Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 13th August: Praying for decent weather for the Sea Festival.
We are praying for decent weather at the end of the month for the Sea Festival because if it is anything like it was last weekend with waves crashing over the Sandgate Promenade, it will be a disaster. However, being optimistic as always and keeping everything as well as our fingers crossed, Sunday 27th August WILL be a perfect day!
Sandgate-Seafest-Flyer-2023-webThe Animal and Plant Health Agency are still in situ with their welfare van, which was joined by another van, to continue the hunt for the Asian hornets in the area. Nests were found in Seabrook, and the search is now on at Capel Le Ferne. We believe they are making progress, but let us hope it is enough, or it could be a continuous battle, time will tell.
The hedge did get a trim this week. Luckily the wind had died down enough to be able to sow seeds for mustard leaves, turnips, claytonia, spring cabbages and cauliflowers. A few more plugs of spring onions got planted, and some kohl rabi. The tomatoes as yet show no signs of blight but the likelihood is that it is only a matter of time before it shows up. The pond has cheekily been growing lots of duckweed probably in response to having so much water, and so we have been regularly fishing it out from the surface to prevent it smothering the entire pond.
Some of our fruit trees have managed to produce some fruit this year which may actually stay on the trees long enough to ripen – well, you never know!
On Thursday the brick planters outside the shops at Golden Valley got a tidy, and the weeds around the bases removed. Often an onerous task, but made bearable with the addition of volunteers from Napier Barracks. We are always grateful for the extra help. We then went on to remove brambles from the orchard in Fremantle Park, and spent part of the afternoon eating blackberries fresh from the hedge line – nothing finer on a warm sunny day.
What’s next?
- Trim the inside of the hedge
- Plant out Chinese cabbages
- Keep checking the tomatoes
- Sow more claytonia
This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.