Sandgate Community Garden: Update 11 September 2022

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 11th September: Remembering the Queen, and life going on.

It was on that very morning, Thursday 8^th September that the Sandgate Society sent out an email to announce that the fabulous topper for the Sandgate letter box outside the Village Shop to mark the Queen’s Jubilee had been presented to the Society for posterity. There is a photo of it below, and it can be seen at the Old Fire Station when open on Saturday mornings. Although we all knew it was inevitable that the Queen would pass away in the not too distant future, it still came as a shock, and how pleased we are as a group to have planted the orchards for her Jubilee, and to be able to remember her and this year as we look after those areas.

Having had bone dry water butts for so many months, it just fills you with joy when the rain comes and there is water again. The pond is being replenished at speed, the grass is coming back lush and green, the plants are standing to attention and we can give the water pump plus watering cans a rest. We are lucky at Enbrook Park to be given a weekly bowser of water by Paul the grounds manager. Many allotments and gardens rely on rain water collection for irrigation and have had to collect hundreds of thousands of litres of rainwater over the autumn and winter months to keep them going over this drought year. That process starts over once more and there is great relief that the water collection tanks are filling once more.

With the rain come the inevitable garden molluscs. The dry weather had kept them hidden away, but now they are on the march and it becomes important to remove old and dying leaves where they love to hunker down. There were two large snails hiding under a yellowing rhubarb leaf, however they are now relocated to another part of the park. It pays to keep a close eye on your plants because before you know it they can be munched and simply gone.

We managed to get some of our list of jobs done for the week. Shrubs were cut back and composted, spring onions planted and winter lettuces pricked out. Until the tomatoes and squashes are finished there is little available space for planting new seedlings, however the badgers continue to try and make some for us by pillaging the beetroot and digging more holes. Always interesting on our visits to the garden to spot what has happened since the last visit. This week we have found a multitude of scrapings made in the wood chip paths, and so we hope whatever it was, found whatever they were looking for.

The Uchiki Kuri squashes did get taken up on Saturday as they had grown all they were going to. Most of our squashes and courgettes really struggled with the water situation or lack of it this year. The squashes have too little time to be able to catch up now, but the courgettes seem to be having a final fling once the rain came back. The mildew stopped, new green leaves appeared and they gave more courgettes. We will give them another week or two and then they will be removed along with the tomatoes to make way for the broad beans, winter salads and perhaps more spring onions.

Sunday 11^th September is the date of the first Hythe Hops harvesting. Sandgate Community Garden will have some hops to offer, but the amount is very much less than last year, however there are more growers in the scheme so the hope is there will be plenty of hops to go to the brewers on Monday.

What’s next?