Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 8th August: sometimes, you just can’t hold back any more.
Crikey! It is August already! We are into the summer holiday period with some of our volunteers going away, and new volunteers turning up whilst they are holidaying in Sandgate. We are getting reports of how much greener parts of the country are looking compared with scorched earth Sandgate, and accounts of rain falling when there is none here. On the last day of July up to about 10pm, the rainfall for all of July was just 2.1mm in Sandgate. However it then started to rain, and by midnight the gauge had jumped to 4.9mm. Well, not enough to solve all the problems caused by the drought, but enough to freshen things up a little. It was interesting to read on social media that we are not to have a hosepipe ban inflicted upon us contrary to what we keep seeing on the news. It seems that Affinity Water does not rely on reservoirs but on groundwater aquifers and supply should not be a problem this year, subject to there being enough rain later. Parts of Kent not covered by Affinity Water will be under a hosepipe ban. However many people wisely continue to be most careful with using water, and have taken to collecting bath and even shower water to use in the garden as plants do not mind soapy water.
The strawberry farm has released their spent grow bags for the season, and left them to be taken free of charge to be used as a soil improver. Happy to oblige we made a few journeys and collected as much as possible. Where new areas have been mulched, the lack of rain has meant that where the cardboard layer is under the compost, some of it has remained dry and not therefore been able to start decomposing, and then in places starts to become exposed. This has happened in a few places at Fremantle Park, so with the help of some volunteers from Napier Barracks, some of the foraged/recycled fruit farm compost was used to cover the gaps and generally add a deeper layer around the trees. Some of the strawberry grow bags smell quite strongly of strawberries, attracting many wasps and making it hazardous to collect more compost, however we shall persevere!
There comes a point where we just have to plant some things in the ground and not hold them back any longer, in the hope that there may surely be some rain as we get nearer to September. The executive decision was taken to plant the beetroot, and other things will have to follow as they outgrow the larger pots. The sweet peas struggled this year and we have decided to stop watering them and let finish flowering and go to seed as the flower stems are so short they are difficult to pick and make into bunches; so we shall just have to enjoy them for this final week before they get pulled up.
The lettuce seedlings got pricked out into single modules to grow on, dill and coriander got sown but the parsley forgotten. The chard moved on into larger modules. The alleyway in Meadowbrook had a cut back and tidy. It has produced many artichokes this year, and continues to bring a smile to travellers as they pass through.
This year we have been feeling quite smug that we had not allowed the tomato plants to run away from us, producing side shoots and flopping over – oh no! This year we have been in control studiously pinching out the unwanted growth and making sure the plants are properly staked. However a new phenomenon has been noticed which I certainly had not seen before, where some tomato plants not only send out side shoots between the joint where a leaf meets the main stem but also from the leaves themselves as shown in a photo below. My goodness, as if the task was not already tough enough!
What’s next?
- Sow trays of flat and curled parsley
- Keep up the watering, but only the plants that need it
- Repot purple sprouting and Chinese cabbages
- Probably a good idea to pinch out all tomato tops now if not done already
- Check on the plants for the plant sale at the Sea Festival end of this month
This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.
