Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 11th June: The mole is happily making earth mounds and pushing up seedlings.
The strong winds were still a feature this week, and then the temperature started to climb so that by Saturday it was sweltering. The weather report keeps talking of thunderstorms in the south east of England; however as is usual with Sandgate, we suspect they will pass by our corner of the country again, with no rain expected at all for as far as the weather experts can see.
As soon as we start one of our gardening sessions, it is out with the watering cans and the water pump although not everything gets watered, just new plants, pots, and anything that looks like it is struggling. The potatoes had to get on with it but we may have to water them soon or the potato crop will be meagre. Some of them can be seen just under the surface of the soil and so we have had to apply more compost to prevent them becoming green from the sunlight. The broad beans are still producing well, and as more bean pods are picked, the amount of beans inside have increased which is interesting as last week we were reporting that there were only two or three in each pod. We also picked our first Japanese turnips which are versatile as they can be eaten raw, grated into a coleslaw, thrown into a stir fry or roasted – absolutely delicious.
The leeks got planted as did more dwarf beans, and more squashes. A few lettuce seedlings were pricked out into larger modules, and the Bellis daisy seeds got sown.
The mole is happily making earth mounds and pushing up seedlings in several of the plots, whilst the shrinking pond is alive with water boatmen. Aphids seem to be having a great time attacking a few broad bean plants, some of the globe artichokes and the stems of the elder flowers. There are so many flowers out at the moment, from foxgloves to nasturtiums, borage, violas, strawberries, peas and tomatoes, so that every day there is something new to look at.
Our new composting system is being hard worked on by one of our DIY skilled gardeners. Using mostly scrap materials from pallets to donated wood, our new composting bays are starting to take shape. We have several changes to make to our current system, and it will be a while until it is fully up and running, and even longer until we can tell if we are on the right track. But we will report on how it is going over time. We also had a donation of a wormery to the garden, which we also hope to be able to set up just as soon as everything else is in place.
What’s next?
- Strip back the pea shoot bed
- Keep checking the tomatoes for new side shoots
- Sow purple sprouting
- Net the strawberry planter
This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.