Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 9th March: Perfect weather to be sitting and sowing yet more seeds.
The weather has been so fabulously sunny and warm this week, it has been a pleasure simply to sit in the garden and enjoy it! Walking through the park to the garden you can hear the birds are enjoying the feel of spring too. The snowdrops were spectacular this year, and now they are giving way to the daffodils and primroses.
Perfect weather to be sitting and sowing yet more seeds. The greenhouse is already starting to look quite crowded, yet more calabrese, onions, spring onions, spinach and radishes were sown along with some celery. The cabbages and calabrese sown in mid February were large enough to be transplanted into larger plant trays giving them more space to grow on in the greenhouse.
The first planting of the year, the radishes took place on Saturday, and we know that from now on it will be busy keeping up with the sowing timetable and the watering of the seed trays before they dry out in the sunshine.
We have been donated our first plants for our two summer plant sales already. We have decided not to put all of our trust into raising funds just at the Sandgate Sea Festival 2025, but to double our chances and take part in the Sandgate Safari to be held in June. The task has begun to make sure we have plenty to offer for both dates.
We have some produce we can share left over from planting last summer/autumn. We have kale, claytonia (winter lettuce), mustard, sorrel and some leeks. The leeks were planted sometime in June last year after an April sowing, and unfortunately never managed to make a great size. We have put it down to the fact that we have to be careful with our watering, and suspect they could have done with more during the summer months. Never mind, they have a great flavour.
What’s next?
- Sow more lettuce
- If no rain, water the hops again
- Probably more brassicas to prick out
- Take out the kale once picked
This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.