Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 27th August: It is all happening in Sandgate.
Crikey! It is all happening in Sandgate. The Sea Festival weekend is upon us at last, yet by the time you read this newsletter it will probably be all finished. We have been keeping a close eye on the weather, and although there were showers on Saturday, it did not spoil the evening firework show marking the start of the festival. We now know that our stall will be right on the seafront in front of the car park, alongside our sister groups, Sandgate Environmental Action and the Sandgate Society.
During the week we have been checking over the plants to make sure they are in fine fettle for the day. The van is full to the brim already and there will have to be several trips made back and forth to get everything in place first thing in the morning. So pleased to say that we have plenty of volunteers for the day, helping to unload the van and set up the stall – it will be a great day!
The week has been busy. Some of the claytonia seedlings have been pricked out, along with the cabbages and some red mustard. There has been a great deal of weeding as the growth is quite lush in the garden and cheeky weeds are hiding in the undergrowth until they find a space and show themselves, only to be found and pulled up. Some of the cucumber and winter squash plants have grown into the hedge so that their fruits are dangling in the middle of it. The rosemary plants got a good trim, a few plums got picked and most then eaten, the dwarf bean plants taken out and composted to make way for plantings of Japanese turnips, Chinese cabbages, mustards and winter radishes. The daylight hours are drawing in, and there is no time left to sow many seeds. The last will be a few small red radishes and in October, the broad beans, then no more seeds until next February. It feels like the year is winding down already.
The offshoot of our original banana tree is doing very well, so we said goodbye to the old stem which sadly snapped during high winds, and cut it back. There is now another new stem and you can see in the picture below that the amaranth in front sets it off quite nicely to give a real ‘jungle’ look.
What’s next?
- Prick out the rest of the claytonia
- Keep checking on the tomatoes for blight
- Keep the new plantings well watered plus the celery and celeriac
- Get some hoops over the lettuces for the netting
This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.