Sandgate Community Garden

Sandgate Community Garden, get involved!
Contact Leonie: 07840 138308 or leoniewootton2311@gmail.com

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 27 February 2022

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 27th February: Lettuces, compost, pruning and facility envy. Luckily, Covid had decided to move on by the end of this week, just leaving the usual after-effects, and appreciation that it could have been much worse.  Regardless, the seeds sown over the last week have popped up and many have been ‘pricked out’ into individual modules to continue growing.  Now starts the juggling with the available space and watching the temperatures, weather conditions and ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 20 February 2022

It has to be said that in the whole history of this newsletter, since the Sandgate Community Garden began, this one has been the most challenging! Having managed up to now to avoid catching Covid, it has come knocking on my door, and I (Leonie) am just going into my second week stuck at home. Fortunately we have good communication systems amongst our lovely dedicated team of gardeners, and so I have managed to glean all that has been happening ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 13 February 2022

At last the time has come to start sowing those seeds, but not all of them, just those that can tolerate cold weather and cope should there be a change in the current warm and sunny period. We are talking about peas (for pea shoots), spring onions, radishes, lettuces, spinach, parsley, broad beans, broccoli, coriander and early cabbage. We were contacted by a lovely lady by the name of Rosemary, keen to pass on her own locally collected flower and ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 6 February 2022

The snowdrops are out in Enbrook Park, and Imbolc (Gaelic/pagan festival of spring) has already passed us by.  So very tempting this time of the year when the sun comes out, to go get the seeds and start sowing, but not before St Valentine’s Day!  There is just one more week to wait. The rainfall for January was 49mm which seemed to have happened on the 8th when it rained all day. After that we did not see any substantial ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 30 January 2022

There might not be much going on at the garden these days, but there certainly is plenty happening as regards planning and organising in the background, for the year ahead as well as beyond. This article was in the Guardian this week, stating that the ‘UK could grow up to 40% of its own fruit and vegetables by using urban green spaces’. https://www.theguardian.com/food/2022/jan/24/uk-could-grow-up-fruit-and-vegetables-urban-green-spaces Apparently only about 1% of urban green space is made up of allotments. The thought is that ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 23 January 2022

Work has slowed a little this week. The main plot at Enbrook is looking tidy and as good as mulched all over, but we are waiting on certain things to happen before we can make progress. There is still a small pile of compost to be moved from the storage area below the lower wall within the park up to the garden. Some was barrowed up in the week, the rest can be done as and when. Fortunately the brassica ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 16 January 2022

We have been appreciating the lovely warm sunshine this week for both of our gardening sessions. We’re not, however, so sure the bee keepers will be too happy as the bees in the hives were very active which must mean they will be using up their food reserves as there is so little to forage. We have raised some of the brassica netting as they were trying to burst out. The purple sprouting is set to be at full production ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 9 January 2022

Wednesday’s gardening session was a delight in full, warm sunshine.  We planted a few random bulbs, pulled up the last of the finished French marigolds, mulched more beds, bagged up compost for other community garden sites, a spot of weeding and generally had a good time nattering and pottering about.  Saturday on the other hand was a wash out, dull, dingy and generally soggy so we gave it a miss.  Little point in trying to do things in the wet ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 2 January 2022

Happy New Year! Looking back at this time last year, not surprising it was certainly colder, and we had just suffered the consequences of storm Bella and were in full lockdown mode. It was good to be able to celebrate the end of this year with many of the volunteers in the garden, as the weather has continued to be so very mild. The last of the mulled wine and mince pies went down a treat with Christmas cake and ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 19 December 2021

This is our very last newsletter of 2021.  With Christmas falling at the weekend, our next edition will be on Sunday January 2nd – so where did that year go?  Looking back we have had an amazing growing year in the main garden at Enbrook, and started several other projects.  Going into spring 2022, the garden will be three years old, and it is clear as it matures that it begins to give more and more produce.  There is still ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 12 December 2021

We have had some stormy weather this week which has meant checking on the netted and fleeced beds to make sure it is still all in place!  Most of the netting being more open meshed than the fleece was fine, but the fleece got pulled off and blown about several times so that it was black with dirt and looked most grubby.  Fortunately a few rain downpours soon cleaned them up and they are looking better already. It was mostly ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 5 December 2021

How extraordinarily lucky we were that the Sandgate Christmas lights switch on event did not get completely washed out by rain which had been promised. A great community event, where so many people associated with the garden were present. It was a reminder that the creation of the community garden has brought so many people together and it was a busy evening meeting more friends at practically every corner. We paid for the lack of rain the following morning when ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 28 November 2021

At last the cold stuff has arrived at the very end of November, and you can begin to think that the festive season really is around the corner. Plenty more leaves have fallen from the trees although some are still in place, however a good blast of wind probably due to come along any time now will do the trick, and the leaf clearing will soon be over. We have managed to fill our leaf bin full to the brim, ...
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Fremantle Park tree planting

On Sunday 21st November, a team led by Sandgate Community Garden planted 12 fruit trees in Fremantle Park as a part of Sandgate’s contribution to the Queen’s Green Canopy project for the 2022 Platinum Jubilee. The orchard will be officially dedicated in June ...
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Sandgate Park tree planting

On Sunday 21st November, a team led by Sandgate Community Garden planted 12 fruit trees in Sandgate Park as a part of Sandgate’s contribution to the Queen’s Green Canopy project for the 2022 Platinum Jubilee. The orchard will be officially dedicated in June ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 21 November 2021

It continues to be mild, and the garden is still confused.  There are many things that would have been cleared or finished by now in the depths of November with Christmas being advertised as just around the corner; but the cosmos, nasturtium.and marigolds are still in flower, being visited by many bumble bees.  We have been pulling leeks and black radishes, and there are still salad leaves, kaibroc and plenty of chard and spinach if you do not mind the ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 14 November 2021

After the great excitement of announcing the big plant up of several fruit trees in the Sandgate and Fremantle Parks, the bad news is we got let down on the readiness of the trees for this weekend, and so the planting had to be cancelled.  Apparently they should be ready this coming week and so we are hoping to plant the trees in Sandgate Park on Sunday morning at 10.30 am, and in Fremantle Park on Sunday afternoon at 2 ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 7 November 2021

This seems to be the first week we have started to feel the cold whilst working in the gardens, and late autumn is really upon us. The rainfall for October was 106.6mm, a fair amount which mostly seemed to arrive just when you are busy outdoors! So it was at the dismantling of the planter at the Re-rooting exhibition, and by the time we had transferred it to Cheriton we were soaked. A big ‘thank you’ to Erica for using ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 31 October 2021

We have always agreed in our garden WhatsApp group that should it be blowing a hooly or tipping down with rain on one of our designated gardening days then we would throw in the towel and not turn up.  On Saturday it was blowing and tipping at the same time, so that was that.  The site being rather exposed, at the far end of the park with no shelter or even anywhere nearby to take cover and wait until the ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 24 October 2021

This week seems to have been all about ‘almost’, ‘not quite’ and ‘maybe’. It is difficult to pinpoint, but along with the changing of the weather and the season, there is a shift in how our volunteers are having to arrange their free time to fit in with a change in work patterns, trying to grab a holiday before winter sets in, visiting or being visited by friends and family. There has been a sprinkling of ill health, medical procedures, ...
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