Sandgate Community Garden

This week has certainly seen a significant change in the weather which has also triggered a clearing of some of the summer planting and in with more winter and spring veg.  The watering can did not get a look in this week as the showers and drop in temperature took a hold, and will do for much of the foreseeable weather charts.  The tomatoes would struggle to ripen, and the winter squashes would not benefit from the cold and damp and so an executive decision was taken to lift them all.  The green tomatoes will ripen eventually indoors, and do not have to be used unripe.  The squashes could be stored for several months but with only enough for each volunteer to take a squash, it is unlikely they will be around for long!  So ends another season, and the spaces created were quickly planted up with onion seedlings sown in early September, as well as cabbages and coriander.   As we now have some history to the garden it was interesting to look back to this time last year to see that we were doing the very same thing, and that the weather had followed the same pattern.

Many seedlings have been self-sown, and as we cleared finished plants, there are numerous surprise flowers that simply appear, as well as unwelcome weeds that hide and mature unnoticed until now.

Our RHS certificate as part of ‘Britain in bloom’ arrived this week, and we will be putting it on display in the garden.  With October fast approaching, we will be considering how we will be going into next year, what was successful and what was not, which crops we would like to grow more of, and those which we might perhaps not bother with again.  It looks like there are many things for us to think about.

It is always easier to contemplate such things in good company and with a pint of local brew in the hand.  This week we had notification that the first ‘green’ brew of our hops had been finished and delivered to certain drinking establishments.  If you would like to try it you may have to move fast, as it disappeared at speed last year.  Below is a summary from Hythe Hops organisation about the use of all the hops this year –

“A burning question which I suspect is on everyone’s mind is “what about the beer” and I’m pleased to share the following exciting news about our green hop Hop Buzz brew:

Already being served at:

• The Doghouse in Smeeth (Evegate Barn)

Already taken delivery at: 

• The Bouverie Tap, Folkestone

• Unit One, West Hythe

Delivery due today:

• Chambers, Folkestone

• The Fountain in Seabrook,

• The Hidden Treasure, Dymchurch

• The Potting Shed, Hythe,

• The Ship Inn, Sandgate,

• The Smugglers, New Romney.

• The White Hart, Hythe

Delivery due next week:

• The Gatekeeper, Etchinghill

Please remember that beer needs to settle so may not be available straight away so please check with venues to avoid any disappointment.

HopFuzz have also bottled Hop Buzz exclusively for us and this will be available soon as follows:

• Every member (including non-growers) will receive 2 bottles free of charge regardless of how successful their hops have been

• We have a surplus (but not enough for everyone) which we intend to share by means of a lottery

Canned Docker beers (from dried hops)

• We are discussing with Docker how members can benefit from the donation of our hops – watch out for future announcements

• Docker is planning for 5 brews throughout the year with the first 2 available by Christmas

So now you are up to date with all the hop information, our tired hop plants will soon be put to bed for the winter and rested, in preparation for another year of serious hop growing in 2021.

What’s next?

• More onion seedlings to plant

• Start sowing garlic and maybe broad beans

• Keep up with the weeding as the rain has brought weeds on

• Clear the plants outside the garden against the wall

Now that the days are getting shorter, it is beginning to feel a little autumnal, and thoughts are turning to the last sowings of the year, harvesting and clearing away the summer crops, then getting all set for the winter months.  However the weather keeps trying to hang on to the summer and we are still watering and watering when you might hope we would get some respite.  It has been noted that the next time we plant the squashes and equally wandering courgettes, it would be a good idea to mark exactly where they are placed as it is notoriously difficult if next to impossible, to find where a plant begins in order to water the roots.  We often end up just watering the leaves and hoping for the best! 

The Goji berry plants, although still young and having put on plenty of growth seemed as if they would come to nothing.  This week they have suddenly come into flower and may yet surprise us with a berry or two – time will tell.  A photo of the flowers have been added below, they are quite delicate and interesting.  On the theme of flowers, the African marigolds have been superb (also shown below) and have given us so much colour.  Perhaps it was the flowers that attracted the nursery children from the Saga nursery, back to the garden this week.  We are pleased to welcome the children again into the garden with their teachers, so that they can collect flowers, graze on some of the fruits and vegetables and find out about where food comes from.  We cannot work with the children as we did before Covid for now, but we are delighted they have the garden as a resource for their learning.  Since the Covid rules for socialising have changed and we may be on the brink of further restrictions, we are going to have to ask all visitors to the garden to stay outside the fence whilst we are working on Wednesday and Saturday mornings.  We will position all available produce close to the gate for anybody coming to collect, and hope you will all understand we have to be careful and protect our gardeners.

The onion seeds have been sown; the last spinach plugs for the year have been planted, as has the coriander, leaving a few more pak choi, extra spinach plants and some spring cabbages to go in next week.  The last of the leaf mould has been removed from the leaf cage and added to the compost pile waiting to be spread on the beds, and newly fallen leaves are gradually being collected and starting to fill the leaf cage once more.  The brassicas liberated from the net cloches have certainly still been attacked by the cabbage white butterflies, and we have promised ourselves that next year we will be resorting to plan B as regards dealing with such brassica pests and investing in a tried and tested organic method which will be revealed as we get into spring next year.  The method of suspending a mesh above the purple sprouting is so far proving interesting, as they have suffered very little pest damage from either caterpillars or birds, but time will tell if they will fare better than the crop did last winter/spring.

Early on in the year, we applied to the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) to register the garden as part of the Community Gardening Awards.  At that time, the garden had been up and running for less than a year, and it was touch and go as to whether the awards would still go ahead with Covid happening.  Happily and surprisingly, we were given an ‘Advancing’ award, the categories being, ‘Establishing, Improving, Advancing, Thriving, and Outstanding’.  We still have a way to go for that ‘Outstanding’ award, and will be looking to how we can get there in the future.  In the meantime, we are considering the possibility of opening the garden for the National Garden Scheme – now there is another possibility, and plenty for us to be working on!

What’s next?

• Plant out last of spinach, and pak choi

• Plant out the first of the onion sowings – cover

• Continue to get strawberry compost out of the bags for adding to compost pile

• Keep watering

• Lay down fresh compost on beds being planted up with overwintering crops.

Below is a summary from Ray, our resident beekeeper, of the two hives we have in the Community Garden.

“A memorable year! As for the bees in the SAGA garden – a good year now comprising of 2 new honeybee colonies, a new local beekeeper now with a colony (Chris) but not one that has yielded any honey from our garden!

In summary – a small colony overwintered in Whittersham near Rye and right near the lead singer of Keane’s abode made its way to the SAGA garden in March this year.  The colony was poorly & needed to build in numbers to fill the main box where the queen resides which called the brood box.  This colony was rescued from a field over in Lenham in March 2019 and has been building nicely through the season and has filled the main brood box nicely and with the same queen. 

An additional colony was introduced in May of a package of imported bees from Tuscany, Italy.  SO, bring on the honey one may ask! 

At this point – it is worth highlighting the fact that the beekeeper’s role is limited to the quantity of making honey produced.  In short – bees produce honey for their survival and make surplus honey for the winter of which some can be extracted for sale as we know it. 

Now back to the garden – both colonies have been busy foraging locally and are currently busy with the main last forage of the season which is ivy.

The new colony arrived with a Buckfast mated queen from Tuscany and so the colony was set to go from strength to strength and stock of jars checked in June.  The bees collectively have a plan which on occasions differs from the plan of the beekeeper!  The indication being that the Buckfast bees were not happy with their queen and were making signs that meant that she would be replaced by them.  This is called supercedure and occurs with aged queens, poorly mated or damaged queens.  It ensures that a healthy queen head-up the colony by producing new cells that will produce a new queen – in fact two queens can happily cohabite in this case or swarm.  They chose the option to swarm but left us with a new queen cell which has subsequently hatched and is now busy laying eggs to become the winter workforce.  The colony has recovered nicely from this diversion and so back on track but not sufficiently to fill the honey jars ready at the CT20 bee-base!.

Both are being checked for required winter honey stores and treatment of varroa mite where seen necessary.

So, the aim has been achieved to end this beekeeping year with 2 healthy colonies in the SAGA garden site and strong enough to hopefully ensure our winter period and plan to get off to a bright 2021.

Chris has greatly enhanced her knowledge this season and with a little encouragement now a wonderful colony of Buckfast bees in a Beehause hive which has developed well and ready for the 2021 season.

Thank you from the SAGA Community Bee Team… we’ll BEE in touch!”

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

We really appreciate having the bees resident in the garden as it just seems to make it complete. 

Below are some photographs taken by Ray of the bees foraging.

Very excited this week to be picking our hops for the great Hythe Hops weigh in.  The first of the ripe hops had to be picked on the same day and taken to a collection point.  The next hop picking day for any hop plants in the scheme that were not ready, are to be picked in two weeks.  We started late morning once the hops were dry from any morning dew, and it took three of us two hours to collect all the cones.  We seriously underestimated quite how many there were and how long it would take to pick them.  There were 2.120kgs which does not seem like very much until you remember that hops are just paper thin and very light.  The hops or cones were sticky, which is quite normal when ripe, and they had an amazing smell.

It has turned dry again in our Sandgate micro climate, where the rain clouds seem to bypass us and pour down elsewhere!  The greenhouse tragedy and lost plants has left us with a lull in the planting until, we hope, the new sowings can get going.  It is already starting to feel quite autumnal, and our thoughts are turning to the final plantings of 2020 in October, before the winter sets in.  We are keeping an eye on the long term weather forecast with a view to getting together as a group for an end of season outdoor picnic to reflect on how the year has gone and consider what changes we would like to make for next year, what to grow more of and perhaps less of something else not so popular.  The most beneficial thing we can do for the garden during the winter months is to take time to put down all the compost we have been making and collecting, currently piled up in every available space.  The woodchip paths will also be put down fresh again.

The leaf compost pile has been partially emptied.  Just made from collected fallen leaves last autumn, they have turned into the most amazing rich dark compost; perfect raspberry bed mulch.  So barrow after barrow was turned out onto our raspberry beds, and being woodland plants, they will just love it! The rest of the leaf compost is to be mixed with the other composts, leaving the leaf  cage empty, ready and waiting to be filled again with this year’s leaf fall in the park.

What’s next?

• Finish emptying the leaf cage, ready to start collecting newly fallen leaves.

• Still a few more onion seeds to be sown

• Keep an eye on the brassicas as they have been liberated from the mesh and may be attacked by cabbage whites.

• What is attacking some of the Chinese cabbages?

• Pick some sea buckthorn berries?

The high winds continued to run their course at the start of this week, and so we have found the answer to our question about the viability of growing runner beans on the site – a big fat no, when for the second summer they were destroyed by the high winds in spite of all measures to protect them.  So it will be dwarf beans or nothing from now on.  A few beans are still standing, but looking very sad and sorry.  The sunflowers suffered the same fate, but happily the tomatoes are made of stronger stuff, and although the sweet corn was partially blown over and looked tattered and torn, they were on the whole still alright.  Considering we did not expect to be able to collect any corn after finding out there were badgers running amuck, the now ripe cobs were a bonus.

The planter outside the ship suffered the same fate, and was battered mercilessly, but the foliage is dense, and after a bit of a trim to remove the blackened areas, the plants looked in fine fettle.  The planter also had ripe corn cobs, but certainly not for sharing as corn relies on being pollinated by the wind ironically, but with only three plants, were not enough to make for a good example of a corn cob, being sparse and not worth bothering with; and so it has in effect been ornamental .  The space cleared will be planted again this week with something yet to be decided.  We are pleased at how the planter has fared being in such a position, both outside a pub and practically right on the seafront, and it still has plenty to offer.  We have heard tales of how locals are nipping out to collect a few herbs when they suddenly realise they are missing an ingredient in the cupboard which the planter can provide – perfect!

We put in some winter mustards this week and a few more pak choi, there will be sowings of spring onions and bulb onions to overwinter and be ready to harvest in the spring or through to high summer 2021. 

We are still continuing to collect more of the strawberry compost from the strawberry farm and stockpile it for using in November/December to cover the beds.  The compost heaps were all turned again and we found two slow worms tucked up in them – they were carefully moved to safety. 

You might have thought that the rain we had was enough to refill the pond but it is still only about a third to half full.  We are pleased to notice dragonfly larvae in the pond, and on a recent sunny afternoon, the pond was host to many bright red dragonflies, and a picture of one is included below.

There comes a time when you have to be brave and remove the mesh protecting the brassicas from the dreaded cabbage white butterflies eager to lay their eggs, simply because the plants need staking and have outgrown their enclosure.  We will still have to keep a close eye on the plants and continue to remove eggs, and we have positioned some mesh hanging over the broccoli as they were plagued by pigeons last year, but pigeons do not like to be under structures apparently, and so we hope this arrangement will work.  Soon find out!

We heard from the Hythe Hops scheme that the first harvest date for the hops will be this Thursday 3^rd September.  We will be collecting our hops this day as they are certainly ready now, a little wind scorched but generally fine.  These fresh hops will be used to make a ‘green brew’ by Docker brewery.  Any hops collected at a later date by other growers in the scheme, are hopefully to be dried and used to make ales that can be bottled or canned over the months to come.

What’s next?

• Plant out the mooli radishes

• Harvest the hops

• Continue to collect compost

• Sow spring and bulb onion seeds

• Find plants for the Ship planter

It has been a week of highs and lows. 

We are able to harvest quite a range of things each week, and are now fortunate to have regular visitors coming by to pick up seasonal and local veg, or just to see what is going on.  We had the first of the celery this week.  Most of the vegetables you grow yourself are a world away from commercially grown crops.  They have real flavour, but where growing conditions are not always perfect, reflect those imperfections.  For example our celery looks ok, but due to the recent dry conditions is probably more ‘stringy’ than your supermarket version, but my goodness, what a delicious soup it made!

We have an amazing team of volunteers who come along on a regular basis, and we have all made new friends and acquaintances as a result.  We are fortunate.  For us, this is something we enjoy doing, for lots of different reasons, and not because we have to rely on growing enough food to feed the family… that would be difficult.  The high winds we had this weekend turned over our mini greenhouse, with hundreds of seedlings inside, and they were all lost.  Weeks of growing and nurturing lost in the blink of an eye, so no spinach to plant out this coming week, and no coriander, chervil, dill, and no extra pak choi.  We sowed more seeds on Saturday, and we hope they might be able to grow big enough before the cooler weather and shorter days set in.  In the whole scheme of things this set back is frustrating and annoying, but imagine if your whole life had to depend on the crops you are able to grow because it was not possible to go to a supermarket and buy what you want.  It puts such things into perspective.  Here is another reflection on how fragile our environment is, there is a photo below showing various fruits and vegetables pollinated by bees, a reminder of how important these insects are to our food. 

One of our contacts told us about a supply of spent compost from a local strawberry farm, no longer required, that we could go and collect, to add to our winter mulch of compost.  Compost seems to have greatly increased in price just this year, so this is a welcome bonus, and will help to improve the soil.  We used some to partially fill another planter in Cheriton High Street, outside the barbers, as part of the Incredible Edible project.  It saved a great deal of money which can go towards other projects, and goes to show that one person’s rubbish is treasure to someone else. 

What’s next?

• Can any of the dwarf beans be cleared, or salad boxes?

• Keep looking for weeds hiding at the base of established plants

• Repair wind damage to various plants and structures.

• Continue to move compost and store for later use.

It has been a very busy week, coping with the weather, watering new plants as well as the thirsty usual.  Some of the gardeners had a glut of plums and greengages, which others were happy to make into Jam for sharing, thank you Theresa and Peter!

Many of the squash and courgette plant leaves had mildew which makes the plants look pretty bad, but is in fact nothing to worry about, and does not harm any of the fruits.  We spent some time cutting off the leaves affected as they do little for the plant.  After some rain, the winter squashes perked up no end as they were on the end of the list for watering as they still have some time to be growing until harvest.  The tomatoes are quite heavy with tomatoes now and the growing tips were removed so that they can concentrate on the fruit they already have to ripen before it is autumn, and not on growing any more.

We have some self-sown plants of ‘lambs ears’ and borage available if any of you would like some for your gardens.  We are often asked about the plants that attract the bees, and below is a picture of a cardoon which is now flowering and is extremely popular with the bees, where they become smothered in pollen.  The cardoon is very similar to the globe artichoke, but not so good to eat.  We have a globe artichoke planted this year, but as yet it is very tiny!

Talking of flowers, there are plenty on the runner beans and they are starting to arrive.  We have white and red flowered varieties.  We pulled up some of the carrots we were given, sown into modules and planted out a few weeks ago; they are a prime example of why it is not such a good idea to transplant them as you can see from the picture below they are very wonky!

This week we have sown coriander, spinach and mooli radish seeds.  It can still be a problem getting hold of certain seeds, but luckily the seed companies are gradually getting in fresh supplies, as the shop supplies dwindle, there are sometimes bargains to be had as they want to get rid of  this year’s stock.  We planted more chard, salad and beetroot.  The soy beans have not been up to much, but they have been dug up several times by visiting furry friends – they never stood a chance, as have several other plants on the edges of the beds where they are rescued and replanted if we catch them in time, or get frazzled in the sun if not!

The Hythe Hops organisers are starting to get busy as we are now closer to harvest.  We were sent a questionnaire to fill in, reporting back on if we have flowers or hops, colour of the hops and estimation of how many so that a prediction can be made as to the exact harvest date and how much is expected so that the breweries can be warned.  We sent in more photographs, and hope at some point to have a professional photograph taken of the volunteer gardeners and our hops for posterity!

What’s next ?

• More sowings of spinach, chard and radishes

• Keep picking and watering if necessary

• Weeding required in some areas

• Assess space for future plantings

• Start moving compost from the lower wall.

Far too scorchio for us this week, it has been a struggle to hand water the plot, and to water it well enough.

The brassicas have been checked again and again for pesky caterpillars or eggs, which means crawling around on all fours peering at small plants, but very necessary.  The endives and lettuces got planted, as did Chinese cabbages and a few Romanesco, squeezed into the last available space.  The runner beans are now showing plenty of flower and with enough water and no more gale force winds, there could even be some beans!  We noticed lots and lots of ladybird larvae on the beans which was where the blackfly had been partying; thank goodness the cavalry have arrived in force as they should make short work of those unwanted guests.

Some of the sweet corn is starting to swell.  When it is ripe, it gives out a sweet smell which attracts wildlife (thinking in particular of our visiting badger) and so we have been rubbing Vics vapour rub around the base of each plant as an experiment to try to mask the sweetness.  If we come away with any ripe sweet corn, it would be a minor miracle.

The flowers are looking particularly beautiful these past few weeks and we have been picking sweet peas by the armful.  You have to be sure to pick every sweet pea or it will go to seed and stop flowering.  The picking also generates lots and lots of flowers to the point that by the next day, even more are there.  As the season goes on, the stems become shorter and shorter, so faced with hundreds of stumpy flowers we have decided to let them finish and use the much wanted space to grow something else.  It was great while it lasted, and they could for some time, but we are happy to move on with other things. 

The winter squashes are starting to swell, and it can often be difficult to identify which are summer squashes to be picked now, and which are to be left to grow on into the autumn.  Summer squashes are softer and more prolific – winter squashes may only have one or two fruits per plant depending on the variety, and can be stored and eaten months later.  These plants can regulate how many fruits they can cope with over the growing period, and eject any that cause extra stress.  We often have to wind the long trailing stems along the edge of pathways so they do not get stepped on as who knows where they are trying to get to!

What’s next?

• Let the sweet peas go to seed

• Water, water, water

• Pick, pick, pick

• More vapour rub on the sweet corn

• Keep checking for caterpillars

• What are the soy beans doing?  Have they been worth the effort?

• Assess what space if any may become available for planting up in the next few weeks.

• Start to move compost if it cools down.

The problem with covering up the brassicas with mesh is that you become complacent and think to yourself that no harm will come to those plants nestled in there, until you take a look one day and discover that they were placed inside the covering with butterfly eggs already hiding on them, and not carefully checked so that all the leaves on several plants had disappeared, and the caterpillars are marching with speed towards the rest of the plants!  There was some serious peering at close hand to find the minibeasts and remove them before any more damage was done.  Another lesson learnt and marvel at how clever the caterpillars are to lie along the main vein of a leaf so as to be practically invisible.

Most of this week was about picking and watering, the recent rain had really helped, but never enough for very thirsty sweet peas, beans, salad leaves and courgettes that put on so much growth in just a few days.  Pak choi, chervil, dill and mustard salads got sown; the rainbow chard got planted.

As we are involved with the Hythe Hop scheme, growing four hop plants against the wall, we are sent regular information about how our plants should be doing and news about the expected harvest time.  It is anticipated that the hops will be ready for collecting in mid-September when all the hops in the scheme will be picked at the same time and sent off to be made into a local brew.  It seems our plants are on target as the flowers are now there, and the general growth of the plants is good as shown on the pictures below.

Bee news

One of our gardeners had a swarm of honey bees turn up in her garden this week, but luckily we have a couple of bee keepers in our garden community, and one of them was on hand to catch them.  Unfortunately they decided they were not going to hang around and had other ideas.  Apparently there is a saying ‘a swarm in July isn’t worth a fly’, and such swarms are to be avoided.

Fremantle Park and Golden Valley planters

The Fremantle park planters have now been planted up and signs erected.  Our hope is to help any interested locals to expand the growing area, and plant more in the way of edibles. 

The Golden Valley shop planters have now been weeded and tidied.  Some of the planters have been adopted by the shopkeepers, and they have had an input as to what they would like to grow there, to include an olive tree, various herbs, fruit trees, soft fruit bushes and vegetables.  We have had lots of encouragement and praise from visiting locals, pleased to see the changes being made, and we hope the planters will flourish and be admired. 

What’s next?

• One more check on the netted brassicas just in case!

• Keep picking and watering

• Plant out the endives and lettuces

Now that restrictions are lifting and it is possible to go away or simply go back to work, it meant that the Wednesday morning session was quiet and many of our jobs on the list did not get done.  However, we made up for it Saturday, with beginner gardeners, and a steady trail of visitors either coming to look or to take vegetables or cut flowers home. 

In the week, the parks department of the Folkestone and Hythe Council very kindly brought us some compost from their yard which will be going to good use.  Some of the courgettes are sitting on a thin layer of compost, and a couple got pulled out by a visiting fox or badger, so some compost was spread around them to help them bed in better.  Our own compost bins got turned, and we now have a ton of simply the best compost waiting in the wings to be used on the garden over the winter.  With any luck we should have at least three ton bag size heaps of the stuff to go onto the beds later….. happy days! 

The Pink Fur Apple potatoes got harvested, and some kale plants immediately planted in their place, and of course covered in a mesh for protection.  We did not find time to block the spaces under the fence – maybe this week!  The priority is to make sure we keep up with the picking of the flowers, courgettes and beans in particular, or they will stop producing any more.  We were surprised to find we had some rather large cucumbers lurking in the foliage, they had been totally missed and we had no idea they were there and ready!  Quite often you have to search hard for ripe veg, as they are experts at camouflage.

Bee news

Chris has now got a second hive, and sent some amazing action pictures of bees in flight; one is shown below – beautiful.

Incredible Edible news

Some of the Incredible Edible team and the Community gardeners joined forces on Tuesday to begin work on tidying and clearing the brick planters in the Golden Valley shopping car park.  We are working with the Parish Council and the shop keepers to plant up the space with edibles and bee attracting plants that the shop keepers will be happy to perhaps help look after and make more personal to them.  Meanwhile, we commissioned three wooden planters to be made by Martin who lives locally, to position in Fremantle Park (he did an amazing job; got them done in no time and they are proper solid too!).  The Sandgate Society has kindly donated some funds to enable us to get them planted with herbs and vegetables for residents to help themselves to.  Thanks also go to Adrian and Gaye who funded two of the planters.  The Parish Council since taking over responsibility for the park have upgraded the children’s play area as well as made repairs and planted some trees.  They are keen for local people to get involved with using the park, and we hope that there could be an interest in starting up a small community garden there.  Please contact the Sandgate Parish Council if you are interested in becoming a friend of the Fremantle Park and would like to get involved.  There are to be more working parties over the next week or so and we will keep you updated with progress.

What’s next?

• Keep picking, but might only need to water some things after the rain on Saturday!

• Sow rocket, pak choi, coriander, dill, chervil and land cress.

• Cover the gaps under the fence

• Check the brassicas just in case they have been sabotaged by cabbage whites!