Sandgate Community Garden

If we had been asked at the very start of this project in mid-May, to produce a hamper of food from the garden in just three months, we might have considered it an impossible task, but we did…. For a raffle prize at the Sandgate garden party last Sunday!  A proud moment!

Spoke too soon about the sunflowers all still being upright after the blast of wind that came through, one of them did fall, however, nothing is wasted; the leaves were stripped and added to the compost heap, the stem and flower left to dry out.  The seeds in the flower head will feed the birds, and the hollow stem used in the future construction of a bug hotel.  Everything gets recycled.  The ultimate in recycling has to be making compost from organic materials.  Otherwise known as ‘black gold’, garden made compost is the best thing you can add to a garden, and the kitchen at the Saga Pavilion is helping by giving us their vegetable waste.  The more compost we can make, the better the health of the garden.

Chris Turnbull from the Hythe Hops Scheme came to visit the garden on Saturday to discuss our taking part in this community project next spring.  It will involve growing some hops, picking them, and combining them with all the other community grown hops to make a very local brew!  Looking forward to sampling that!

Come and see us at the Sandgate Sea and Food Festival next weekend – we will be there on the Sunday, so stop and say hello!  

What’s next?

• Keep picking

• Remove any yellow lower leaves from the kale and purple sprouting

• Start removing any leaves from the squashes that are dying back

• Plant up savoy cabbages in spaces at top of the bean plot

• Check on seedlings in last two beds and see if they need thinning/replanting in spaces.

• Start to mark out beds in newly dug area

• Put wood preserver on bug hotel structure

I know you were wondering… yes, the garden is still standing, and at last look, even the sunflowers, after the hooley of a storm that came through yesterday.  We had to abandon all hope of trying to do much at all, except stand upright. 

Featuring this week are some lovely carrots and beetroot which seem to have doubled in size in just a week!  The Florence fennel is starting to swell.  A passing dog was so phased by one of the blue squashes poking out of the undergrowth, that it started barking and snarling at it, and had to be moved on by its owner!   

Thank you Sandgate Parish Council for a donation of £100.  How very lucky we are to have friends in high places, with support also from The Sandgate Society, and of course Saga…….we are where we are!  The next big buy will be the asparagus crowns, and wooden posts to make various structures, and such donations make it all possible.

What’s next?

• Check on any storm damage

• Tie in tomatoes and brassicas

• Thin out some of the lettuces, and particularly the lambs lettuce (some of this lettuce can be relocated to new spaces)

• Dead head cosmos and rose

A very productive week as usual, with both labour, and our rewarding produce!  We did all of the jobs on our ‘to do’ list and more, to include laying some shredded wood pathways around some of the boxes, and welcoming the donation of a compost bin from Helen, which is being filled with vegetable peelings, plant material and turf taken by straightening the grass edges.

On the menu this week is all that was mentioned last week, plus welcome, somewhat exotic additions of the very first cucamelon, and kale.  As you can see in one of the pictures, the cucamelon is like a tiny version of a watermelon, and tastes like a lemony cucumber – very much in demand for expensive drinks in cocktail bars!  The kale, also pictured, go by the names of ‘Emerald Ice’, and ‘Midnight Sun’ – the colours are starting to show now, and they should provide us with leaves from now on, throughout the Autumn, Winter, and into Spring.  We have smugly celebrated the fact that the brassicas haven’t yet been made into doilies by the caterpillars, only to discover that they had sneaked into the radish patch and had been having a party there… didn’t know caterpillars enjoyed radish leaves that much, ignoring the luscious lettuce leaves next door!

Just take a look at the last picture showing how tall the sunflowers have grown!  How on earth they managed to stay upright in all that wind we have recently endured is a minor miracle.  For certain that amazing wall has something to do with it.

What’s next?

• Top fill the last raised box with compost

• Plant up box with module sown savoy cabbages if ready

• Keep chasing off the cabbage white butterflies from those brassicas!

• Water new seed beds and anything looking droopy!

• Keep picking anything that is ready

• Continue to prep the new growing area

• Dead head flowers for continuity/ spot weed any bindweed showing through, and hoe paths.

• Maybe tackle that pallet compost bin?

The trouble with pallets is that some of them look rather useful for other projects, and get re-assigned!  So parts of the compost project are still ‘work in progress’….however, the area has been tidied up and is ready and waiting!  We also tidied an area for our BOX STORE!  A donation from Theresa and Peter’s garden … We had great fun walking the box across the road to the Saga entrance, and into the garden, but we now have a place to store some tools which will be so much easier than having to bring things all the time. 

You can see from the pictures showing courgettes/beans and tomatoes that the grass was parched, and so we did really well to keep the plot producing the first beans and more spinach, salad and turnips, plus of course, the courgettes and tomatoes.  Some of the tomatoes are yellow when ripe, so you have to keep tabs on what you can pick!  The winter squashes are looking for a way out of the plot, and have to be guided back in when they start growing over the grass edges!  Some of them are very happy climbing up the bean stakes and into neighbouring beds.

The brassicas are coping with frequent assaults from cabbage white butterflies laying their eggs, and as long as we keep checking them, should survive now they are getting bigger and tougher.  The transplanted lettuces are looking perky as the roots have got a hold, thanks to diligent watering.

What’s next?

• Some prepared beds can be sown with fast growing crops until they are needed for the waiting and maturing perennial fruit and veg plants.  Still time to sow chard, lettuces, radishes, and spinach.

• Any gaps in the harvested beds can be sown with overwintering Chinese cabbages or salads.

• Consider where on earth to put the savoy cabbages that are nearly ready to plant out!

• Tidy up and straighten the grass edges to the new beds.

• Continue to prep new growing areas

• Enjoy the relief the much needed rain has brought to the garden and spend some time observing just what is actually going on!

We managed to ration the water this week with some help from a long awaited downpour Friday night, thanks, we suspect, to Chris perfecting the rain dance.  It obviously did the trick! 

On the menu this week are courgettes, mangetout, spinach, and salad, with the arrival of tomatoes, and a few raspberries!  The beans are flowering at last; we have red and lilac flowering varieties, so it will not be long before we will be treated to some beans!  The sunflowers have climbed higher than the brick wall, and the flower heads are peeping over the top.

The tomatoes have been tied in, the brassicas continue to be checked for caterpillars, and two donated chilli plants were planted.  Work is starting on the much needed compost heaps, but we need some more pallets, so if you know of any going spare locally – let it be known and serious construction can begin! 

All the ground to the right of the fruit trees has been planted up, and work was carried out to the area to the left of the fruit, which involved lots of pairs of hands, and a pick axe to clear out some troublesome roots!  This done, we can now start to plan where the permanent beds for strawberries, raspberries, and asparagus are going to go………

It goes to show that you can always grow food even with no outdoor space….sprouting seeds can be grown all year round on the shelf in a cupboard, and the picture below shows the seeds ready to be stir fried or put into a salad in less than a week.  All you need is a big jar or container to grow them in, and job done!

What’s next-

• Make sure the transplanted lettuces get plenty of water this week

• Keep checking the brassicas

• Start constructing new beds for the perennials

• Keep picking

• Sort out the compost heap area

• Did you put that date, 22^nd September in the diary? (the picnic)

The plot is looking a real picture, quite literally, as the before and after Instagram posting shows.  What an incredible difference a few weeks makes! 

In the fight to keep most of the crops for human consumption, and not the wildlife, we are checking for eggs laid on the brassicas, and any green or blackfly.  No need to feel guilty about moving them on as we have planted sacrificial offerings such as nasturtiums and calendulas for them to feast on!  Chris has been collecting coffee grounds from work to sprinkle around the site as it is a fertiliser, which slugs and snails do not like, and we are wondering if the coffee smell disguises the smell of the vegetable plants!  Any more coffee grounds can be composted in our soon to be constructed compost heap, a must for every garden!

Kalpana from the Nepalese community visited again this week bringing two friends to help with the watering and sowing.  We planted lentils, Nepalese string beans, Rayo spinach, mustard seeds, and red hot chilli seeds, all grown and harvested from the back yard of Kalpana’s family home!  Learning so much from Kalpana’s visits!

Thanks go out this week also to Rosie for investing in some new bean canes for the future, to Paula and Andrew for six pepper plants, and to Paul the head gardener at Saga, for getting to grips with the water tank plumbing and fixing a proper tap!  One of the pictures attached is of Paula’s rose, looking amazing.

Now for the great announcement!!  Our first event is planned for the afternoon of Sunday 22^nd September, from midday – a picnic at the garden, to celebrate our achievements so far, and to say thank you to everybody that makes it all possible – if you are reading this, you are invited, so put the date in your diary.  Fresh salad, runner bean pickle, beetroot and horseradish hummus, tomatoes, courgette cake and chocolate beetroot brownies on the menu already, so if you are coming, which of course you are, bring a dish to share.

What’s next –

• Watering – we need to keep an eye on the water level as there will be no refill available this week

• Check for aphids, caterpillars, and tomato side shoots

• Keep weeding and working on the ground to the left of the fruit trees, and the construction of the compost heap

• Put the 22^nd September in your diary and plan a dish of food to share!

It has been a warm week, and we have been working hard to water all those thirsty plants, and they have rewarded us with more salad, some courgettes and pak choi .

The leeks, kale and purple sprouting got planted, and now here is where the fun begins!  As soon as the very warm weather arrived, and the kale and purple sprouting got to a decent size, the first of the cabbage white butterflies started to make an appearance, to seek out those seedlings and lay a few eggs all over them!  So if we are not to surrender our plants to the caterpillars, we will have to be observant, and remove any eggs before they devour the lot!  If you are not sure what you are looking for, there are two pictures of what the eggs look like, with this newsletter.  More salad has been sown, but July and August are months when it is best to avoid sowing certain seeds as they tend to bolt or set seed before their time.

Kalpana, a representative from the Nepalese community visited the garden this week to talk about Nepalese growing and cooking that is possible in the UK.  It was really interesting to hear about how the food is grown mainly in back yards, and is an important part of family life and diet.

We have been so busy with watering and searching for butterfly eggs, or being on holiday, that some of the jobs from last week will reappear again on this week’s tasks.  This may be an ongoing theme for a few weeks until holidays and dry, warm weather are out of the way, and we can get down to some more serious planting and sowing yet again!

What’s next? –

• Watering, if this weather continues

• Remove pesky butterfly eggs or caterpillars from the brassicas

• Keep pinching out tomato plant side shoots – unless it is obviously a bush tomato!

• Hoe those weeds on the paths, and dig out any of that bindweed making a re-appearance

• Two raised boxes to finish

• Ground to be cleared between the water tank and the fruit trees

The garden is just starting to fill out, with leaves getting bigger and lusher.  Beans are climbing the poles, and the beetroot, tomatoes, and Tokyo turnips starting to swell.  The first of the radishes have arrived and taste so delicious that I am thinking we should have sown even more because they are disappearing pretty fast!  This week we have been filling three of the raised boxes, sowing more rows of carrots and beetroot, spring onions, and spinach.  We have planted out more dwarf beans and tomatoes.

Many thanks this week to Terry and Alan for bringing some trays of seedlings, plus three cucamelons which are an exciting addition to the plot!  Thanks also to Freddie for the seeds, and Paula for the gooseberry bush plus a lovely shrub rose which we have planted close to a tree that Paula’s family planted many years ago in memory of her father.  We had a donation of some rather sad looking gooseberry plants plus two red current bushes which were picked up for next to nothing because they had been attacked by sawfly caterpillars.   They can strip a plant of its leaves in less than a day if left unchecked; however the plants should recover with a bit of TLC and be fine for next year.

What’s next  

• WATERING!  Sorted for Sunday night and Monday night

• Stake the new tomato plants

• Finish filling the raised boxes and top with a little compost.

• Sow more seeds!

• Clear the land to the left of the fruit trees

• We might get to plant out the leeks and kale next week!

Well, Wednesday might have been a washout, but Saturday certainly was not!  Brilliant sunshine!  The fig tree got properly planted in a bigger pot, the next two raised beds got placed in situ and partially filled with the old grass turf, more ground got dug over and weeded, the two last raised beds got another coat of preservative, lettuces and tomatoes were planted, and more salad seeds sown! 

Many thanks this week to Geoff, one of the Saga gardeners, for the donation of some much needed hazel poles for beans, to Jill for the dozen tomato plants, and Theresa for the seeds and flowering plants!  Excellent news is that the Sandgate Society has very kindly given us £100 to enable us to build on what we have achieved so far, and take us into next year with all the seeds and plants we need!  We are bursting with ideas of what we would like to grow from the autumn, into winter and early spring, the aim being to grow food all year round.

The first of the salads has been picked!  The ‘cut and come again’ salad in the boxes is having its first cut, and will be joined by the radishes not far behind, later this week!  When cutting or picking salad, make sure you only take the leaves, and not the stem and crown of the plants, so that they can sprout again.  That way we should get several servings from the same plants!  Mixed with young nasturtium leaves and flowers, also calendula petals, and maybe chives, how more local and seasonal can you get!!

I mentioned last week to take time to look at things….. well, look at the photo attached for the view we have from the garden… that really is something!  On a smaller scale however, keep checking the beans and salad leaves for unwanted critters trying to move in!  Until the garden is balanced with more predators to help us out like ladybirds, ground beetles and, who knows…maybe some frogs…we shall have to be on our guard!

Next organised meet ups – Monday 6pm, Wednesday and Saturday 10am

If you are on WhattsApp, Sheila our Technical Advisor can add you to the group.

What’s next

• Watering – covered for this weekend! Early morning or later in the afternoon is best on warm days!

• Last coat of preservative on the last 2 raised boxes

• Get all boxes in situ and fill with whatever we have got!

• Sow more seeds

• Eat salad!

What a difference that rain has made!  The carrot seeds have sprouted and things are starting to romp away!  We managed to source some bean canes from the Park compost heap, and to demolish a large chunk of courgette cake.  Welcome to Sue and Andrew who joined us this week – Thanks Sue for the butternut squash plants, broad bean seeds, and French beans, much appreciated….we also had an anonymous courgette donation, all have been planted, but the broad bean seeds are to be saved for the autumn!  If you know people with veg plots/allotments, ask them to bear us in mind when it comes to dividing plants later in the autumn, as that is when we will be looking for donations to the cause…more about that nearer the time!

What’s next

• I have been told to expect sunshine this week, so if you walk by early morning or late afternoon, give those seedlings a water.  Try to avoid watering when the sun is high and if there is direct sunlight as this can do more damage than good.

• We are wood treating the last of the raised boxes….looking good!

• Continue clearing the ground to the left of the fruit and herb section

• More tomato plants to plant out, more seeds to sow for continuity

• Most important – take time to have a look at all the achievements so far!