Sandgate Community Garden

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 12th June: Potatoes, Brockhill School, Stream Walk Community Garden and the Golden Arrow.

It seems the temperatures are beginning to rise, and the cucumbers are not looking quite so sickly, even the dwarf beans have started to perk up a bit and the courgettes are just starting to show the first fruits.  We seem to have managed to keep up with the removal of the side shoots on the tomatoes this year, and are doing the same with the hop plants too.  One of the beds of broad beans got stripped and uprooted to make way for a new planting of lettuces.  It made an entire trug full of bean pods, and we were able to let any visitors take some, and have plenty enough to take home too. 

Having inspected the first plot of early potatoes, we took an executive decision to pull them up as they looked large enough on having an initial rummage around in the soil, and anyway we do need the room.  Our gardeners working towards their Duke of Edinburgh Award had planted them back in March, and they were delighted to now be harvesting them, so we left them to it, listening to all the squeals of delight when they found more buried ‘treasure’.

Our young volunteers are at Brockhill School in Hythe, and we were invited to go and have a look at an amazing walled garden the school has on site.  It has been out of use for some time, and the fantastic greenhouses need lots of restoration, but what a fabulous resource to have.  The master plan is to get the garden up and running again for the children to start learning about horticulture.  Such an exciting project, and so looking forward to seeing the progress as it happens.  We hope to keep you informed on that.

We also had an invite to go and visit Stream Walk Community Garden in Whitstable.  We had visited the garden some time ago, but during the pandemic, the garden had a change of committee and new blood to carry the project on and indeed upwards to yet another level.  Much larger than any of our spaces, the garden is right in the community and so gets plenty of people using the space.  The gardeners made us feel so very welcome, and spent much of their time with us telling us about the project.  We always like to analyse such trips to consider our practices and if we can take anything learnt on board, and usually come to the conclusion we are different in several ways – however who knows what the future may bring.

One thing we do really appreciate is that we are also quite visible in our community, in lots of different areas, and fortunate enough to have local support to keep us up and running.  After the jubilee weekend, we were invited to go to the Golden Arrow to pick up the takings from the various events that went on such as the tombola and raffle.  Richard and Shona the landlords handed over a massive £570.  They wanted any money they made to go to the Sandgate Community Garden team as we are always out and about in the Golden Valley and Fremantle Park, and we are all working towards community in the Golden Valley.  We are most grateful and humbled.

This week in the Golden Valley at Fremantle Park, some of the lads from the Shorncliffe Barracks came out to help us plant the globe artichokes, some gooseberry and currant bushes, as well as more flowering annuals.  Next week they are going to be helping one of our other contacts, Rosemary at the Romney Marsh Community Garden with several chores she has lined up.  They are certainly keeping busy.

Finally: Advance Notice – next week’s newsletter will be a day later, because of a family wedding in East Sussex (that is if the groom has recovered from covid which appeared in the last couple of days!).

What’s next?

• Prick out the kale, swede and basil seedlings.

• Plant the next batch of lettuces and spring onions

• Sow the purple sprouting

• Order more seeds

• Take up the next bed of broad beans

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 5th June: Planty Jubes.

Happy Jubilee weekend!

We hope you are enjoying the celebrations this weekend, and that the weather is not spoiling things going on wherever you are.  In the garden we have been rejoicing over the appearance of some decent rain, which lightens the load as regards watering, and saves us much time, however now some of the more tender plants, especially the cucumbers are complaining about too much water and cooler temperatures – still, that is British weather for you.

The Parish Council have had the signs put up in Sandgate and Fremantle Park in the new orchards as part of the ‘Queens Green Canopy’ for the Platinum Jubilee, and very smart they look too.  We are still working on the orchards, adding herbs and bee friendly self-sown flowers in Sandgate Park, and more of the same plus fruit bushes and globe artichokes in Fremantle Park.  As we are working we have several people stopping to say hello, which is always welcome, and to comment on how well cared for the parks are looking, and how lovely it all is.  Sometimes when it is cold, damp and blowing a ‘hoolli’, you begin to wonder as a volunteer, exactly why it is you are there, but just one positive comment from a passer-by makes it all worthwhile.  We always try to pass on the thanks to the Parish Council too, as the improvements are not just about that ‘cherry on the top’ that we are doing.

A couple of us were helping out at the Golden Valley family fun afternoon hosted by the Golden Arrow on Friday.  It was a fabulous afternoon, and a great time was had by all with Face painting, tombola, children’s games, cake competition, barbecue, a talented singer to entertain, and Pimms tent.  Not sure who had the idea to hand out water pistols to all the children at one point, but we all really enjoyed the event.  The highlight for us was being asked to judge the cake baking competition, probably based on the fact that I in particular, really like cake, so it was a match made in heaven.  Many thanks go to Sandqate Parish Council for being kind enough to donate three prizes which were given out to the winners.

Lots of seeds got sown this week such as swede and beetroot, a few more spring onions, and more basil.  The pea shoots were taken up on Saturday as they were getting tired of having their shoots removed twice every week, making way for the leeks sown in April, and a few celeriac plants.  In spite of the weather, the tomatoes have managed to put on a little growth and needed tying in again to their stakes; then the carrot bed got a good sort out as it was thoroughly overcrowded and needed thinning, this involved crawling around on hands and knees or just sitting right in the patch itself to get done properly.

Our Saturday morning session brought many visitors again, including a new young family to Sandgate finding us for the first time, a lady from Canada from growing zone three, (where there is literally only three growing months in the entire year before it gets simply too cold), and our delightful Ukrainian ladies came again to sow more seeds and admire the beauty of the mares tails before finding out how much of a nightmare they are in the garden and to ruthlessly pull them up instead!  In contrast, the Ukrainian ladies were saying just how cold is the English summer compared to the Ukraine, where our temperatures feel more like their winter, therefore the jumpers and cardigans were out in force, whilst we were sporting shorts and T shirts!

What’s next?

• Still got lots of annuals to plant in various areas.

• Keep checking for mares tails coming through at Golden Valley planters.

• We need some more beetroot and spring onion seeds

• Keep checking new plantings for moisture levels and all pots watered.

• Plant the globe artichokes

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 29th May: When life gives you lemon trees, and a world of guerrilla gardening.

It was a week of cancellations due to the fact we had even more rain, bringing the total so far for this month to a whopping 47.2 mm!

Anyone who has not seen the garden for a couple of weeks is amazed by the lush green growth and how quickly everything has shot up and matured.  Very little watering to do, just some of the pots, and a few new plantings, but otherwise everything seems quite happy.  We have been eyeing up the fig trees as they seem to be doing particularly well and quite laden with fruit this year.

The cucumbers got planted, as well as some of the flowering annuals, new coriander plants got planted, and a few celery plants.  The garlic had to be lifted as it had rust again and will fail to thrive.  It made small bulbs, but very edible and much appreciated.  We had this problem with garlic last year so it may be a good idea to see if we want to tackle the situation next year or give up the garlic.

The compost bins 1 and 2 got turned, and bin 1 which was empty, is half full already.  We just seem to have got out all the tender plants and made room in the cold frames and before we know it, we have to start thinking about sowing the seeds for autumn, winter and even next spring.  More spring onions got sown into modules as did basil and swedes.  The next planting of lettuces in June got pricked out into modules as soon as two leaves had come through.

We had several visitors on Saturday.  The elderly gentleman who presented us with a lemon tree two weeks ago, came to see if it doing alright and was delighted to see it has three flower buds already, so seemed satisfied that the tree was indeed quite happy there.  We were also visited by two Ukrainian ladies currently staying with our lovely Ukrainian gardener, Tatiana.  We were delighted to welcome them to the garden, and they got stuck in watering, sowing seeds and generally browsing and chatting to everyone.  They took back with them some salad leaves, pea shoots and broad beans.  We hope they will visit again.

As usual, a busy week is ahead of us, and lots to sort out and tidy before the Jubilee weekend so that all is looking its best.  The guerrilla garden in Golden Valley is being planted up and starting to fill out and look so much better than it ever did before.  It has been noticed that the tree pits in Augusta Gardens, Folkestone West, have been beautifully planted with all manner of gorgeous flowering plants and this year edged with a wooden border perhaps to highlight to the council weed sprayer that the planting is deliberate by locals, and can be bypassed – our fingers are crossed.

What’s next?

• Catch up with rained off jobs such as weeding of Golden Valley and Fremantle Park

• Sow more seeds!

• Plant more flowering annuals in available spaces

• Keep checking on the tomatoes for side shoots which need removing

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 22nd May: Calling All Supermarkets – please, water your plants.

Thank goodness at last for a substantial downpour.  There was enough to start to refill the much reduced level of the pond, and to bring on the broad beans so that the pods are starting to develop.  Apparently we had 23mm in the last few days, which is more than we sometimes get in an entire month. The bulb onions are swelling and we have to keep an eye on them to make sure they are not able to develop any flowers.  The garden feels fresh and given a revitalising boost.  Even after rain it is important to monitor new plantings until they get a chance to get their roots down into the soil as they can dry out quickly on a warm day in direct sun. 

Not pointing a finger at any supermarket or store in particular that have plants for sale, but it is actually distressing for a passionate gardener to witness plants left to dry out and die when the simple act of giving some water would be enough to let them survive.  The waste by allowing that to happen is just phenomenal.  The plastic containers, the compost, the plant that had all that time and energy spent on getting it to a certain point – all gets thrown away!  It is a skill to be able to ‘see’ if a plant is properly hydrated, and some of our plants growing in containers may need to be watered well twice on a very warm day, depending on the size of the root system plus the amount and type of compost they are in.   

The mange tout is starting to climb the net fence, the courgettes, dwarf beans and tomatoes putting down some roots and making new leaves.  All the winter squashes got planted this week in separate beds from the summer squashes this year because it can be confusing as they grow to know which is which.  We have planted out many of the tender summer plants and are now evaluating how much space is left for all the cucumbers and the annual flowers.

Waitrose got in contact to hand over some plants that were desperate to be planted.  We had only a little space for one or two donations at the Sandgate Community Garden, so most got passed on to other community spaces in the area, Locavore at Martello Primary School, Napier Barracks, the Harbour Church on Canterbury Road and Touchbase Care.   By linking up with other groups we can all make sure that nothing goes to waste and share what comes along.  

On Monday we had a group of volunteers from the Napier Barracks come out to Sandgate Park to help weed the mulched areas around the fruit trees planted for the Queen’s Green Canopy as part of the Jubilee.  After making it tidy and adding a bit more compost, we also planted a few herbs which might become useful to anybody having a barbecue in the park, and will be appreciated by the bees when in flower.

This coming week we will be working on tidying and planting in the Golden Valley, again in preparation for the Jubilee weekend coming up.  The Golden Arrow pub will be helping the Valley to celebrate by hosting many events, so keep an eye on their Facebook page or call in to see the posters advertising everything that will be going on.

What’s next?

• Weed and tidy Golden Valley shop planters

• If time, start on the orchard at Fremantle Park

• Start planting out the flowering annuals

• Start planting the cucumbers at Enbrook Park

• If feeling strong, turn compost bins 1 and 2

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 15th May: I’m sorry, I’ll read that again, Honey and the Moon.

Oh dear, oh dear!  It seems I made a very optimistic reading last week of the rainfall, and mistook the temperature of 17.8 as being the actual amount, when it was in fact just 4mm.  A little bit of overenthusiastic statistic reading to say the least.  How fortuitous it would have been to have rained 17.8 mm.  It is still extremely dry for this time of year, and we have to water every session.  Looking at the satellite prediction for the weather this weekend on the television, we are being promised great downpours, but look at any weather apps and there is only a 40% chance of anything happening – so confusing, but by the time you read this newsletter we will know what was right.

It has been another week of kind thoughts and deeds.  The Meadowbrook alley garden got a mention last week, and this week a neighbour of the garden installed a water butt in the alley, fed by their shed roof; such a kind act.  We have received gifts of plant pots from various people, and even Waitrose got in touch to say they have several plants just going over their best-selling condition and can we use them.  We certainly can, if not at any of our gardens, we have contacts with many other local projects and can pass them on.  A lovely elderly gentleman has recently discovered our garden at Enbrook, and brought us a lemon tree he had grown himself from a cutting.  He found a perfect spot to plant it close to the wall in a sunny situation and it will be most interesting to see how it gets on there.

The hops did get thinned out but will need constant reviewing for a few weeks yet.  Most of the bolting chard and finished purple sprouting got removed making some space to plant out the rest of the French beans, the summer squashes and courgettes plus a few spring onions.  At Fremantle Park, some of the radishes had bolted and gone to flower but were left as the flowers are great for the bees and the seed pods are excellent to put in a salad or even a stir fry – all was not lost.

Our bees at the garden seem to be doing well.  It was interesting to note that some of them took a great interest in one of our gardeners this week and took to buzzing around him as soon as he came within a 20m radius of the hives.  We will have to find out why they were fascinated by him.  One of our beekeeper friends sent an article about honey fraud which seems to be rampant at present and getting worse.  If you had ever wondered why certain supermarkets can sell a jar of ‘honey’ for as little as 69p yet a local beekeeper has to charge in the region of £5 for all the hard work they put into producing a jar of honey – well it seems that the cheap supermarket version is mostly a sugar syrup that has never seen a bee, yet can be described as ‘honey’.  It seems disgraceful that this can happen and is yet another example of adulterated food which we buy in good faith and are none the wiser about where it came from and how.  However the clue is probably there in the price, same with many other processed products that are cheap for a reason and many of us choose to turn a blind eye to and not question.

Last but not least, it seems that scientists have successfully managed to grow some plants in soil from the moon.  However we are not anticipating having to start up a Sandgate community garden there any time soon…

What’s next?

• Finish staking and tying in all the tomato plants

• Are the winter squashes ready to plant out yet?

• Plant out some of the flowers

• Finish removing the purple sprouting and compost

• Maybe turn compost bin 1

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 8th May: Moths and moles, golden oregano and the need for more space!

Yippee!  We have had a drop or two of rain this week, some 17.8 mm apparently, which has freshened up the gardens beautifully – still not enough of course, but it has helped.

The tomatoes have now all been planted in two beds with a few along the wall.  By the end of the week the courgettes and summer squashes got planted too with space for just a few more.  Some of the French beans got planted, but there are more.

We have winter squashes, and outdoor cucumbers coming along fast, and they all got re-potted and put back into the cold frames to come on for another couple of weeks.  We need to clear more space for these things first, and with winter leeks, spring onions and chard coming along, goodness knows where they are going to go as there are no more beds available for a while yet and we shall have to try to keep them in their modules for a few more weeks.

The alleyway between Meadowbrook and Chichester Road seemed to be growing some fabulous forget-me-nots and dandelions in gigantic proportions which needed clearing to let the plants we want to keep a chance to breathe.  It is hard to imagine the small area had twelve bags of compost spread about at the end of last autumn; however the growth is looking lush.  There were some queries on Facebook about one of our plants looking particularly good there, a golden oregano (pictured below) which has made large cushions of growth and is fabulous.  It will probably need splitting up later in the year so we shall have to spread more of that around the area.

Always keen to look out for insects and creatures not noticed before in the garden; what we believe is a mint moth (photo below) was spotted on a gooseberry bush.  We do not think it is interested in gooseberries but probably making its way to the herb bed.  A cheeky mole has made its way under the wall it seems and popped up all over the place along the back of the garden.  Much as we love wildlife, the hope is it will either stay in that direction or go back under the wall again; however we probably will not be that lucky.

The Incredible Edible plant sale and seed swap happened on Saturday in Cheriton High Street where a massive £406 was raised!!  We took ten crates or boxes of plants to the sale.  It was wonderful to be able to clear space from having to look after these plants, however the saving of plants begins all again as we work towards our own community garden sale later on in the year at the Sandgate Sea Festival. Just time to breathe for a little while and make the most of the temporary space.

What’s next?

• Those hops did not get any attention this week – check for new shoots

• Finish planting out the last summer squashes and French beans

• Think about sowing next batch of lettuces

• Make more space – take out purple sprouting

• Take out the last chard bed

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 1st May: Tomato down, fence up, bench built, but the rain is AWOL.

There is still no rain for Sandgate and very little promise of any on the horizon.  Apparently we had 21.1 mm of rain this month which must have come on the very first day or so, or crept in during one night! 

The plants have to really put down their roots to find any moisture in the soil and clearing any of the plots to make way for new plants is a fight.  Some of the roots and stems seem welded into the soil or set off in concrete, whilst others are sitting within a dust bowl; such is the difference between contrasting areas of the same garden.

The spinach from last autumn had gone to seed, and the parsley was trying to do the same, there are new plants of both and so the compost heap gained a deep new layer of vegetation.  The sweet peas got planted with two newly positioned wig-wams near the pond (where they are sheltered from the wind).  A liberal dollop of horse manure got added too, providing a mulch as well as fertiliser for such hungry plants.

An executive decision was made to plant the tomatoes this Saturday.  The temperatures are fine both day and night, but the wind can be a threat and so they have been netted just for a couple of weeks to get them settled in.  More will be planted this coming week, and we will start to plant in spaces along the wall.  The beans, courgettes and squashes are following along just a week or two behind them, so we have time to concentrate on one thing at a time. 

Concentration was certainly not happening when a complete idiot (me of course), managed to drop an entire tray of pots full of seedlings just on their way to be pricked out into larger pots.  Fortunately we had some patient and capable volunteer gardeners there, who carefully salvaged all they could from the situation, and seedlings were saved but many were lost.  Luckily, and on the very same day, Rosie turned up with donation plants she had grown and potted on at home for us.  Thank goodness for that. 

Thanks also go to Rosemary from the Romney Marsh community garden as she had even more seeds to share with us and a few plants for the Incredible Edible plant sale and seed swap which is next Saturday 7^th May from 10am to 2pm outside the United Response Community Network in Cheriton High Street.  If you are a keen gardener or looking to fill some spaces in the garden or house, then this is the event for you, and the place to get some terrific plants for a small donation.  We will be providing some potted herbs as well as spare tomato plants, courgettes and squashes if they hurry up and get a little bit bigger for the day.  We also have some garden plants and some of our very decorative tree spinach too. 

Always looking for recycled additions for our garden, Rita offered a beautiful slab of slate retrieved from a neighbour throwing it out from a house renovation.  We matched the slab up with some concrete blocks, hid them from view with strategically placed logs and we now have a new bench, just in front of the pond, a great place to have a sit and a chat, or a seat to work from.

We are indeed very fortunate at the garden for all the kind people who donate time, energy, or other gifts to make the garden what it is today.  A very special thank you to Paul for making such a fabulous job of the boundary fencing, now finished, it just looks terrific, and we are receiving many compliments on how good the Sandgate Community Garden is looking – now all we need is RAIN.

What’s next?

• Finish planting up the second tomato bed and start planting along the wall.

• Repot the winter squashes

• Clear some of the beds and prepare for replanting

• Check on the number of hop shoots per plant

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 24th April: Whatever happened to April showers?

There does not seem to have been any rain on the horizon for several weeks now, and any hint of rain on the weather forecast seems to pass over and come to nothing.  The ritual is on arrival at Enbrook garden, to poke a finger into the soil to determine if there is any moisture there, and if we have to water.  The new plantings have the priority along with plants in pots, then fast growers such as lettuces and pea shoots.  Everything else has to get on with it, and it is often surprising to find there is some moisture for more established plants to access deep down where their roots are encouraged to go to look for it.

This week we have had a major epiphany as regards watering at the Sandgate Community Garden in Enbrook.  Our water supply comes via a water bowser or tank and we hand water using watering cans which can take up to two hours to complete, what with all the trotting up and down plus waiting for the watering can to fill up if you are not fortunate enough that particular day to have a willing watering partner with you to load up the watering cans whilst you do all the trotting!  Not all our gardeners are capable of carrying heavy cans across the plot, so it comes down to a hardy few.  However, we have researched and invested in a battery operated water pump which is immersed into the bowser and pumps with decent water pressure some 25 meters up the plot.  It is now the best thing since sliced bread, although we still have a few things to iron out, such as getting the job done in half an hour before the battery runs out, and getting water to the rest of the plot beyond the hose/pump reach of 25 meters!  The trick might well be to position a small water butt at 25 meters and fill that using the pump which will then give us access to water at the other end of the plot and therefore makes for less trotting up and down.  Bingo!  We will get there, and work it all out eventually.

Paul, the Park grounds manager, has very kindly erected a stretch of fencing along the perimeter of the garden where we previously had put up (somewhat badly) fence posts and netting.  It is looking far superior to what we had before and it sets the garden off a treat.  All we can say is ‘thank you’ and very much appreciated.

We have also been very busy sowing beans, lots of flower seeds for the pollinators (well, and for us too), and repotting lots of tomato plants as well as courgettes and summer squashes.  Plants are being crammed into every available space in cold frames, and will have to be nurtured for another couple of weeks at least until it is deemed safe enough to put them outdoors to fend for themselves.  The temperatures are currently good, but the wind is still too strong for small tender plants and brings with it a chill factor.

The potatoes are earthed up every time we visit the plot, and as more tree spinach plants appear, they get moved into pots or left if they have appeared in the right place.  The hops are being trained to climb the strings and posts but we are pinching out some shoots if they have nowhere to go and restrict the number of hop bines. The autumn raspberries are doing their best to pop up as far as possible from the actual place they were originally planted, and have to be either cut down or repositioned.

The recently planted beautifully formed cabbages were discovered by pesky pigeons and had to be recovered, and the three newly planted rhubarb plants have been dug up and chewed, presumably by a foraging badger and had to be replanted and covered in the hope they might possibly re-sprout and not get bothered again.  We can only hope.

What’s next?

• Hundreds of seedlings to prick out and pot on

• Keep an eye on the mares tails pushing through

• Weed around the orchard areas

• Maybe set up a water butt half way along the plot?

• Keep pinching out the hop shoots not required.

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 17th April: As the weather improves, the planting gets going in earnest. Cucumbers, tomatoes, courgettes, summer squashes and more.

The weather has remained considerably warmer, even at night, which has meant that the tomato plants can at last go outside into the cold frames where they will enjoy basking in the sunshine and really begin to put on some growth.  Some of them need repotting once again as they have started to climb out of their pots.  The courgettes and summer squashes sown last week have already popped up and are also outside in the frames.  This has meant we can start on the next phase of sowing the cucumbers and winter squashes which happened on our Saturday morning session along with some of the flowering annuals such as zinnias, cosmos and French marigolds.

The purple sprouting broccoli is coming to an end, with all the first broccoli spears picked, it may have time to produce a few more smaller offerings, but it is soon to be replaced by the tomatoes or perhaps the courgettes.  Last year there was not enough space given over to the tomatoes, squashes and courgettes, so they ended up being squeezed into other beds and in any available pocket of soil.  This year will be different and they will take pride of place – which in turn will make it so much easier to water them when you know where they are!  Always a juggling act to plan and consider what is popular to grow and what needs space.

The last of the spring onions got pulled to make room for more beetroot, some slug chewed cabbages replaced by spares (always useful to keep a few by), more radishes, pea shoots, chard and spinach picked.  The potatoes were only earthed up for the first time on Wednesday as they had appeared above ground, yet had to be earthed up once more on Saturday they had started to romp away and show through the soil again.

Last year we grew some tree spinach for the first time with startling electric pink new leaves just great for brightening any salad.  When you grow this spinach, and let it flower, then you have to accept it will remain with you from then on, and pop up all over the plot.  It is now starting to do just that and will need coaxing into the right spots to grow them on.  Not to be outdone, the parsnips have also just started to show under a sheet of fleece, they can take several weeks to make an appearance.

Rosemary (from New Romney community garden and prolific seed saver) got in contact with us again offering more seeds which we might be interested in growing.  We are looking forward to visiting the Romney Marsh garden sometime soon!

We have some new labels around the garden for some of the beds as pictured below.  Before now we have used large pebbles and slate found in the locality, but now wooden cut offs, rescued from the bin have been painted and brought into use; and we hope it will make it a little easier to identify what we have growing.

What’s next?

• Repot some of the tomatoes we are keeping as they have more weeks to grow in them

• Keep watering the newly planted plant plugs as well as the fast growing salad leaves

• Pot up some tree spinach for other areas

• Plant some tree spinach where we want them

• Guide the hops up the strings and pinch out the spares

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 10th April: Our helpers are unstoppable by weather, lorries and fuel shortages.

The changing weather continued to bring challenges this week.  We had to cancel a working party from the Napier Barracks as the weather was just simply too wet and cold.  The following day we were being joined by a working party from Saga.  Saga are keen for their work force to volunteer to support and work with local groups, so we made plans a couple of weeks ago to organise a compost collection from Hope Farm, and for the Saga volunteers to help us unload.

It was not the weather that caused issues, but the ongoing problems we are experiencing on our roads, affected by the thousands of lorries stuck at the crossings.  Ever optimistic that all would be fine and we could continue with our plans, in reality it was not going to happen. Once it also became clear there was no fuel either locally, it was game over!  In the meantime, our enthusiastic team from Saga had battled their way to the meeting point and raring to go so we changed tack and resorted to plan B.

Plan B happened to be plan A from the soggy day before, so all was not lost.  Thank goodness the weather was fine, sunny but breezy, not too cold.  We started by mulching part of the new orchard at Sandgate Park, then moved on to Fremantle Park where we planted perennial flowering plants and fruit bushes in the orchard and in the sloped flower border on the other side of the park.  We had a most delicious lunch made in the kitchens of Touchbase Care in Tontine Street, which we ate outside at the park making good use of the lovely new picnic benches recently installed there…….. brilliant.  After that outstanding lunch we made our way to the Golden Valley shopping car park to weed all around the planters and in them too.  In the autumn we had planted some bulbs which are now flowering, the most popular being the sweetest and tiniest narcissi ever seen, certainly by all of us.  We are grateful to Saga for their hardworking volunteers, and look forward to working with more of them sometime soon.

Some of our ‘to do’ list from last week did get done, but several other tasks came along which needed tackling.  The first compost bin was full to bursting and needed to be turned into bin number two in order to make some room; however to be able to do that, bin number two had to be turned into bin three.  Another pressing task was the fact that we have many plants waiting to be large enough to be planted out, and needing potting on into larger pots to enable them to be able to get larger.  However we did manage to make a start on sowing the courgettes and summer squashes.  More spring onions got planted as did parsley, and more new rhubarb roots in a new bed.  The carrot seedlings have made an appearance at last but we are still to welcome the parsnips.

What’s next?

• Rebook another compost run

• Make new signs for Fremantle and Golden Valley

• Transfer tomato plants to the cold frames when it is warm and sunny, but keep indoors at night still.

• Sow annual flowers

• Start sowing cucumbers and winter squashes.

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.