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 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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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 17 October 2021
Have you ever wondered what happens to the town’s bedding plants when the season is finished? We certainly have, and made some enquiries with Folkestone and Hythe horticultural department that carry out all the summer and winter floral displays all around the area from the parks to the street planters. Most of the plants are annuals, which means after their display, they are literally exhausted and finished, fit only to be composted. Some of the plants are perennials and can ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 10 October 2021
The return of some warmer and drier weather was certainly a welcome relief, and on Saturday the garden was alive with butterflies, bees and dragonflies, as well as gardeners and visitors all making the most of it. Such a contrast to the previous Saturday, with lashing rain and high winds, After the garden session, there was a migration to the harbour to at last sample the green Hythe Hop beer and very good it was too. Here is some information ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 3 October 2021
Well, it has definitely all changed for wetter and cooler weather! The rainfall for September was at 3.9 mm for most of the month until the very endo when it surged to 40.5 mm. It has probably rained more than that in the first couple of days of October. Docker brewery had to postpone the launch of the green Hythe hop new brew until Saturday 9th October for fear of losing their gazebo on the harbour to the high winds, ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 26 September 2021
The unseasonable weather has continued this week with a possible break coming soon of cooler and possibly wetter conditions. It has been interesting how the autumn plants have fared under unusual circumstances. Used to thriving in a typical autumn, the Chinese cabbage has bolted, and the mustards are trying to do the same. You begin to wonder if the sowing dates may have to be altered, however the daylight hours remain the same, and such plants need to be able to put ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 19 September 2021
We have been experiencing issues with watering this week. It has been very warm and dry again, with some promises of rain dissolving into nothing. So hand watering it is, of the many newly planted beds of spinach, spring onions, mustard greens and herbs. The autumn raspberries are managing to produce fruit, but they are small, and the leaves are starting to turn yellow. Our lettuce mix now has a good percentage of endive and chicory. We have two types ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 12 September 2021
It is with great excitement that the hops are going to be picked this Sunday both at Enbrook Park and Fremantle Park. Last year the harvest was a little earlier and we picked just 2.12 kg although this year we have three extra plants at Fremantle too! The suspicion is that although the hops are older, they have suffered this year, so we shall see. We knew it would only be a matter of time until blight arrived at the ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 5 September 2021
What a fabulous time we had at the Sea Festival last Sunday. Nobody could have wished for better weather considering what it had been like previously. Tucked up against the wall on the seafront outside the castle, we managed to stay out of any wind amd it was just perfect. We managed to raise a massive £308.29 from the stall with the help of many of the volunteers plus a £20 donation from favourite auntie M. A special mention to ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 29 August 2021
It is now a real race against time to get everything in that was sown at the start of the month and to get the final sowings of winter greens done by the end of the first week in September. You can already feel the change in the season, the days are shorter and cooler. We sowed four trays of spring onions, and four of bulb onions, plus a few more winter radish. Strapped for space, we are being ruthless ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 22 August 2021
Thanks to all those who pointed out the typo in last week’s newsletter which seemed to cause much hilarity – it just goes to prove that the update does get read! It was mentioned last week that tomato blight is in the locality, and it has appeared in our plants at the Golden Valley, so Saturday morning was spent scrutinising the tomato plants at Enbrook, however it seems we have got away with it right now. Even so it will ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 15 August 2021
It has been ‘hunt the cucumber’ week as all the plants have been scattered along the wall and in any available space so that when they trail along and produce fruit, they can appear just about anywhere. It makes for an interesting time finding them, and an achievement when one gets found after the search is called off. The tomatoes are starting to try to do something now with a first fruit picked, but many gardeners are telling how theirs ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 8 August 2021
Big change over of plants at the moment, lots of new sowings and trying to find room to plant kale and yet more lettuces which need a few weeks to grow before they can take over from the lettuces we are currently picking so as not to disrupt the supply. We have a bed near the top gate to the garden which has been something of a dilemma to us as whatever we plant there will grow for a few ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 1 August 2021
Wow! It is August already and nobody is quite sure how that happened so quickly. On Saturday morning it was great to be able to go along to the grand reopening of the Sandgate Society Fire Station, have a glass of bubbly and/or a coffee and to see people again. There seemed to be quite a few new members recently moved into the area, and lots of conversations about growing things in the garden and how different vegetables had fared ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 25 July 2021
Tales from friends and relations of torrential rain and terrific thunderstorms in other parts led us all to think that our hand watering days would be over and we would be able to spend that time doing something else that needed tackling. However so far, despite looking promising, it was not to be, and the usual Sandgate rain dodge happened all over again. There is still the hope that by the time you are reading this newsletter, our prayers will ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 18 July 2021
July is important for the sowing of new seeds. Many of the beds have been cleared of one crop, and another has been planted in its place. Some of the beds will have three plantings this year, and a few may even see four before the year is out. The days are shortening and every growing day in July is about equivalent to two in August, and a week in October. The third lettuce sowing of the year was done ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 11 July 2021
For some time now, every week, the Sandgate Parish Council has archived our newsletter and all the pictures. It has proved to be very useful being able to look back at what we were doing and compare notes with where we are this year. Here is the link: Sandgate Community Garden Entries for the 5th and 12th July 2020 were uncanny! We were rescuing wind scorched and battered plants as well as sploshing about in plenty of rain, and that ...
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