Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 9th April: Happy holiday y’all!
Well, not too sure that we are out of the woods as regards the frosty weather but it seems that the plants are just starting to wake up and do something at last albeit a little tentatively.
The little orchard in the Sandgate Park got weeded and some more herbs planted. The bulbs there are just starting to flower, and there are new leaves or blossoms which have just appeared over this last week.
At Enbrook Park we planted a bed with broccoli, and another with lettuces, whilst yet another sixty plugs of radishes went to join the radishes planted the week before. We sowed plenty of flowering plants in anticipation of catering for the bees on site, and pricked out over one hundred and twenty snapdragons, as well as some cornflowers. The sweet peas got planted at last around their wigwam frames, and the broad beans got staked as they are now rapidly growing and flowering. We had managed to rescue most of the purple sprouting broccoli plants from the pigeons and that meant we picked the first spears/shoots/flowers this week, and what a beautiful colour they are too. We even had a picking from the earliest rhubarb type, whilst the other varieties are still just starting to wake up. However we are amazed this week that we still have any garden left at all at Enbrook as we have had a visit from a determined badger. There were several great holes dug along many of the paths and into some of the beds, and can only imagine that they were searching for some of our juicy fat worms!
The Nepalese community project at Pent Farm has been held up by the weather. The members of the growing project have been growing all their seedlings indoors on the ample window ledges of their community centre in Cheriton; and have now had to repot them until such time as the ground works have been done. It will probably be another two weeks until their patch of ground will be dry enough to work on.
There has been much admiration of the Golden Valley community garden patch this week as the flowers are looking fabulous, and the plants have put on lots of new growth.
We were interested to learn from one of our regular garden visitors that it seems our humble newsletter even gets an airing in America of all places. So, we would like to wish you all in America or Sandgate, a very happy holiday!
What’s next?
- Take out some brambles appearing amongst the base of the fig tree
- Plant some cauliflowers if we can find room – maybe interplant with spring onions
- Plant more lettuces alongside the others
- Sow courgettes this week
This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.