Sandgate Community Garden

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 10th September: Scorchio.

This week the weather has been scorchio!  It has been far too hot to feel like doing anything much, but no matter what the seedlings, celery and celeriac still need watering.  We decided to work in the garden earlier than we normally do, and finish by 11am in order to be out of the midday sun.

The rest of the tomato plants with blight got removed and composted, and work was started on laying more wood chip paths.  The badgers have been active again this week in the garden, with evidence of disturbed earth and pathways, probably in the search for earthworms.  Sometimes, on arrival there is a need to rake over the paths to make them level again or risk falling into the holes.

Many of the garden plots are now covered in fine netting as the cabbage white butterflies are very active still and so desperate to get at the brassicas that we often find them trapped inside where they have somehow managed to squeeze in, and have to release them. However they need to be careful as the season is turning towards autumn and there is evidence of large garden spiders and their webs strategically placed to catch anything that comes along.  We observed a short fight between a wasp and a spider, but the wasp stood no chance, was wrapped up and carried off to the larder in a flash.

We were proud to notice that our little lemon tree has produced a tiny lemon, and that the banana tree had sprouted two new trees around its roots – brilliant.

On 23^rd September there will be another Disco Soup event, but this time in Hythe in conjunction with the Hythe Environmental Community Group plant, seed and produce swap and community apple pressing.  The venue is the Age UK centre in Stade Street from 2 – 5pm.  So check it out on social media and sign up for a ticket to a great free event for all of the family.

What’s next?

• Continue to put down the wood chips

• Pick the hops

• Continue to tidy up the plot

• Remove the wig-wams and tidy up around the back of the pond

• Continue to water the seedlings if the weather continues to be hot

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 3rd September: A fabulous day and the weather was just perfect.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who donated plants for the Sea Festival and to everyone who came along on the day to support us either to buy plants/vegetables, or to help out at the stall or with setting up and clearing away – it was a fabulous day and the weather was just perfect too.  It was a great atmosphere, and lovely to be alongside our sister groups the Sandgate Society and  Sandgate Environmental Action.  We raised a massive £414.54; the ‘guess the weight of the hamper’ was popular, featuring a selection of organic vegetables grown by us, it was won by Lesley with a spot on guess, give or take a few grams.   We would like to say many thanks to the Parish Council for giving us a space at the Festival which was very much appreciated.

On the bank holiday Monday a group of volunteers came out from the Napier barracks to help shift lots of wood chips from the lower path in Enbrook Park, right up to the garden where they are needed to replenish the pathways.  They also helped to turn the compost heaps too which was a great help. 

On Tuesday there was an invitation to visit the Lynsted Kitchen Community Garden which was a real treat, followed by a meeting with the Kent Food Partnership.  This group is part of the Good Food Movement which is holding a summit at the University of Kent in early October and will showcase many projects and initiatives in Kent – we will be representing Sandgate there.

On Wednesday Kate Strong came to Folkestone on her bamboo bike as part of a 3,000 mile ride around the circumference of mainland Britain.  During her ride she has visited more than 50 innovative climate projects and schools across the country. It was a privilege to be able to talk to her about her journey, and she was able to help us with information about projects she had seen.  She finished her mission on Saturday in London.

In the meantime there has been sunshine and showers in Sandgate, with the rainfall for August recorded at 77.8mm.  As a result, it was found that the dreaded blight has reached Enbrook Park and so the tomatoes will have to be removed.  We made a start on Saturday, and guess we need to be grateful that it has taken quite so long to get to the park.

The last of the Claytonia got pricked out,  extra water given to the new plantings of radishes, mustards and spring onions, as well as to the celery and celeriac trying to swell and make something of themselves.  Some hoops got found to help keep the netting off the newly planted lettuces and there has been plenty of grumblings about the holes being made in many of the leaves by slugs, snails and caterpillars!

What’s Next?

• Finish removing and composting the tomato plants

• Start to lay wood chips on the paths

• Keep watering the celery and celeriac plus new plants

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 27th August: It is all happening in Sandgate.

Crikey!  It is all happening in Sandgate.  The Sea Festival weekend is upon us at last, yet by the time you read this newsletter it will probably be all finished.  We have been keeping a close eye on the weather, and although there were showers on Saturday, it did not spoil the evening firework show marking the start of the festival.  We now know that our stall will be right on the seafront in front of the car park, alongside our sister groups, Sandgate Environmental Action and the Sandgate Society. 

During the week we have been checking over the plants to make sure they are in fine fettle for the day. The van is full to the brim already and there will have to be several trips made back and forth to get everything in place first thing in the morning.  So pleased to say that we have plenty of volunteers for the day, helping to unload the van and set up the stall – it will be a great day!

The week has been busy.  Some of the claytonia seedlings have been pricked out, along with the cabbages and some red mustard.  There has been a great deal of weeding as the growth is quite lush in the garden and cheeky weeds are hiding in the undergrowth until they find a space and show themselves, only to be found and pulled up.  Some of the cucumber and winter squash plants have grown into the hedge so that their fruits are dangling in the middle of it.  The rosemary plants got a good trim, a few plums got picked and most then eaten, the dwarf bean plants taken out and composted to make way for plantings of Japanese turnips, Chinese cabbages, mustards and winter radishes.  The daylight hours are drawing in, and there is no time left to sow many seeds.  The last will be a few small red radishes and in October, the broad beans, then no more seeds until next February.  It feels like the year is winding down already.

The offshoot of our original banana tree is doing very well, so we said goodbye to the old stem which sadly snapped during high winds, and cut it back.  There is now another new stem and you can see in the picture below that the amaranth in front sets it off quite nicely to give a real ‘jungle’ look.

What’s next?

• Prick out the rest of the claytonia

• Keep checking on the tomatoes for blight

• Keep the new plantings well watered plus the celery and celeriac

• Get some hoops over the lettuces for the netting

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 20th August: The slugs and snails are on the march, and the hunt is still on for hornets.

We had a massive 22.9mm of rain on Friday night, which is more than we usually get for most months.  The thunder and lightning rip-roared about for a few hours which seemed to wake most folk up, but it did mean that there was no need to water the Enbrook Park garden on the Saturday morning, and all the plants looked glad for it.  However the slugs and snails are on the march, and with all our brassicas under netting, they have free reign to romp about as much as they like it seems.  There were also a few cabbage white caterpillars that had escaped our vigilance until they were so big they were blindingly obvious and therefore easy to evict.

The hedge got another trim this week, the claytonia, and spring onion seeds got sown and the Chinese cabbages planted next to the kohl rabi.  We had some wallflower seedlings which got moved into larger pots, and some of the plants for our sale next Sunday at the Sandgate Sea Festival were looked over and pampered to be their best for the day.

Unfortunately the hornet hunters are still very busy hunting the Asian hornets, and some information leaflets were taken to the Parish Council in the hope they can be put on the public information boards locally to give details on what to look for and how to identify them. Seen one? Report an Asian Hornet sighting here.

As for the current situation with the tomatoes, well sadly the dreaded blight is rapidly closing in on us.  There are no signs of it on our plants at Enbrook Park still but it is in the area.  The plants have done particularly well all considered, and are full of tomatoes.  They usually ripen from the bottom truss upwards, and this week as usual we were greeted with large bite marks and half chewed fruits on the plants, whilst others were pulled off and discarded by our usual suspects, the badgers.  We are of the mind to share with them anyway as they were in the park before us but just hope that they do not take to climbing up the cordons to reach further up.  

In general, most of the plants are doing well, even the hops have suddenly started to appear, but perhaps one disappointment so far is that the winter squash plants have very few fruits.  They have plenty of male flowers, but no female flowers.  We understand that this could be due to the fact it has been quite cool this summer with plenty of rain so the plants decide not to produce any female flowers.  We shall have to see if the situation changes, but now time is getting on and before we know it we will be into September!

What’s next?

• Prick out the claytonia seedlings, cabbages and cauliflowers.

• Weed between the asparagus and rosemary plants.

• Trim back the rosemary plants and tidy them up

• Find space for the next plantings

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 13th August: Praying for decent weather for the Sea Festival.

We are praying for decent weather at the end of the month for the Sea Festival because if it is anything like it was last weekend with waves crashing over the Sandgate Promenade, it will be a disaster.  However, being optimistic as always and keeping everything as well as our fingers crossed, Sunday 27^th August WILL be a perfect day!

The Animal and Plant Health Agency are still in situ with their welfare van, which was joined by another van, to continue the hunt for the Asian hornets in the area.  Nests were found in Seabrook, and the search is now on at Capel Le Ferne.  We believe they are making progress, but let us hope it is enough, or it could be a continuous battle, time will tell.

The hedge did get a trim this week.  Luckily the wind had died down enough to be able to sow seeds for mustard leaves, turnips, claytonia, spring cabbages and cauliflowers.  A few more plugs of spring onions got planted, and some kohl rabi.  The tomatoes as yet show no signs of blight but the likelihood is that it is only a matter of time before it shows up.  The pond has cheekily been growing lots of duckweed probably in response to having so much water, and so we have been regularly fishing it out from the surface to prevent it smothering the entire pond.

Some of our fruit trees have managed to produce some fruit this year which may actually stay on the trees long enough to ripen – well, you never know! 

On Thursday the brick planters outside the shops at Golden Valley got a tidy, and the weeds around the bases removed.  Often an onerous task, but made bearable with the addition of volunteers from Napier Barracks.  We are always grateful for the extra help.  We then went on to remove brambles from the orchard in Fremantle Park, and spent part of the afternoon eating blackberries fresh from the hedge line – nothing finer on a warm sunny day.

What’s next?

• Trim the inside of the hedge
• Plant out Chinese cabbages
• Keep checking the tomatoes
• Sow more claytonia

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 6th August: Finding where the Asian hornets are nesting, destroying them.

There are times when you wonder if you should be careful what you wish for, having spent so long over the past few years going on about how little rain we have here in Sandgate.  We now seem to have a plentiful amount and the hope is that the sunshine will be returning anytime soon!  The rainfall for July was a massive 90 mm, and we certainly do not remember recording that much for a summer month before.  There has now been 27.9 mm of rain in the initial days of August!  It is the first time we have ever seen the pond full during the summer, or so much fungi around in the beds. 

We are keeping a very close eye on the tomato plants as blight creeps nearer to us.  Just this week we heard from Steve, the community gardener at Napier Barracks, that blight has appeared there, and so we will be removing lots of the lower leaves next week to try and get the air circulating around the plants in an attempt to keep it at bay.

The Wednesday gardening session was fine, but the wind was blowing hard, making seed sowing an interesting affair, involving huddling behind taller plants or anything that made a wind break, to prevent the seeds from blowing away.   The Saturday session was a complete washout.  Just a couple of us braved the elements to pick a few items, as many things during the summer benefit from being picked regularly (for example the beans) and will then respond by producing even more. The more you pick, the more they grow!  Not so for the tomatoes, the concern being to pick ripe fruits before the slugs get to them, or the birds, or the badgers.  Fortunately only the gardeners appreciate the prickly cucumbers, and we picked the first three this week.

Last week we had planted two beds of late flowering purple sprouting broccoli which we covered with lovely new horticultural netting.  However this week we find that something has been making holes and tears in the netting, which must have been quite hard work, so we can only assume that the badgers are responsible.  We did manage to harvest a pot of chokeberries, or Aronia berries from our two plants this week before they did, and very good they were too.  It has to be said it is the first time we have managed to pick them in a ripe state and still on the bush.  They are sweeter the riper they are, and do not ripen at the same time so the race is on to see who gets the next batch, wildlife, or gardeners. 

You may have noticed a ‘welfare unit’ in the car park near the garden all this week.  At 9am on Monday morning, a team arrived from APHA (Animal and Plant Health Agency).  They are an ‘executive agency’ sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Welsh Government and the Scottish Government.  They are here in response to our beekeepers sightings of the Asian Hornet in Sandgate.  Their focus is on finding where the Asian hornets are nesting and to destroy them.  They have to catch a hornet, mark it and observe which direction they fly in and how long it takes them to return, and so work out where the nest is, or indeed nests.  It is encouraging to know that the sightings are being taken so seriously, however the fact they have been here all week must mean there is much work to do.  A successful Asian hornet nest can have up to 6,000 individuals, producing 350 queens and 900 males.  If they were allowed to take hold in the area, it would be the end of honey bees.  So be vigilant and acquaint yourself with what they look like, and the differences between them and our native hornet species.

Another thing to acquaint you with is the date for the Sea Festival.  We are really looking forward to seeing you there on Sunday 27^th August.  We will have amongst other things, a whole range of plants.  This is a major fundraising event for us, so bring sunshine and a whole lot of cash and the willingness to part with it all for a good cause.  If you have any plants going spare, then please do get in touch.

What’s Next?

• Still need to cut the hedge

• Still need to prick out seedlings and sow more seeds

• Still need to bring woodchips up to the garden

• Cut off more of the lower leaves on the tomato plants

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 30th July: Watching carefully for signs of tomato blight.

It was surely tempting fate to mention the dreaded tomato blight in the newsletter last week, as the following day it was found in a group of tomato plants at Pent Farm.  The tomatoes there are planted indoors as well as out, and in several locations.  The affected plants were close together and in bush form, whereas the others are cordons with space around them.  So far these are the only infected plants we have found, and they have been quickly removed, but we will keep a close eye on all the others. 

It has to be said that the tomato plants at Enbrook Park are looking particularly splendid, and you can see from the picture below that they are taller than most of the gardeners and as they have plenty of trusses as well as outgrown their supports, we have started to pinch out the tops to prevent any more growth upwards.  The suspicion is that some of our wildlife is sampling some of the lower fruits as we often find half chewed and unripe morsels scattered about the plot. 

During the week we unsurprisingly had little watering to do except for new plantings of spring onions and purple sprouting and a few potted plants.  More lettuces and endives got sown, and weeds cleared in the brassica beds.  The butterfly bush or buddleia behind our tool box was truly living up to its name this week as it has been smothered in butterflies.  Interestingly, all the butterflies were red admirals, and it was great just to stop working for a while to watch them enjoying the flowers. 

The chokeberries or aronias got netted in anticipation of them being eaten by the wildlife as they did last year.  They are rich in antioxidants and ‘essential nutrients that promote healthy growth of cells and protect tissues from damage’.  They have a sharp, sour taste which may not be popular with everybody, however just a few added to cereal or porridge will be beneficial.

The pond has certainly improved due to the rainfall, and of course the duckweed has made an appearance once more which we are keeping in check by spending some time fishing it out with a net.

It has been a task this year to get hold of woodchips.  We use wood chips to create paths on the plot and to mix with other materials to make our compost.  Through a chance encounter, Alistair, our compost champion, met a tree surgeon willing to drop us a truckload of chips for a small charge.  So happily we now have a great pile of the stuff and can stop scratching around trying to scrape up the last bits we had left!

What’s next?

• Lots of seeds need sowing this week!

• Cut back the hedge

• Bring up some of the wood chips to the composting area

• Prick out some of the new seedlings

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 23rd July: Dwarf beans, blackcurrants, tomatoes, fungi and flowers.

Considering the fact that many parts of the world including Europe are experiencing extreme heatwaves, it has to be said that cooler showery/windy weather has to be preferable, although not everybody would agree with that.  The showers are so localised, that it can be raining hard at Pent Farm and Cheriton High Street, even at the top of Enbrook Valley, with the rain literally bouncing back off the pavement, yet the rest of Sandgate can be absolutely bone dry!  Fortunately Sandgate did get plenty of showers, meaning no, or little watering, and most of the plants are responding well to plentiful water. 

Of course, not all plants this time of year will be enjoying the wet, thinking of tomatoes in particular, and already many gardeners are on the lookout for the dreaded blight, as these are perfect conditions for it to turn up out of the blue.  We are being vigilant, ready to act should it come our way anytime soon.  We have already had some ripe tomatoes from our outdoor plants.  The first to appear were the Sungold variety, followed by the black Indigo Cherry Drops, and the Yellow Submarines.  After that, the small cherry tomatoes are starting to appear, but the larger varieties are some way behind. 

The dwarf beans have been cropping well this year and also seem to have plenty of flowers to continue on.  Last year they struggled in the heat and lack of water, later falling victim to blackfly.

The broccoli has also done quite well, and this year we have tried the type which keeps producing side shoots similar to purple sprouting, rather than just producing one large head.  This means that you get a longer cropping harvest and not just a load of broccoli all at once.  We had hoped to be able to plant the late flowering purple sprouting for next spring; however it is proving to be a little reluctant and is well behind the growth of the earlier varieties.  It may have to wait another week or so. 

Many of our blackcurrant bushes fared well this year too, mainly because they are a year old and therefore larger.  We lost our crop at Enbrook to the badgers, but the bushes at Fremantle Park and the alleyway at Meadowbrook produced some lovely currants which hopefully got picked by local foragers.

Last but not least we have been rewarded with plenty of fungi in the compost bins too; a great sign which means that the compost is doing just what we want it to.

What’s next?

• Sow more wallflowers, lettuce, endive, winter radish

• Finish weeding the brassica beds under the netting

• Net the Aronia bushes before the birds/badgers get them

• Check on the honey berries

• Cut back the inside of the hedge

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 16th July: Keeping your bananas well away from the beehives.

Just as our newsletter went out last Sunday bemoaning the fact the rain was passing us by yet again, it started to pour down.  We have had several substantial showers since. This weekend the winds have arrived with a vengeance. 

Apart from the interesting weather, the main feature of the week has been insects, from the good, the bad, and the (not so) ugly.  For a few weeks now there has been a plethora of ladybirds – always a delight to see, but they seem to be in particularly high numbers at the moment and appearing in all of the gardens. 

We are always interested in identifying what we find locally, and a friend posted a photograph of a delicate looking moth which had caught her eye.  Unfortunately it happened that the moth was the box tree or box hedge moth.  An invasive species from East Asia accidentally introduced to Central Europe a few years ago, it devastates box trees, and many box tree plants in Sandgate have indeed been lost or affected by this particular creature this year. 

Whilst clearing some weeds at Fremantle Park it was interesting to find several caterpillars of the Cinnabar moth.  Looking like it is wearing a brightly coloured yellow/orange and black striped rugby shirt, it is very easy to find although birds know that it is poisonous.  The Cinnabar moth is not rare in the UK, but the adults and caterpillars certainly give a great splash of colour. 

Whilst working at Enbrook Park in the garden this Saturday we were joined by our beekeeper, checking on the main hive to see if the queen was in evidence.  The good news is that she certainly was at home, and the hive has increased greatly in numbers.  Unfortunately they took umbrage at being disturbed (quite understandably) and decided to go for the gardeners by buzzing around their heads to warn them away from the area.  When bees are stuck in your hair and sounding mighty angry it can be a challenge to remain calm, and a certain amount of squealing and running about did not seem to help the situation.  Added to which, once you are stung by a bee, it releases an odour called an alarm pheromone to alert other bees to the danger.  This alarm pheromone apparently smells like bananas and attracts other bees to come to the defence of the hive.  Lessons learnt:

• Do not open a hive on a gardening day.

• Do not eat bananas near a beehive.

If stung, the pheromone stays on your clothing which should then be washed before wearing them again!

This week, Alistair, our composting champion, has been working at Pent Farm for Touchbase Care to sort out the unruly composting heaps.  He has certainly made a terrific difference, by recycling and rethinking the area.  On his return to the farm to check on how the compost was ‘cooking’, he took off the cover to find a rather large and splendid grass snake taking up residence.  The cover was quickly replaced and the snake left, in the hope that it may decide to stay for the rest of the season with any luck.  We shall certainly not be disturbing it.

In spite of all our encounters with wildlife we did manage to get some broccoli planted as well as spring onions; lettuces and chicories were sown and rampaging weeds removed. 

What’s next?

• With luck the purple sprouting can be planted

• Check on the courgettes

• Weed the leek bed

• Remove the bolted lettuces

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 9th July: The Johnson-Su system takes some 400 days for the compost to mature.

The lovely drop or two of rain we had last week made an amazing difference to the plants but now we are back to watering again as it continues to be warm and mostly sunny with thunderstorms passing us by, although we can hear the thunder rumbling around in the distance.

As well as helping our vegetable plants, the weeds have benefitted from the rain showers too and are starting to take over in some places which will have to be tackled next week or they will be robbing the water from the vegetables.

 The courgettes have started to arrive, and it is likely we will pick our first dwarf beans next week, just as the potatoes are finishing.  The spring onions are starting to swell, the first sowings of lettuces are now bolting, and as yet, the badgers have not discovered the beetroot.  An executive decision was made to harvest them small or as soon as they are large enough to make something of, in case they should suddenly disappear!  Our first outdoor tomato arrived from a Sungold plant – always a difficult decision as to who should have the very first of anything that has been grown, however all volunteers know that we will fairly share whatever has been grown between us, and/or with any visitors (including the wildlife which seems to get more than a fair share!)

We are starting to make some progress with our new composting system, although we know it is a learning curve on our quest for the perfect compost, and we are only just starting on this journey.  We have certainly had to dedicate a lot more time and effort to making it, from the collecting of the materials to the mixing, and we know we are missing some ingredients which we need to source.

We are grateful to Alistair, one of our dedicated team, for his DIY skills and determination in the making of our new compost bays, and Johnson-Su style compost bins.  There are four compost bays –

The first bay is for the green waste (food waste, weeds, finished plants, and pruning materials) which will enrich the compost with nitrogen.

There is a bay for brown waste (wood chips, dried grass, shredded paper/card, and dried leaves).  These materials feed the compost with carbon.

There is a bay for manure/compost to include cow manure, spent mushroom compost or green waste composts.  These add nitrogen to our compost mix which we hope will also provide a diverse biology.  We are grateful to Farmer Tom at Pent Farm for the cow manure which has come from the cow sheds where the beef herd have been housed over the worst of the winter months, before being turned out into the fields.

The final bay is for maturing the made compost for several weeks/months until it can be put onto the vegetable beds.  This compost will have been through the Johnson-Su style composting system before being placed into this bay.

The Johnson-Su system was invented by a Dr Johnson and his wife Hui Chun Su.  Their system takes some 400 days for the compost to mature; however by turning the compost several times, it will speed up the process.  The successful outcome depends on the materials being as small as possible which is an issue for us as this relies on the use of shredders and electric power which we do not have at the community garden.  It therefore means we have to manually chop the materials into as small pieces as we can, which is often hard work and takes time.  Our results so far have been mixed.  Sometimes the compost mix is too hot and at other times too cold – we gauge the temperature with a thermometer, and heat is required to kill off any seeds, harmful bacteria, and can apparently break down any herbicides and pesticides 32 times faster than a cold composting system.  Sometimes the compost mix is too dry which then halts the composting process.  One thing which is fascinating is how quickly the mix is infiltrated by all manner of organisms; in as little as three days after putting the compost mix together, there are worms and all manner of minibeasts to be found just under the surface!  Incredible!  As we make new discoveries in this composting world, we will bring them to the newsletter to share with you all.

What’s next?

• Prick out the lettuce seedlings

• Create a space for all the pots and seed trays

• Weed where the weeds are taking over

• Sow some more chicories/endives

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.