Would you like to be involved in the Sandgate Community Garden? New volunteers are always welcome, and the crops grown are shared by and with the community of gardeners. This is a volunteer project in the Enbrook Park grounds of Saga.
The Community Garden team are also involved in other projects around Sandgate and Folkestone, including “Incredible Edible” planters by the Golden Valley shops, in Fremantle Road Park, along the High Street and Esplanade.
You can follow all the seasons and keep updated with what is happening. Get involved in the community and learn new skills. There is now a new wildlife pond and are pleased to have 2 bee hives on site. Gardening sessions are run twice a week. Get in touch to find out more.
Follow the progress on Instagram and like or get in touch on Facebook.
Updates written by Leonie Wootton.
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 24 May 2020
We swapped the cold windy weather this week for warmer windy weather. We bit the bullet and started the changeover from spring, to summer plantings of courgettes, beans, squashes and sweet corn. The Zinnias and cosmos are in their bed, and the dahlias next to them. We have put in runner beans again this year, but the way the poles were being rocked about in the wind this weekend, we have to be realistic that they might find the plot ...
Get more garden news
Get more garden news
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 17 May 2020
The very first newsletter documenting the beginnings of the garden was dated 17th May 2019, and so we are now one whole year old! Seems incredible as so much seems to have happened in that time, and so the story continues to develop! It has been a fight with nature this week. It started with a turn in the weather from warm sunny days to an arctic blast of wind and cold that ripped the fleece from our tomato plants, ...
Get more garden news
Get more garden news
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 10 May 2020
We had a delivery of compost which was able to be tipped straight into the garden, so there will not be any complaints about having to barrow it up the hill, what a result! We have also made some compost storage areas so that compost we make can be stored until the winter, as well as any we might be able to get our hands on over the next few months. Concerned about aminopyralid arriving in horse manure which has ...
Get more garden news
Get more garden news
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 3 May 2020
Next release of spare plants will be Saturday 16th May, from 10am until 12 noon at the garden. We have several outdoor cucumber plants, as well as some courgettes and a few squashes, maybe even a few cucamelon plants if they get a rift on! We would like to say a big thank you to the Sandgate Society, for giving us another £100, which has already been put towards a lorry load of soil conditioner and improver. There is only ...
Get more garden news
Get more garden news
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 26 April 2020
Considering our current situation it has been a busy week. Many thanks to those of you that came along to the garden to get some tomato plants and apologies for those that made the trip in vain, as the plants got snapped up as if they were hot cakes. We were donated an astonishing £72.20 which will go towards our immediate wish list of extra fine mesh to keep insects at bay, more compost or soil improver, and of course ...
Get more garden news
Get more garden news
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 19 April 2020
We have over fifty tomato plants needing homes, so if you have not got yours yet, come up to the garden on Wednesday 22nd or Saturday 25th from 10 am until noon to collect some. A small donation would be most appreciated, and help towards our running costs. Thank goodness for some rain, it will make a world of difference; Sandgate often seems to miss any promised rain compared to other parts of Kent, so it was most welcome. Temperatures ...
Get more garden news
Get more garden news
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 12 April 2020
These warm sunny days have started to bring the plants on at full speed and we are juggling with greenhouse/window ledge space. All the plants that can cope with the cooler spring weather have been sown or planted, and we are now looking to starting to sow the warm loving plants such as courgettes, squashes, cucumbers and sweet corn. There have also been new sowings of leeks and sunflowers, and planting of sweet peas, parsley, wild rocket, peas for pea ...
Get more garden news
Get more garden news
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 5 April 2020
So far so good at the Community Garden, managing our time and work amongst ourselves, using technology to communicate and get things done. It can take longer, and more energy, but we have an enthusiastic and hardworking team, keen to make it work. We are making sure we are following the guidelines given by the Government and the Council during this challenging time, and continue to refer to the Councils website about Allotments and their use: ‘We recognise that Allotments ...
Get more garden news
Get more garden news
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 29 March 2020
When it was announced by the government that there were to be no gatherings of more than two people it seemed that the virus was going to stop the Community Garden from making any more progress for a while…. However we have a great communication system, and with the use of photos, videos and WhatsApp, we take it in turn to go to the garden as part of our exercise regime. Calabrese, cabbages, and kale for salad leaves got planted; ...
Get more garden news
Get more garden news
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 22 March 2020
All of a sudden we seem to have been propelled into another world because of the virus, and nothing seems certain anymore. Perhaps the only certainty is that there are seeds to sow and plants that still require planting, and although many activities have been shut down, we can still go up to the garden to do things, and it seems that now we have more time to do so! Saturday was beautiful out in the sunshine; we have room ...
Get more garden news
Get more garden news
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 15 March 2020
This week we have planted some brassicas (varieties of the cauliflower family that are all different shapes, sizes and even colours!), more broad beans, and some sweet peas, a dwarf variety that should make small bushy plants. The great thing about all these early plantings is that they do not mind the cold and wet weather so much, and are happy to grow in cooler temperatures. They will also mature in early summer when the ground can then be cleared ...
Get more garden news
Get more garden news
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 8 March 2020
Such is the generosity and kindness of our community that the call for greenhouse space was answered, and we now have temporary homes for our seedlings to get going. Lee came up trumps with a small portable greenhouse for us to borrow, not even out of the box; and Kath has room in a greenhouse on top of her shed, just perfect, and we are very grateful. This week we succeeded in sowing more seeds, planting out the radishes, and ...
Get more garden news
Get more garden news
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 1 March 2020
Far too much weather again this week, and how much we will appreciate warm sunny days when they eventually appear. It is a long shot, but we are putting out an appeal to anybody reading this that might have a greenhouse and is willing to either look after our seedlings or allow us to look after them for just a few weeks until it is warm enough to be able to sow seeds outside. Once the seeds are sown, they ...
Get more garden news
Get more garden news
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 23 February 2020
It does not feel like it right now, but spring really is just around the corner. The days are getting longer, and some of the buds are fit to burst. We still have time to get the compost and paths in place, and there are seedlings of lettuce, radish, spring onions, cabbage, calabrese and spinach on their way, filling up window ledges. The aim is to be planting these sowings in mid-March with any luck. Still lots of work to ...
Get more garden news
Get more garden news
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 16 February 2020
Storm Ciara rip roared around last weekend, and we seemed to get away with just shredded fleece cloches, we were lucky. Let us hope we get through Dennis paying us a visit this weekend! More barrowing of compost and wood chips has been the theme this week. It should certainly help to define where it is safe to walk, as most visitors manage to trample over the onions at some point or another. Unless storm Dennis obliges and blows the ...
Get more garden news
Get more garden news
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 9 February 2020
So very happy to report that our wishes have been answered, and we had compost delivered to the community garden to enable us to make the soil easier to work, and continue with a ‘no dig’ policy. Folkestone and Hythe council took pity on our plight and are giving us their own compost made in their yard from waste collected from local parks and gardens. It is peat free and perfect for our requirements. Feeling cheeky, we mentioned we were ...
Get more garden news
Get more garden news
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 2 February 2020
A reasonably quiet week, we are still trying to resolve the problem of getting hold of lots of compost to put on the garden to improve the soil, without having to part with lots of money, and we think we are about to solve it. Having recently read an article about electro-mechanical composting machines that can convert garden and food waste into highly nutritious compost in just 14 days, we are beginning to feel quite envious! However, this amazing machine ...
Get more garden news
Get more garden news
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 26 January 2020
Having visited the delightful old fashioned shop in Cheriton opposite the library, we now have our seed potatoes chitting away on window ledges, waiting to be planted in the spring. Here is what we will be growing: Lady Christl – These were bought specifically for the nursery children as they are a very early variety, and the children will be able to experience harvesting them in June before they break for the summer holidays and change their nursery setting for ...
Get more garden news
Get more garden news
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 19 January 2020
This week a couple of us made a trip to Brogdale, the famous fruit farm near Faversham, to collect two varieties of rhubarb, and a pear tree for planting sometime soon. On the way back we dropped into the oldest Community Garden in the country, the Abbey physic community garden. This garden is now 25 years old, and is crammed full of all sorts of things. World famous, it apparently has coach loads of visitors dropping in for tea and ...
Get more garden news
Get more garden news
Sandgate Community Garden: Update 12 January 2020
Melanie Wrigley from the White Cliffs Countryside Partnership visited the garden this week to take a look at the project and advise on anything we can do to enhance the number and varieties of wildlife. Happily it seems we are working the right direction already, and the future plans we already have will help to create the wildlife environment that can also benefit both the garden and the honey bees. Melanie will be keeping in touch, and we will be ...
Get more garden news
Get more garden news
