking about sowing the seeds for autumn, winter and even next spring. More spring onions got sown into modules as did basil and swedes. The next planting of lettuces in June got pricked out into modules as soon as two leaves had come through.
We had several visitors on Saturday. The elderly gentleman who presented us with a lemon tree two weeks ago, came to see if it doing alright and was delighted to see it has three flower buds already, so seemed satisfied that the tree was indeed quite happy there. We were also visited by two Ukrainian ladies currently staying with our lovely Ukrainian gardener, Tatiana. We were delighted to welcome them to the garden, and they got stuck in watering, sowing seeds and generally browsing and chatting to everyone. They took back with them some salad leaves, pea shoots and broad beans. We hope they will visit again.
As usual, a busy week is ahead of us, and lots to sort out and tidy before the Jubilee weekend so that all is looking its best. The guerrilla garden in Golden Valley is being planted up and starting to fill out and look so much better than it ever did before. It has been noticed that the tree pits in Augusta Gardens, Folkestone West, have been beautifully planted with all manner of gorgeous flowering plants and this year edged with a wooden border perhaps to highlight to the council weed sprayer that the planting is deliberate by locals, and can be bypassed – our fingers are crossed.
What’s next?
- Catch up with rained off jobs such as weeding of Golden Valley and Fremantle Park
- Sow more seeds!
- Plant more flowering annuals in available spaces
- Keep checking on the tomatoes for side shoots which need removing
This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.
