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 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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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 14 February 2021
It has gone from being wet to just snow, bitterly cold and more snow. Nothing got done at the garden this week, but it has been visited often to break the ice on the pond. It has always been said that you should break the ice on a frozen pond to release any gases from dead leaves and silt at the bottom, but now experts are telling us that it may not be necessary to do so unless you have ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 7 February 2021
The weather continues to impact on progress this week, but not that surprising for early February. It was too wet to work at the garden on Wednesday as it was last Saturday, but happily there was a break in the clouds for this Saturday morning and a scramble to book an hour session. The figures for January rainfall were 152.1mm, which is rather a lot and certainly explains why the grass at Fremantle and Enbrook is so saturated and slippery. ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 31 January 2021
This newsletter is all about saying thank you to the people who are helping us to get things done, there are times when it can seem the task is too great, or will cost too much, but more often than not we manage to find ways to progress. Two things needed sorting out at Enbrook – Our tool box has been broken for some time now, and we have to raise seedlings or keep plants at various houses. Fortunately Councillor ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 24 January 2021
Another week has flown by, whilst the wood chip pile at the lower wall continues to gradually diminish, and the wood chip piles within the Community Garden grow ever larger. We are still wheelbarrowing! It has been colder this week, and an hour of work is enough before the fingers and toes start to complain – we continue to take it in turns to be there, and appreciate that we have become quite a close knit community, shopping for one ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 17 January 2021
It has been more like weather for frogs and ducks rather than community gardeners this week, but some of us made it to the garden at some point suitably dressed for the occasion in all over wet weather gear and some determination to get a few jobs done. Last year the wet weather left pools of water on the surface of the soil, and we came away with muddy boots, but this year there is none of that so we ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 10 January 2021
Looking back at the list of things to do last week, there are still many of the jobs unfinished. A combination of a seriously cold and soggy start to the week, and the fact we cannot meet in numbers is slowing us down. We are taking it in turns to visit the garden to carry out tasks, and others are doing what they can if they take their exercise there. Some of the parsnips were pulled up, and they did ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 3 January 2021
Happy New Year! Fortunately we did not suffer much in the way of damage following Storm Bella last week, just a snapped sign and a few covers escaped – it could have been much worse. Neither have we experienced much in the way of frost compared with much of the country. The pond had a thin covering of ice, but it quickly melted. However it is being hinted that we are to experience much colder weather in the weeks to ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 27 December 2020
We all hope you had a great Christmas however you managed to spend it under the circumstances of tier four. It has not been quite how we envisaged this Christmas but it was possibly better than being stuck in the cab of a lorry over the holiday period. One of our gardeners volunteered to spend much of her time collecting gifts and food from Sandgate and delivering to some of the drivers. It was a drop in the ocean, but ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 20 December 2020
The Sandgate Community Garden bee hives at Christmas Christmas Greetings from Ray and Chris, your friendly beekeepers. You may be thinking that this is the time of the year when we are sitting by the fire in our Christmas onesies with a box of chocolates and a glass of fine wine… Well that may be the case but we want to assure you that we are still working hard to ensure our bee colonies remain safe and healthy during the ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 13 December 2020
The flat wheelbarrow tyre got fixed with a new inner tube and is up and running again, able to trundle yet more wood chips and compost around the garden. We still have mulching to do in various places, and by Christmas with any luck, the whole of the garden will have been covered in some sort of mulch. The squirrels have been making their own mulch from spent acorns from the small oak tree within the garden. Having eaten the ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 6 December 2020
We had another message from our fleece supplier to say that there will be yet more delays to it being delivered and without a reason why – perhaps as with the situation with the shortage of seeds this year with so many people growing whilst in lockdown, there is now a national shortage of fleece! Who knows? We have had some interesting weather this week and spent time having to put back covers over plants, and discovered that one of ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 29 November 2020
The celeriac seems to have gone down very well with all the volunteers, and various soup recipes have been exchanged, just the comfort food for the cooler weather – we shall definitely be growing that again next year! Not frosty or cold enough for the parsnips yet. They sweeten up with a good dose of frost, even so, being tucked up deep in the earth it is always a surprise how they are until they get dug up, you never ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 22 November 2020
The last sowings of Broad beans have now been planted and are already starting to romp away, a little disconcerting for the end of November. It is still not too late to sow or plant broad beans, or garlic if you fancy giving it a go. The autumn peas were planted too. Some of them will be for pea pods, the others for early pea shoots. Never good to sow peas direct as they often attract rodents and get dug ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 15 November 2020
There are still some people who are yet to find us in Enbrook Park, and it can be quite lengthy to explain exactly where we are too! However, not any more as we have appeared on the maps at the entrances of the park – so there is no excuse, we are on the map! Again this week we have been very busy clearing beds and fallen leaves, putting down new compost and paths, and planting broad beans. The fleece ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 8 November 2020
Such a contrast to the weather in the last few newsletters, this week we have had some beautiful sunny and warm weather, encouraging more gardeners to get to the garden and make the most of it, especially as we are now in another lockdown. However this one is very different to the first where we could only work on our own – this time we can follow community garden rules for food gardens, which explain in detail how we can ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 1 November 2020
As we are heading into November & with shorter and cooler days now our bees are safely beginning to cluster for warmth in their hives. We have been seeing the last of the Ivy flowers and with temperatures now below 18 DegC the start of the winter formation ensues with a loose cluster of bees which gets tighter as the temps drop further. They behave like penguins in the Antarctic & switch positions to ensure that the outside layer of ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 25 October 2020
The clocks have gone back this Saturday. Daylight hours are reducing fast as time goes on, but there is an abundance of free food out there if you are a forager, and apparently this year is a ‘mast year’ which is a superabundance that occurs every five to ten years. The trees synchronise their most productive years, giving so much fruit and nuts that the animals can never eat them all, and there is the best chance for new saplings ...
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Sandgate Community Garden: Update 18 October 2020
Both the garlic and the elephant garlic got planted this week, and still time to plant more, as well as broad beans which could happen next week. All the garlic had been saved from last year. The biggest job of the week was to turn out all of the compost bins, move and then repack them. It is always a good opportunity to see if the compost is too dry or too wet, and to make adjustments. Fallen leaves get ...
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