Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 14th January: It was all about compost this week.
We have another month until we can start off the first of the seeds for the year, so most of our time is spent clearing, tidying and preparing for the growing year ahead. It remains very cold, not so much rain and happily a little sunshine. Some of the men from the Napier barracks came out to help us by moving yet more compost from the lower end of the park up to the garden and into our compost compound there, as well as dropping several wheelbarrow loads onto some of the beds in need of covering mulch. At the same time a compost pile we have been adding to within the garden was turned causing a flurry of excitement by our resident robin. The robin could be heard singing at the top of his lungs throughout the whole time we were there but was not so easy to spot and even harder to photograph. It flit into the various compost piles whenever our gaze was averted and no doubt managed to find some good pickings from the compost wildlife.
It was time to tidy the tool box too. Some stacking crates had been found destined for the bins but were rescued and put to good use keeping all our smaller items such as balls of string scissors, secateurs and hand trowels together, where they can now hopefully be found easily. Woe betides any gardener who messes up the good work there for a while at least!
On Thursday there was a kombucha tasting evening at Docker Bar Sandgate. There were some amazing flavours to sample from elderberry to fig leaf to ginger and turmeric as well as Hythe Hops, perhaps from our very own hops from 2023.
We had a visit from two ladies in the process of starting their own community garden in East Folkestone for patients with dementia. We are always very happy to give any advice we can on starting up a garden and will be following their progress with interest.
What’s next?
- Get a delivery of wood chips
- Some of the main paths need a new wood chip mulch
- Tidy the banana tree
- Label the stacking crates
This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.