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 4 July 2021
The ‘lambs ears’ silver furry planting around the pond is just full of life. The dragonfly larvae are enjoying climbing it to begin their metamorphosis to their next phase, and bees in all sizes and forms seem to be intoxicated by the flowers and are mostly motionless there whereas they are still busy buzzing around all the other flowers – this plant is drawing them in and keeping them there, obviously the plant of choice, most interesting to see. A ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 27 June 2021
To continue with the bee news written by Chris and featured in last week’s newsletter, it seems that a new queen bee has been seen in the garden nucleus box. Named ‘Lilibet’, she is certainly a welcome addition. Chris came up to the garden Saturday morning with a local bee farmer to help her identify Lilibet, we managed to snap a quick photo of the inspection as we had to maintain our distance whilst the box was open. An industrious ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 20 June 2021
We have gone from having to water to a deluge of rain in one week. It is a relief not to have to water right now, and the rain makes such a difference to the whole garden. On Wednesday evening we got 45.1mm of rain in one go, flattening some of the taller growth in the garden which was simply annoying when the RHS judge turned up the next afternoon. We will have to wait and see if he thinks ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 13 June 2021
Enbrook Park is looking particularly fabulous at the moment. The growth is looking very fresh and green, and the birdsong you can hear as you travel through is delightful to hear. Most stunning is the sheer number of flowers throughout the park which are attracting great numbers of bees and other pollinators. Paul (the park head gardener) estimates there is around 19,000 square meters of flowering meadow this year, which is the most left uncut in the last three years ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 6 June 2021
The rainfall for May was 100.3 mm and the sunshine we have had along with Friday’s deluge of more rain is bringing the plants on a treat. The wind scorched leaves are starting to be overtaken by some new growth and all fingers are crossed that we have some settled weather for just a while. The basil got planted as did the cucumbers and a few random tomatoes. We sowed eight different lettuce varieties, and having noticed that the gooseberries ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 30 May 2021
May bank holiday, June is now upon us and at last the weather is starting to improve. We were sorry to see that a large tree had fallen in Enbrook Park, always a sad sight; however we were assured that the tree had been suffering from Ganoderma (a fungus) for some years. We were lucky enough to benefit from some of the logs to make extra seats for the garden, and on the sunny Saturday morning session we spent a ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 23 May 2021
Now the weather has gone beyond a joke and even we have stopped saying how we really do need the rain! The wind that rip roared through on Friday has done much damage to the garden and it is interesting to see what has been affected where other plants not so much. Looking back at the archive of our newsletter on the Parish Council website of a year ago, we were having the very same issues with stormy and cold ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 16 May 2021
We have started to catch up with ourselves this week and it was touch and go if the Saturday session would happen due to heavy rain, but several gardeners put on a brave face and got on with it. We got wet, but there were a couple of breaks in the cloud and the garden is looking so green and lush, with plenty of new growth, that it made it all worthwhile. We took off the fleece covers this week ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 9 May 2021
This week we have had high winds through to hail, thunder and lightning, followed by torrential rain! We did not manage to achieve all our tasks for the week as the Saturday session was cancelled due to rain, but all the squashes and courgettes did get potted on and at least we did not have to do much watering. The high winds at the start of the week flattened the broad beans and rhubarb in particular, as well as battered ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 2 May 2021
The great thing about writing a weekly newsletter is that we can look back at what was happening this time last year and begin to make comparisons. Last year we were contemplating removing the fleece covers, but this year there is no plan to do so just yet, with further cold nights on the horizon. The promises of rain in the weather reports fizzle away and deliver nothing – the rainfall for April was 10.8mm which is a surprise as ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 25 April 2021
It is difficult to believe that it will be May next week, so many of the plants are behind, all those we are bringing on and tender, are bursting out of their pots but no way will they get planted until it warms up and that cold wind has gone, the fleeces are staying on! More sessions spent peeling back the covers, watering and rolling them back on again – it will be worth it. We read about the French ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 18 April 2021
There were some lovely episodes of sunshine during this week and a very gradual rise in temperature. The main preoccupation of the week was to water, water and water, with no rain, and none on the horizon. The raspberry patch got staked, the sweet peas planted, along with more lettuces to fill any gaps. Celery, celeriac, sweet corn and all the courgettes and squashes got sown. Dozens of tomato plants have been handed out to our volunteer gardeners to grow ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 11 April 2021
Great news! The rhubarb eventually turned up in the post at the end of the week and was immediately planted, and we have had some substantial rain at last. The start of the week was taken up with watering the plots, and planting out more lettuces, spring onions, coriander, dill, parsley and chervil. The herbs make a great addition to the lettuce leaves when they are picked and add some great flavours and textures. The radishes sown in mid-February are ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 4 April 2021
Happy Easter! It was great to be able to work on the plot with more people this week due to the relaxing of the Covid rules. We had cake on both garden sessions in celebration which went down very well, particularly Theresa’s carrot cake on the Saturday morning as it was freezing cold out there. We had a couple of beautiful warm days at the start of the week, and since then it has gradually become colder again with the ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 28 March 2021
The slightly warmer weather has started to move some of the plants this week. There was kale, purple sprouting, chard and spinach to pick, there is also wild garlic (popular for making into pesto), coriander, and a few mustard leaves which are now mature enough to make your eyes water they are that hot! The broad beans were flowering underneath the fleece covers so we took them off or the pollinators will not be able to find them. The fleece ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 21 March 2021
It is now officially spring with the arrival of the equinox, and we finished the week having caught up a little with ourselves after the lousy week before. The current priority is to get plants that are ready into the ground as quickly as possible, releasing the sowing trays for more seeds and seedlings to be grown on. We planted out the peas for shoots, spring onions, cabbages and broccoli, and two rows of parsnips got sown in-between the rows ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 14 March 2021
More interesting weather this week with it being so cold and wet that it was challenging to find the enthusiasm to get to Enbrook Park for our usual Wednesday and Saturday morning sessions, so not many of the jobs on the list got done at all! The seedlings are coming along fast now at nearly four weeks, and some will be ready next week to be planted. Just the peas for pea shoots made it into the ground to be ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 7 March 2021
More trays of seeds got sown in the warmth of the Saturday sunshine in the garden, so we now have hundreds of seeds and seedlings on the go. However, all of them are pretty hardy and early varieties that can cope with some cold. First thing in the morning the trays of seedlings get put out into cold frames and mini greenhouses, and are taken indoors at night time when the temperature drops. That way, the plants make some good ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 28 February 2021
What a spectacular week as regards the beautiful sunny weather. It has been lovely to be able to spend some time in the garden and not be wet, or blasted from one end to the other! The pond will have to wait to be filled from rainwater and to see if the repair has worked. Warm enough to sit down and sow seeds, we have started off more pea shoots, as well as spinach, spring onions, parsley, dill and fennel ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 21 February 2021
We had quite a setback this week. It should have been an omen to read that it is not always necessary to break the ice on a frozen pond, when it was discovered that some over enthusiastic ice breaking had resulted in eleven puncture holes in the pond liner and the water had leaked out. Always best to get to grips with the situation quickly and get it sorted, so we excavated the liner around the edges to find those ...
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