Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 23rd July: Dwarf beans, blackcurrants, tomatoes, fungi and flowers.
Considering the fact that many parts of the world including Europe are experiencing extreme heatwaves, it has to be said that cooler showery/windy weather has to be preferable, although not everybody would agree with that. The showers are so localised, that it can be raining hard at Pent Farm and Cheriton High Street, even at the top of Enbrook Valley, with the rain literally bouncing back off the pavement, yet the rest of Sandgate can be absolutely bone dry! Fortunately Sandgate did get plenty of showers, meaning no, or little watering, and most of the plants are responding well to plentiful water.
Of course, not all plants this time of year will be enjoying the wet, thinking of tomatoes in particular, and already many gardeners are on the lookout for the dreaded blight, as these are perfect conditions for it to turn up out of the blue. We are being vigilant, ready to act should it come our way anytime soon. We have already had some ripe tomatoes from our outdoor plants. The first to appear were the Sungold variety, followed by the black Indigo Cherry Drops, and the Yellow Submarines. After that, the small cherry tomatoes are starting to appear, but the larger varieties are some way behind.
The dwarf beans have been cropping well this year and also seem to have plenty of flowers to continue on. Last year they struggled in the heat and lack of water, later falling victim to blackfly.
The broccoli has also done quite well, and this year we have tried the type which keeps producing side shoots similar to purple sprouting, rather than just producing one large head. This means that you get a longer cropping harvest and not just a load of broccoli all at once. We had hoped to be able to plant the late flowering purple sprouting for next spring; however it is proving to be a little reluctant and is well behind the growth of the earlier varieties. It may have to wait another week or so.
Many of our blackcurrant bushes fared well this year too, mainly because they are a year old and therefore larger. We lost our crop at Enbrook to the badgers, but the bushes at Fremantle Park and the alleyway at Meadowbrook produced some lovely currants which hopefully got picked by local foragers.
Last but not least we have been rewarded with plenty of fungi in the compost bins too; a great sign which means that the compost is doing just what we want it to.
What’s next?
- Sow more wallflowers, lettuce, endive, winter radish
- Finish weeding the brassica beds under the netting
- Net the Aronia bushes before the birds/badgers get them
- Check on the honey berries
- Cut back the inside of the hedge
This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.