Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 5th May: Gingerly Green – the polytunnel.
The rainfall for April was a respectable 65mm, definitely not as much as we have had in the past few months, but a good amount all the same. We managed to dodge the rain for our two gardening sessions on Wednesday and Saturday, in fact those two days were positively spring-like, being warm and sunny.
The sprouting broccoli and the kale have all been removed and composted this week, as did some of the winter lettuce and some patches of nettles. We love nettles and they have a place in a wildlife garden but not when they encroach on the beds and where we are directly working, so some of it had to go. We sowed more lettuce seeds and calabrese to follow on from earlier sowings and have started to pull out some of the finished Spanish bluebells before they go to seed all over the place.
We were most grateful to receive lots of flower seedlings from one of our friends of the garden Erica. Erica has a beautiful ‘no dig’ allotment at Newington and every now and then we swap spare plants although it is probably fair to say that we end up with more from Erica than she possibly receives! Some of the plants neither of us had any use for were passed on to ‘Gingerly Green’ during the week. Gingerly Green has started a beautiful flower cutting market garden just outside of Densole on the Canterbury Road. There is a polytunnel for growing indoors and many flower beds created outside which will be in full bloom during the summer and autumn months. Gingerly Green is holding a plant sale next week to raise money for the Shed, the Folkestone Youth Project. We took along some strawberry plants, pots of mint, lamium and lamb’s ears to boost the sale.
A couple of us went along to the Future Food Forum at the University of Kent in Canterbury on Friday. It was a chance to meet local food producers, and to hear talks about the current state of the food industry from the issues of eating so many processed foods through to how food is presented to pull on our emotional intelligence. It was very interesting – we are already aware of the issues created by our current food system but it was good to hear about how some of the smaller local companies are striving to support communities and to produce good nutritious food and what the cost of all that is to the consumer and the producer. Again the big message was that change has to come from the bottom upwards and to form collaborations locally. We are certainly doing that!
What’s Next?
- Start to sow the French dwarf, borlotti and runner beans
- Repot the squashes
- Sow more spring onions
- Keep weeding and do not forget to dead head some of the flowers
This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.