Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 16th October: Comparing notes, know your mushrooms and the flight of the Sandgate Storks…
We have all sorts of interesting people come up to the garden at Enbrook Park to have a look around and to chat. Many visitors to the area and local residents drop by; some of them on a regular basis to see how the garden is doing; to look at what is in season and perhaps compare how the growth is in their own garden or allotment. So we compare notes and talk about the effect the weather had this summer on the growth now, as well as how many things are desperately trying to catch up or getting a ‘second wind’ and surprising us in mid-October.
As mentioned last week, there are plenty of fungi appearing all over the plot, and it is interesting to note how different people react to it. Unfortunately most of us know so very little about it, and when it appears in its many forms it is often viewed with suspicion and maybe a little bit of fear. Perhaps the best thing to be learnt about fungi is that it is to be respected and cannot be collected and eaten unless you really know your stuff – it can be lethal. However, just as it is possible to know one or two berries that are safe to forage from the wild (for example blackberries and elderberries), it is also wise to begin foraging for fungi by really knowing just one or two safe examples. Needless to say, none of our gardeners know a thing about our fungi, so we just leave well alone. What we do understand is that fungi in a garden is a good thing, and generally is helping to bring food and moisture to the plants. As a subject there is so much to learn about it, and was probably something our ancestors knew much more about than many of us do today.
One of our returning visitors is the elderly gentleman who gave us the little lemon tree which he planted up against the brick wall. He likes to see how it is getting on and to give it a few words of encouragement. He was pleased to observe this week that it was happily flowering away and had a tiny lemon too. The plant is only a mere 15cms tall but is really trying its best and certainly gives much pleasure for its stature. The gentleman was also comparing our banana tree to one in his garden which has produced a flower and now bananas! Well, who knows, maybe next year our banana tree might produce some fruit too.
Another interesting visit was from a couple who are temporarily living in Sandgate until their house purchase goes through in another part of Kent. They are avid bird watchers or ‘twitchers’, always armed with binoculars, as they walk around the area, and constantly on the alert to catch sight of migrating birds. They relayed how one morning whilst walking along Sandgate seafront, they caught sight of an entire flock (or muster) of storks flying across from the channel and inland. We are aware of storks nesting at Knepp in Sussex, so maybe this was where they were heading. It is an experience of sorts to have seagulls nesting on your roof, but just imagine if Sandgate had storks…. not too sure we are ready for that just yet.
What’s next?
- Finish weeding the outside edge of the fence
- Keep picking up leaves and fallen sycamore seeds
- Fix the leaf compost area
- Keep up the weeding of all areas
This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.