Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 2nd April: Ten varieties of tomato, coming soon.
That sunny warm spring seems to still be eluding us, with a continuation of yet more rain and stormy days. The rainfall for March was 109.3mm, double the monthly average. In March last year the total was just 29.5mm.
Sandgate is filled with the sounds of chainsaws felling trees and the loud crunching of the wood chipping machines. It has been going on all week from Romney Avenue in Golden Valley in one direction, and from the woods in Military Road, making way for yet more housing. There is an empty sky where there used to be a canopy. When you read that trees are capable of sensing when their neighbours are under attack and can send signals of alarm further afield to other trees, it just makes you sad.
Let us dispense with the misery and consider happier things.
We did manage to dodge more rain, and weed the rest of Fremantle Park. We just managed to put in a couple of dozen strawberry plants before we gave up and let the rainfall water them in.
We finished planting the seed potatoes and directly sowed the carrots and parsnips. The parsnips will not mature until the first frosts so we could be being a little optimistic there, considering our possible time left at Enbrook! The peas for pea pods got sown and the spinach planted. The cabbages, calabrese and thyme seedlings got pricked out and potted on, as did some 250 tomato plants. Now that amount of tomato plants will be more than enough even for us, so we are sure to have plenty to pass on later this month. We have ten varieties to choose from, so something for everyone.
We are battling with the sycamore seedlings as we do this time every year, but whilst searching them out we come across so many other seedlings that randomly pop up which we can use in other gardens or pot up in preparation for one of our events. It is such a delight to benefit from plants for free, and always interesting to see them emerging and then puzzle over what they could be until they become large enough to recognise.
We have been observing the rhubarb patch as it has evolved over the last month. Our earliest variety showed itself some weeks ago, yet most of the other plants are still to appear or are just revealing a first stem and leaf.
Last but not least, one of our vigilant gardeners spotted something called a bee-fly. It looks and behaves like a bee, sipping nectar with its long tongue or proboscis, preferably from flowers such as primroses and wild violets, of which there are plenty in the Golden Valley gardens this time of year. There is a photo of it below, so keep a lookout for it in your street.
What’s next?
- Weed at the Sandgate orchard and plant more herbs there.
- Plant another tray of radishes
- Might need to consider staking the broad beans as they are growing fast
- Pot up Goji berry runners for transplanting elsewhere
This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.