Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 20th August: The slugs and snails are on the march, and the hunt is still on for hornets.
We had a massive 22.9mm of rain on Friday night, which is more than we usually get for most months. The thunder and lightning rip-roared about for a few hours which seemed to wake most folk up, but it did mean that there was no need to water the Enbrook Park garden on the Saturday morning, and all the plants looked glad for it. However the slugs and snails are on the march, and with all our brassicas under netting, they have free reign to romp about as much as they like it seems. There were also a few cabbage white caterpillars that had escaped our vigilance until they were so big they were blindingly obvious and therefore easy to evict.
The hedge got another trim this week, the claytonia, and spring onion seeds got sown and the Chinese cabbages planted next to the kohl rabi. We had some wallflower seedlings which got moved into larger pots, and some of the plants for our sale next Sunday at the Sandgate Sea Festival were looked over and pampered to be their best for the day.
Unfortunately the hornet hunters are still very busy hunting the Asian hornets, and some information leaflets were taken to the Parish Council in the hope they can be put on the public information boards locally to give details on what to look for and how to identify them. Seen one? Report an Asian Hornet sighting here.
As for the current situation with the tomatoes, well sadly the dreaded blight is rapidly closing in on us. There are no signs of it on our plants at Enbrook Park still but it is in the area. The plants have done particularly well all considered, and are full of tomatoes. They usually ripen from the bottom truss upwards, and this week as usual we were greeted with large bite marks and half chewed fruits on the plants, whilst others were pulled off and discarded by our usual suspects, the badgers. We are of the mind to share with them anyway as they were in the park before us but just hope that they do not take to climbing up the cordons to reach further up.
In general, most of the plants are doing well, even the hops have suddenly started to appear, but perhaps one disappointment so far is that the winter squash plants have very few fruits. They have plenty of male flowers, but no female flowers. We understand that this could be due to the fact it has been quite cool this summer with plenty of rain so the plants decide not to produce any female flowers. We shall have to see if the situation changes, but now time is getting on and before we know it we will be into September!
What’s next?
- Prick out the claytonia seedlings, cabbages and cauliflowers.
- Weed between the asparagus and rosemary plants.
- Trim back the rosemary plants and tidy them up
- Find space for the next plantings
This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.