Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 12th June: Potatoes, Brockhill School, Stream Walk Community Garden and the Golden Arrow.
It seems the temperatures are beginning to rise, and the cucumbers are not looking quite so sickly, even the dwarf beans have started to perk up a bit and the courgettes are just starting to show the first fruits. We seem to have managed to keep up with the removal of the side shoots on the tomatoes this year, and are doing the same with the hop plants too. One of the beds of broad beans got stripped and uprooted to make way for a new planting of lettuces. It made an entire trug full of bean pods, and we were able to let any visitors take some, and have plenty enough to take home too.
Having inspected the first plot of early potatoes, we took an executive decision to pull them up as they looked large enough on having an initial rummage around in the soil, and anyway we do need the room. Our gardeners working towards their Duke of Edinburgh Award had planted them back in March, and they were delighted to now be harvesting them, so we left them to it, listening to all the squeals of delight when they found more buried ‘treasure’.
Our young volunteers are at Brockhill School in Hythe, and we were invited to go and have a look at an amazing walled garden the school has on site. It has been out of use for some time, and the fantastic greenhouses need lots of restoration, but what a fabulous resource to have. The master plan is to get the garden up and running again for the children to start learning about horticulture. Such an exciting project, and so looking forward to seeing the progress as it happens. We hope to keep you informed on that.
We also had an invite to go and visit Stream Walk Community Garden in Whitstable. We had visited the garden some time ago, but during the pandemic, the garden had a change of committee and new blood to carry the project on and indeed upwards to yet another level. Much larger than any of our spaces, the garden is right in the community and so gets plenty of people using the space. The gardeners made us feel so very welcome, and spent much of their time with us telling us about the project. We always like to analyse such trips to consider our practices and if we can take anything learnt on board, and usually come to the conclusion we are different in several ways – however who knows what the future may bring.
One thing we do really appreciate is that we are also quite visible in our community, in lots of different areas, and fortunate enough to have local support to keep us up and running. After the jubilee weekend, we were invited to go to the Golden Arrow to pick up the takings from the various events that went on such as the tombola and raffle. Richard and Shona the landlords handed over a massive £570. They wanted any money they made to go to the Sandgate Community Garden team as we are always out and about in the Golden Valley and Fremantle Park, and we are all working towards community in the Golden Valley. We are most grateful and humbled.
This week in the Golden Valley at Fremantle Park, some of the lads from the Shorncliffe Barracks came out to help us plant the globe artichokes, some gooseberry and currant bushes, as well as more flowering annuals. Next week they are going to be helping one of our other contacts, Rosemary at the Romney Marsh Community Garden with several chores she has lined up. They are certainly keeping busy.
Finally: Advance Notice – next week’s newsletter will be a day later, because of a family wedding in East Sussex (that is if the groom has recovered from covid which appeared in the last couple of days!).
What’s next?
- Prick out the kale, swede and basil seedlings.
- Plant the next batch of lettuces and spring onions
- Sow the purple sprouting
- Order more seeds
- Take up the next bed of broad beans
This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.
