Sandgate Community Garden

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 6th November: Keeping our cabbage white butterfly caterpillars well-fed, fat and healthy.

Are you interested in your local neighbourhood, the environment and how we as residents as well as visitors, interact with our facilities and businesses? Are you interested in the impact of globalisation on us all and how the growing worldwide movement of localisation and sustainability is fighting back to become more self-sufficient, resilient and stable in an uncertain world?  Then you need to come along to the Reading Room at the Old Fire Station in Sandgate, on 17^th November at 7pm where the Sandgate Society will be starting work on ‘Sustainability in Sandgate’.  If you are interested in looking at how localisation and sustainability has helped in many villages, towns and cities around the world then check out this website:

This fascinating collection of videos and articles cannot fail to inspire, and at the very least make you think about what is happening around the world to the environment, nature and people.  It can be depressing viewing some of the videos, but there are solutions if you are prepared to get involved in your locality and join the movement.  Hope to see you there.

There has certainly been some rain in Sandgate these past few days.  The rainfall for all of October was 43.9 mm however by 4^th November the rainfall within just a couple of days was 45.4 mm.  At the Touchbase garden where some of our volunteers lend a hand, a massive 1000 litres of rainwater was saved in those two torrential days from just one large shed roof – incredible. 

Below is a photo of a rather bedraggled looking Heron standing on top of the moorhen house in Enbrook Park, spotted following the downpours.  All very well for us tucked up inside our cosy homes, but for nature, this week of high winds and rain must have its toll. 

As for the community garden in Enbrook Park, we kept a watchful eye over how the plants fared with the battering.  There was a gathering of volunteers on Wednesday, however the session on Saturday was cancelled and we all opted for the comforts of home instead.

It has to be said that we have not been quite so vigilant at looking after our plants as we might have thought, with the issue being netting over the plants concealing all that is going on underneath.  Netting is a wonderful thing to keep off marauding pests of all shapes and sizes, fob off the high winds and lull you into a false sense of security that all is well.  One day the cauliflower plants were looking sturdy enough and growing well, and what seems like the next day, all the leaves seem to have disappeared, leaving a straggly excuse of a plant loaded with well-fed fat and healthy cabbage white butterfly caterpillars happily feasting away obviously safe from marauding predators and high winds, all cosy under that net.

In another area of the Sandgate Community Garden, some purple sprouting broccoli had sent up a broccoli head which was missed, probably because of the netting, and was now starting to evolve into the yellow flower head.  It just goes to show that out of sight is out of mind and netting over a crop can complicate matters.

One plant we do not need to net which has performed well this year is the sea buckthorn.  We have used sea buckthorn as a barrier against the winds, and is a plant that can cope with the sea salt.  We are trying to keep it tight against the fence so that it will thicken up with time and not take up too much space.  The downside of a hedge is that it will take moisture from the ground which you need for growing vegetables, and this hedge is prickly!  In this third year of growth it has rewarded us with bright orange berries, which some of our volunteers have collected to be dried and crushed into a powder, or simply used fresh in recipes.  Sea buckthorn is a superfood, but is an acquired taste with a most intense flavour.  We often pot up some of the runners from the hedge which are making their way either across the plot or outside, so do get in touch if you would like a plant as we will certainly be able to oblige.

We were recently contacted by a Saga employee with a gift of five seed trays complete with clear covers and reservoir trays.  We will certainly be able to make good use of them; and although seed sowing is finished for 2022, it will not be too long until we reach mid-February, and the seed sowing season starts all over again.

What’s next?

• Get ready to plant the broad bean seedlings

• Keep checking cold frames

• Cut back the amaranth plants and compost them

• Thin out some of the nasturtium plants

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 30th October: Anyone for Slug Fritters?

Oh dear oh dear, with temperatures of 20 degrees this week and plenty of moisture, the slugs are having a wonderful time and have turned the Chinese cabbages to something resembling paper doilies, they are so full of holes.  Our new routine of checking the cold frames for slugs has been most fruitful with several being caught each time.  It is such a shame that slugs are not on the menu as we would have a fine crop.  Apparently they are edible; and the flavour is a cross between chicken and calamari.  Something to bear in mind but perhaps times will have to be really bad before we would choose to make a meal out of them. 

Still there are plenty of caterpillars around, and a fine dusting of blackfly, the poor plants are being attacked from all angles.  Below is a photo taken of a sighting of some ladybird larvae.  You would certainly not be expecting to see them in late October and the hope is that they will have time to transform into their adult form as they are generally supposed to be hibernating from October until February and certainly not reproducing.

Where the summer annuals we grew from seed this year were planted, they have flowered, gone to seed, dropped their seeds, the seeds have germinated, grown, and now about to flower, all around the parent plants still flowering.  We have never known anything like it.  Looking forward to next week, temperatures will be lower, but with a promised minimum of 8 degrees, it will have little effect on the current situation.

One of our weekly newsletter readers, Rita, got in contact having read about the amazing array of fungi forms appearing in great numbers all around the park and garden.  Rita sent in a photograph of what is believed to be a basket stinkhorn pictured in SW France where she is currently staying.  You can see the picture she took below, and it has to be one of the strangest and most amazing structures to be seen in nature.  On researching the distribution of the fungi, it has been found as close to us as East Sussex; perhaps we may get to see it in our county yet.

There was a little flurry of excitement when the Hythe Hops scheme treated its members to a gift of two beer glasses printed with the Hythe Hops logo, and a can of the new brew by the great Docker brewery, and made from hops grown by locals.  All the names of our volunteers went into the ‘hat’ to draw out the winners of either a glass or a can of the brew itself, and with our two memberships of the scheme, six of our volunteers had a happy surprise – thank you Hythe Hop scheme!

What’s next?

• Water all pots, plus cold frames, check for slugs, clear leaves on plot and in pond

• Continue to make new plant labels

• Continue to pot up strawberry runners

• Keep checking on the broad bean sowings.

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 23rd October: Planning forward and planting for 2023.

We are just coming up to the ideal time to be preparing the ground for next year and to be thinking about cutting back old growth and getting the gardens tidy.  However the warm weather continues, pushing back the dormant time for plants.  In the Meadowbrook alley garden, the globe artichokes had been cut right back at the end of summer, but the new shoots for next year have already grown tall and are producing artichokes – in October. 

We have been keeping up the routine of fishing leaves and duckweed out of the pond, picking up the fallen sycamore seeds and leaves, and remembering to water the various pots around the plot.  We now add the task of checking the cold frames each and every session to check for slugs.  They seem to have made a direct pilgrimage to the cold frames where they can spend uninterrupted and safe time feasting on the lettuces.  They are safe until we search them out, remove, and relocate them to pastures new.  In the meantime the lettuces are disappearing fast, and it will be a miracle if the rest survive much longer.

We did start to tackle the list of tasks for this week, but this period of clearing and weeding will probably be with us for some time to come, and so the list continues into next week for sure.  We have started work on making some new plant labels for the plots, and are continuing to pot up lots of new strawberry plants that keep popping up in some of the paths.  They will be useful to relocate to some of the other gardens.

Our bird watching, visiting couple came by the garden again this week to let us know their house purchase is close to completion and they will be moving away from Sandgate.  We will miss the informative discussions on local wildlife.  This week we heard about the sighting of a raven (although we never knew they were a rare thing here) and three firecrests.  The firecrest is a tiny, brightly coloured bird, which apparently was once only a visitor to the south but is now starting to breed here. 

On Friday we completed the mulching of the Queen’s Jubilee Orchard in Fremantle Park.  In the spring this year, we only had enough time and compost to spread between half of the trees, which we then planted in late spring/summer with fruit bushes, rhubarb, herbs and flowers.  We organised a day to collect four truckloads of compost from our friends at Hope Farm in Capel who kindly allow us to take it.  The compost they produce is used on local farms and not sold commercially, but their generosity has meant that we have been able to get on with various tasks that would otherwise have used much of our funding – compost is an expensive commodity.  It has also meant that we can practice the ‘no dig’ method, and take care of the soil first, which will then take care of the plants.  We used two truckloads of compost on the lower end of the orchard, with a little left over to replenish some of the soil on the opposite slope we are developing, as well as some parts of the orchard where the compost has worn thin.  The plan is that in the spring we will plant the newly mulched area with more fruit bushes, herbs and flowers.  In-between truckloads, the volunteers started planting spring bulbs, and we will continue to plant more around Sandgate in the next few weeks.

In the afternoon of the compost run, we delivered two truckloads to Enbrook Park for use on the community garden plus of course the alleyways and various planters, not forgetting the other orchard area at Sandgate Park.  We are grateful for help from Saga volunteers that day plus volunteers from the Napier Barracks.  It would have been an impossible task without them, and we certainly would not have managed to complete as much as we did.

What’s next?

• Water all pots, plus cold frames, check for slugs, clear leaves on plot and in pond

• Continue to make new plant labels

• Continue to pot up strawberry runners

• Sort out the bay tree planters

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 16th October: Comparing notes, know your mushrooms and the flight of the Sandgate Storks…

We have all sorts of interesting people come up to the garden at Enbrook Park to have a look around and to chat.  Many visitors to the area and local residents drop by; some of them on a regular basis to see how the garden is doing; to look at what is in season and perhaps compare how the growth is in their own garden or allotment.  So we compare notes and talk about the effect the weather had this summer on the growth now, as well as how many things are desperately trying to catch up or getting a ‘second wind’ and surprising us in mid-October. 

As mentioned last week, there are plenty of fungi appearing all over the plot, and it is interesting to note how different people react to it.  Unfortunately most of us know so very little about it, and when it appears in its many forms it is often viewed with suspicion and maybe a little bit of fear.  Perhaps the best thing to be learnt about fungi is that it is to be respected and cannot be collected and eaten unless you really know your stuff – it can be lethal.  However, just as it is possible to know one or two berries that are safe to forage from the wild (for example blackberries and elderberries), it is also wise to begin foraging for fungi by really knowing just one or two safe examples.  Needless to say, none of our gardeners know a thing about our fungi, so we just leave well alone.  What we do understand is that fungi in a garden is a good thing, and generally is helping to bring food and moisture to the plants.  As a subject there is so much to learn about it, and was probably something our ancestors knew much more about than many of us do today.

One of our returning visitors is the elderly gentleman who gave us the little lemon tree which he planted up against the brick wall.  He likes to see how it is getting on and to give it a few words of encouragement.  He was pleased to observe this week that it was happily flowering away and had a tiny lemon too.  The plant is only a mere 15cms tall but is really trying its best and certainly gives much pleasure for its stature.  The gentleman was also comparing our banana tree to one in his garden which has produced a flower and now bananas!  Well, who knows, maybe next year our banana tree might produce some fruit too.

Another interesting visit was from a couple who are temporarily living in Sandgate until their house purchase goes through in another part of Kent.  They are avid bird watchers or ‘twitchers’, always armed with binoculars, as they walk around the area, and constantly on the alert to catch sight of migrating birds.  They relayed how one morning whilst walking along Sandgate seafront, they caught sight of an entire flock (or muster) of storks flying across from the channel and inland.  We are aware of storks nesting at Knepp in Sussex, so maybe this was where they were heading.  It is an experience of sorts to have seagulls nesting on your roof, but just imagine if Sandgate had storks…. not too sure we are ready for that just yet.

What’s next?

• Finish weeding the outside edge of the fence

• Keep picking up leaves and fallen sycamore seeds

• Fix the leaf compost area

• Keep up the weeding of all areas

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 9th October: Keeping the garden tidy, a full pond and late growth.

After all the rushing around of the last few weeks, getting all the plants into the ground and settled in as quickly as possible, it has suddenly gone very quiet now in the garden, giving time to catch up with a few things and to actually sit down and spend time having a good chat to volunteers and visitors.  There is not much to harvest at the moment.  Daylight hours are so much shorter, and this has an impact on the speed of growth, or lack of it, and once something has been raided, it takes that much longer to recover than it might have done in high summer, to be at a point where it can be raided again.

The leaves are now continuing to fall along with bountiful amounts of sycamore seeds which always keep us busy when they start to sprout in the spring, so it will be lots of picking up and constantly tidying from now on.  Where leaves cover any seedlings, they cut out the light and the slug and snail population quickly move in.  Keeping a tidy garden helps to keep problems at bay.  The damper cooler weather has encouraged the fungi to appear all over the plot, and there are some rather large spectacular displays appearing just outside in the grassy areas as pictured below. 

The pond is full again at last, something we have not seen for many months.  We have been clearing the fallen leaves and duckweed, however looking at the amount of scum on the top of the water; it is evident that many birds and perhaps mammals have been enjoying taking a dip in the deeper water.  There is always a kerfuffle and commotion when you first enter the garden as the birds bathing take flight and fly away.

Now is the time for some of the flowers to look their best having got through the drought, stressed and attacked by blackfly, the dahlias and fuchsias are now making a spectacular show and really having a final fling before any frosts finish them off. 

The last of the rather large purple sprouting cages were completed this week as the broccoli was straining to burst out of their hooped netting and grow taller and wider.  You can sense the relief; looking at those plants released from their confines last week, already seeming larger and healthier for having the space.

One of our garden friends, Rosemary (from the Marsh community garden, and Napier Barracks garden volunteer) got in touch to say she had been collecting many seeds that we could have, as well as an electric garden shredder.  We snapped up the seeds, but having no electric power on any of our sites, the shredder was passed on to one of our sister groups, the Incredible Edibles in Cheriton.  We know they will be able to make good use of that, thank you Rosemary!

What’s next?

• We still need to cut back the foliage that is growing into the pond.

• Keep on picking up leaves from all over the site

• Weed, weed, weed

• Water the pots and cold frames regularly

• Still plenty of seedlings to pot up and move to other sites.

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 2nd October: From the Brockhill walled kitchen garden to a more sustainable Sandgate.

We are into October already and still in the process of getting out as many of the autumn plants as possible, either in the ground, or under cover in the cold frames.  The rainfall for September was a fantastic 84.1mm which is the most we have had in one month for the entire year.  The tree leaves had already taken on some autumn colour and might have managed to cling on to their branches for a little longer had the high winds not persuaded them otherwise on Friday.  Enbrook Park was littered with leaves and a few broken branches, and many of the sweet chestnuts in their prickly cases had been blown down and were rolling around the car park.

We had recently been commenting on how our banana tree had managed to keep its leaves whole, but all that has changed and it looks more like a palm tree where the leaves are now shredded.  Some of our netting was displaced, but otherwise we did not seem to have much damage at all within the garden.  Many tree leaves had fallen into the pond and had to be fished out with a net whilst tackling the duckweed at the same time.  

The lettuces had finally put on enough growth to be large enough to be planted out.  Compost bin one got turned into compost bin two, to make space for the courgette plants, tired of life at last.  We have been remembering to water the cold frames, and were pleased to note that the mustard plants are already mature enough for a first picking.  Each time we visit the garden there are new seedlings popping through which are being put into pots to take to other projects.

Last week, the vegetable plots at Fremantle Park had a sprucing.  It had been difficult to grow much this year due to the drought conditions and there being no water on site.  But as soon as the rain came along, the beds got a good weeding and a generous mulching of compost to set them up for winter plantings. 

One project we have been following is the new walled kitchen garden at Brockhill School.  The renovation of the period greenhouse has been started, as has the ‘no dig’ mulching of the vegetable beds.  We went along to have a look at the progress so far, taking some of our self-sown seedlings, some mustards, bulb fennel, coriander and parsley.  Some of the year groups at the school have already been helping with the work of putting down the card, compost and wood chips.  The hope is to start a gardening club soon, and the long term plan is to teach agriculture.  Such an exciting project, and one we are delighted to follow and help with any advice we can give. 

Talking of new plans – it was very exciting to hear that the Sandgate Society have arranged a meeting for Thursday 13^th October at 7pm in the Reading Room at the Old Fire Station to discuss ideas and explore ways forward to make Sandgate more sustainable.  There are already many suggestions being made from a tool library to improving local services and facilities, with just about everything in-between.  Simply email sandgatesociety@gmail.com if you would like to attend the meeting, and if you have any suggestions for discussion, everyone is welcome, and you do not need to be a Sandgate Society member.

What’s next?

• Continue to remove leaves and duckweed from the pond

• Cut back foliage falling into the pond

• Start to pot up the strawberry plants going everywhere!

• Put up more brassica structures

• Check on the condition of our fleece nets

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 25th September: It really has started to feel autumnal.

It really has started to feel autumnal; the days are noticeably shorter which means that the plants need so much longer to grow.  A tray of lettuces pricked out just a week ago is struggling to get growing whereas in the height of the summer they would have grown twice as fast.  Most of the leafy vegetables are appreciating the cooler temperatures and the rain; the tomatoes, not used to so much water, expanded too fast for their skins to keep up and many of them started to split.  This can happen with many fruits and vegetables when they come out of a dry period to a time of plenty of water.

We cut down the tomato plants, and took the green tomatoes to either ripen at home or to make into green chutneys.  The squashes and courgettes will soon be following the tomato plants to the compost heap and make space for the last sowings of the year, the broad beans, later in October.  A few more mustard plants, some coriander and claytonia were planted out, or tucked up inside one of the cold frames which we now have to remember to water.  The duckweed is getting a regular going over to try to reduce their number, and this seems to be working, leaving the weed at the side of the pond just in case any pond creatures got caught up with it and have the chance to get back to the water. 

The weeds are making the most of the rain and cooler temperatures to suddenly spring to life and do something.  The dry heat of the summer had kept many things dormant, but now the race is on for them to get going as quickly as possible. If only the lettuce seedlings felt the same way!  A weed is just a plant in the wrong place of course, and we always try to recover anything useful that can be taken to another site.  At Fremantle Park, the orchard area has hundreds of cosmos seedlings surrounding the cosmos flowering there.  It is unlikely they will survive the winter, but you never know, if it turns out to be very mild.

The time has come for the overwintering purple sprouting broccoli to have cages constructed around them for their protection over the next few months.  When they were first planted out in early August, they were covered with a fine mesh netting to prevent the butterflies laying their eggs on the leaves and consequently the caterpillars emerging and finishing them off, leaving bare stems in a matter of a day or two.  The mesh is also protection against pigeons which will make a meal out of the tender leaves.  However now the plants are crammed inside the mesh and needing space to be able to stretch their leaves and grow taller stems.  With any luck the butterflies have given up their quest to lay eggs for this year, however pigeons carry on being pigeons and still enjoy stripping foliage.  The plan is to construct a frame around the plants so that the netting can be draped over the crowns of the plants, preventing the pigeons from landing on top of them to feast.  The lower part of the plants are left out in the open but being that much taller and tougher the birds are thwarted – well, that is the plan…

What’s next?

• Continue to search out useful weeds to pot up or weeds to compost

• Keep up the duckweed bashing

• Perhaps get the rest of the broccoli cages done

• Is it time to turn the compost again?

• Don’t forget to water the cold frames

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 18th September: A sudden and unexpected flowering in the Queen’s Orchard.

It has been a long long time since we had to say that we were rained off one of our gardening sessions.  It happened this Wednesday, with hours of the sort of useful rain that started to soak into the ground and begin to make a difference.  We have gained so much time, not having to water most of the plot, and of course, lots of energy. The change in the weather has caused some confusion in the plant world.  The Bramley apple tree planted in the Queen’s orchard at Sandgate Park has suddenly burst into flower.  Apparently this can happen if there is a colder snap in the weather, and the tree is fooled into thinking that winter happened, and time to make flowers when the sun came out again, as if it were now spring.  All advice states that it should not stop the tree from flowering again once the true spring comes around again – we hope not.

Last Sunday we collected the hops from the vines at Enbrook Park and took them to the Hythe Hops scheme collection point where they were weighed and put into sacks with all the other collected hops on that day.  We could only contribute 1lb 6oz or 0.624 kg this year which is a sorry amount but all things considered, we are glad we were able to contribute something.  The plants at Fremantle Park were in an even sorrier state than those at Enbrook, so we did not even bother to pick any there.  Ah well, always next year to have another go. 

Thinking about next year, now is the time to save seeds from your own plants if you have not been raiding the bargain seeds to be had at the end of season sales.  Tomato seeds are easy to collect, and one of our varieties this year has been particularly good, called Indigo Cherry drops.  It has great flavour, and has produced prolific amounts of large black and red cherry tomatoes.  It is not an F1 variety, which means the seeds will grow true to the parent plant.  F1 varieties can however be saved by rooting a side shoot from the plant late September/October, and overwintering to grow on in the spring.  To save seeds from the Indigo Cherry drops, a couple of tomatoes were cut open and the seeds scooped out and dropped into a small jar of water.  The jar is left at room temperature for a few days whilst a mould grows, breaking down the gelatinous coating surrounding the seeds.  Then the seeds can we washed in a sieve and laid out to dry on some kitchen paper.  It will be something to look forward to next year to grow this variety again as it can be very annoying when a particular variety cannot be sourced from a supplier.  Such has been the fate of many of our fruit and vegetable varieties in the past.

Most of the list of tasks for the week got tackled, and a few more added!  There were more winter lettuce seeds to prick out, a net was put over the remainder of the beetroot to hinder the badgers (we hope), we started to remove blanket upon blanket of fast growing duckweed from the pond, emptied the leaf compost bin, and planted up the first few crates of salad leaves to grow inside the cold frames just in case those growing outside get totally frozen and lost over the winter period.  There has been plenty to cut back now that some things have finished flowering, and the rain has brought new useful and welcome seedlings to light around the garden for us to use as well as plenty of unwanted ‘weeds’ we are busy removing and composting not quite as fast as they are appearing.

What’s next?

• Keep an eye on the duckweed situation and remove as much as possible

• Keep up the weeding around the plot as more pop up

• Can any more plants be squeezed into any spaces around the plot?

• Start taking down the tomato plants and ripen green tomatoes indoors

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 11th September: Remembering the Queen, and life going on.

It was on that very morning, Thursday 8^th September that the Sandgate Society sent out an email to announce that the fabulous topper for the Sandgate letter box outside the Village Shop to mark the Queen’s Jubilee had been presented to the Society for posterity.  There is a photo of it below, and it can be seen at the Old Fire Station when open on Saturday mornings.  Although we all knew it was inevitable that the Queen would pass away in the not too distant future, it still came as a shock, and how pleased we are as a group to have planted the orchards for her Jubilee, and to be able to remember her and this year as we look after those areas.

Having had bone dry water butts for so many months, it just fills you with joy when the rain comes and there is water again.  The pond is being replenished at speed, the grass is coming back lush and green, the plants are standing to attention and we can give the water pump plus watering cans a rest.  We are lucky at Enbrook Park to be given a weekly bowser of water by Paul the grounds manager.  Many allotments and gardens rely on rain water collection for irrigation and have had to collect hundreds of thousands of litres of rainwater over the autumn and winter months to keep them going over this drought year.  That process starts over once more and there is great relief that the water collection tanks are filling once more.

With the rain come the inevitable garden molluscs.  The dry weather had kept them hidden away, but now they are on the march and it becomes important to remove old and dying leaves where they love to hunker down.  There were two large snails hiding under a yellowing rhubarb leaf, however they are now relocated to another part of the park.  It pays to keep a close eye on your plants because before you know it they can be munched and simply gone.  

We managed to get some of our list of jobs done for the week.  Shrubs were cut back and composted, spring onions planted and winter lettuces pricked out.  Until the tomatoes and squashes are finished there is little available space for planting new seedlings, however the badgers continue to try and make some for us by pillaging the beetroot and digging more holes.  Always interesting on our visits to the garden to spot what has happened since the last visit.  This week we have found a multitude of scrapings made in the wood chip paths, and so we hope whatever it was, found whatever they were looking for.

The Uchiki Kuri squashes did get taken up on Saturday as they had grown all they were going to.  Most of our squashes and courgettes really struggled with the water situation or lack of it this year.  The squashes have too little time to be able to catch up now, but the courgettes seem to be having a final fling once the rain came back.  The mildew stopped, new green leaves appeared and they gave more courgettes.  We will give them another week or two and then they will be removed along with the tomatoes to make way for the broad beans, winter salads and perhaps more spring onions.

Sunday 11^th September is the date of the first Hythe Hops harvesting.  Sandgate Community Garden will have some hops to offer, but the amount is very much less than last year, however there are more growers in the scheme so the hope is there will be plenty of hops to go to the brewers on Monday.

What’s next? 

• Start planting the crates for the cold frames

• Lots of weeds popping up near the raspberry plot

• Hoe under the hedge along the outside of the plot

• Pull out more duckweed from the pond

• Cover the beetroot

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 4th September: Oh, you’re going to rain NOW, are you?

We are delighted to report that the Sea Festival was a great success for us and we managed to raise a massive £422.27 profit.  We are very grateful to everyone who came along to the stall to spend some cash.  We sold practically all of the plants we are glad to say, and 26 jars of Sandgate honey!

Trying to guess the weight of the fruit and vegetable hamper was a popular activity, and we could have sold the bundle of runner beans in the hamper dozens of times. 

Being obsessed with the rain situation, or lack of it; the only day we were praying for none of the wet stuff was Festival day, and with none scheduled to arrive, imagine the surprise and curses when it actually did rain, just as we were trying to get our stall set up in the morning.  Unbelievable.   However it was a great day all round, and lovely to see so many friends of the garden all at once.

Having recovered from the Festival, the rest of the week went by reasonably uneventfully, and yet again no rain to help us along so every session starts with watering and more watering.  Apparently the rainfall for the month of August was 33.3mm which probably fell on Sandgate the day that one of our gardener’s High Street residence got flooded and he lost many belongings.  It will surely take some time for the ground to become saturated again, and in the meantime any rain that does fall will continue to run off and away.

Now we are into September already and the days are certainly starting to become noticeably shorter.  The seeds we are sowing are becoming fewer, and once most of the winter salads are on the way, that only leaves the hardy broad beans, onions and garlic to make room for once the tomatoes, courgettes and squashes are finished.  We cut back many of the tomato leaves, just leaving a few at the top of the plant, making space around the last of the tomatoes to ripen and allow air to circulate.  The dill got planted as did some of the first winter mustards.  More spring onions got sown along with some winter lettuces.  Now is a great time to think about what to sow and grow next year as many of the shops are selling off seasonal items to include this year’s seed packets.  Most seeds will be absolutely fine to buy and keep for next year, and with discounts of 70% and more, being able to get hold of seeds at 10 – 15 pence a packet is a real bargain.  We have managed to get much of what we need for next year already, and in late November will review what we still need and buy more then.

Now that the school holiday period is over we will be starting to settle into the season of the coming autumn, and more familiar faces will swing by the garden, where the visitors have returned home.  We were treated to our own very special guest of a fabulous hummingbird moth paying attention to one of our salvias in full flower.  Up to now we only dreamt of seeing one in our garden but knew they were around in other gardens in the vicinity.  It certainly made our morning, although unfortunately any photographs we took did it little justice. 

What’s next?

• Still not planted the coriander

• Still not pricked out the pak choi

• Is there somewhere to plant the above?

• Cut back growth around bases of the trees and back of the compost area

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.