Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 21st August: final reminder of our appearance at the Sandgate Sea Festival next Sunday 28th August on the seafront!
What a difference a week has made! We got a little bit of rain at the very start of the week which was enough to freshen the garden but certainly not enough to make an impression when suddenly on Wednesday we were treated to a torrential downpour which, looking at the weather app was not expected. Having spent lots of time watering the garden in the morning, which is no mean feat, one of our gardeners, Chris, was slightly peeved at having earlier wasted that time and of course water. Such is the random nature of the English weather. As soon as it started to pour down, my phone began to ‘ping’ with messages from all the different gardening WhatsApp groups, all ecstatic that after all this time we had significant rain. It certainly made many folk happy that day, although of course it caused flash flooding and in equal measure probably caused great distress too. We could see that the paths had washed their way down the slopes within the park, and even our wood chip paths had gone astray too. They had to be raked back and more added to make amends.
It had paid off to go ahead with the planting last week thank goodness, the critical time being the first week during warm weather as the plants need plenty of water to get their roots down into the soil and start to find water for themselves. The rain gave them that boost and a little reprieve from the constant sunshine and heat, and now they are starting to look most perky.
We were delighted to see how quickly the pond had begun to fill, as before it was looking really sad and we had to keep adding a bucket of water each time we visited. On Saturday morning the pond was surrounded once more by curious visiting dragonflies, all sorts of insects and lots of bathing birds; it was then we noticed that one of our winter squashes had marched its way through the undergrowth and directly into the pond. Had we not fished it out and encouraged it to grow in another direction, it would be in danger of drowning. It will be interesting to see how long it will take to return to a full pond once more.
It was clear that the nocturnal mammals that frequently visit were equally delighted by the rain. It meant they could more easily dig some rather large holes in the beds, probably in search of some deeply hidden worms. This can cause great problems in a newly planted bed where the poor plants loose the surrounding soil, and once stranded, dry out and shrivel up in a matter of a couple of hours.
The winter radish had grown large enough to be planted out and we made a start on that this week along with the Chinese cabbages. More winter mustards got sown as did two trays of spring onions. The rain will start to bring new growth, and so we have started to cut back plants past their best and in need of a ‘haircut’ to smarten them up. The tough job of tackling the cutting down of the globe artichokes / cardoons got tackled, and as you can see in one of the pictures below, they grew mighty tall!
This week’s newsletter is our final reminder of our appearance at the Sandgate Sea Festival next Sunday 28th August on the seafront. As you can see from some of the pictures, we have been busy nurturing many plants for the occasion for some time, and this event will be an opportunity for us to raise some funds to keep us going. So bring pockets and wallets full of cash and make sure you stop and talk to us. We would like to say many thanks to Terry for the kind donation of some beautiful healthy plants.
We are all looking forward to seeing you at the festival, and our fingers are crossed for fine weather in particular for the day, so far it is looking good, but after this week, can we trust that weather app?
What’s next?
- Finish planting the radishes and Chinese cabbages
- Do any of the brassica plants need replacing?
- Continue to sort out plants for the Sea Festival
- Continue to remove unwanted leaves from tomato plants and all squashes
This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.
