Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 24th November: One hour of working for the entire week.

Good grief!  There is much to say about the weather this week for sure.

It started off being very cold and icy.  Our Wednesday morning session at Enbrook Park was in sunshine but so cold that our fingers and toes soon suffered if we did not keep moving, so it has to be said that we gave up after an hour or so.  At Pent Farm it was even colder and everything was frozen solid which made it difficult to do very much at all.  However it seems we got away lighter than much of the rest of the country which has had snow.

On the Saturday, storm Bert started to roll in which changed the whole weather pattern.  It started to get warmer, blew a hooli and brought rain.  We stayed indoors for our Saturday morning garden session too, but once the storm has passed we shall have to check on the netting and see if there has been any damage.

The temperature has ranged from minus 2 to plus 13 degrees in the middle of the night and it will be interesting to see what will happen next.  Should the pattern go back to freezing temperatures, it will be impossible to plant any of the broad beans and we will have to hope that it calms down in the near future.

In our one hour of working for the entire week, we just about managed to lay a little more compost on the beds, clear up more fallen leaves and cut back some nettles.  We were very much aware of our friendly robin taking advantage of the fresh compost to find any worms as we were trying hard to get a good picture of him.  However every time a camera was pointed his way he flitted off or turned his back.  The best we managed was a rear view in the distance on our tool box. We shall persevere! 

The only other picture we got was of some Jerusalem artichokes we pulled.  Not everyone is all that sure what to do with them and so we shall be on the lookout for some good recipes.

What’s next?

• Clear up after the storm
• Rake up last of the Hope Farm compost
• Order more wood chips
• Keep clearing beds

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 17th November: An executive decision was taken to lift the dahlias.

Happily there was a bit more sunshine this week and a couple of lovely warm spells, although it was not to last and we are to experience close to frost temperatures this coming week.  Not really surprising for mid-November.

Warm weather has an effect on the clearing of the plots before the winter sets in.  For example the asparagus ferns have only just started to turn yellow which means they can now be cut right down to the ground and compost added to help feed the fat juicy shoots we are expecting next spring.    If we had some hard frosts, then many of the plants would have been affected and subsequently cleared away by us already.  There are still many leaves on the trees which means we have work to do to collect them when they fall.

An executive decision was taken to lift the dahlias.  At Pent Farm they were in danger of rotting before the top growth was frosted, and at Enbrook we have never had to lift them as they have always survived the winters however the space they took up will now be given to growing food.

The good news of the week is that some of the broad beans seem to have survived the hungry mice and are just starting to appear through the soil.  Still not sure if we will have enough but another tray of around 120 cells was sown in the week which is hoped will mean there will be plenty to plant in the coming weeks.

Something else was finding their dinner in the garden, as we noticed there was a huge amount of what looked like pigeon feathers.  We can only imagine that the owner is no more and perhaps a local fox got lucky.

What’s Next?

• Clear leaves if any more have fallen
• Clear the growth to the back of the purple sprouting bed
• Raise the netting over the purple sprouting
• Continue to put down more compost and wood chips

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 10th November: Time for tea and biscuits and a Mighty Mouse.

Where has the sunshine gone?  We have seen a fleeting glimpse of it this week, but it soon scuttled behind a cloud so that it has been gloomy and dull every day.  It seems we are stuck in this weather pattern but hopefully it will change soon.

It is easy to forget how quickly it gets dark now in the afternoon.  Plans get made to do things, but before you know it, the sun (wherever it is) goes down and it stops anything and everything.  Such was the case this week when some of the lads from Napier Barracks came out to help start to shift our delivery of compost from ‘The Friendly Farmers’ up to our compost compound in the garden.  They are unable to turn up until after 2pm, and before we knew it we were plunged into darkness!  The good news is they are fast and strong which meant the task got done and there was even time for a celebratory cup of tea and a biscuit.

Having the compost ready to hand it meant that we could continue to apply a good mulch of it to some of the other plots.  We also continued with laying some of the wood chip paths, clearing more of the rampaging nasturtiums and yet more weeding and general clearing.  The leaves are still falling, and so the task of collecting them will occupy us for a few more weeks yet.  The hedge got another cut, which we hope will now be the last for this year. 

All this activity and application of organic matter was getting our garden robin very excited as he would flit in and out of the plots, retire back to the trees and sing at the top of his voice which was a delight to see and hear although he is too shy to be able to photograph clearly.

Not all the wildlife is so welcome.  Having sowed some 300 broad bean seeds for The Community Garden and for Pent Farm, they were put inside one of the greenhouses at the farm.  On the next visit to the farm it was clear that a mouse had discovered the seeds and had dug up quite a few and had made short work of them right there and then.  The next idea was to cover the seed trays in a metal mesh to stop them being eaten, which usually works, but not in this case.  So having lost many more seeds the last resort was to upend some large and tall plastic pots to stand the seed trays on.  Fortunately for us this seems to have done the trick as no more damage has occurred, although it could only be a matter of time!  More seeds have had to be ordered…

What’s next?

• Sort out the potted bay trees
• Sow some more broad beans
• Move some more compost and wood chips
• Clear more leaves and add to the leaf compost bin

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.