Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 3rd November: Plenty of flowers but possibly not enough bees to fertilise them.

The rainfall for October was a substantial 82.3mm, but this week has continued to be mainly dry with mostly cloudy and dull days with the odd bit of sunshine.  However the temperatures are good enough for plants to continue to grow meaning that the grass needs cutting even though it is soggy underfoot.

We had meant to cut the hedge back again this week but it will be relisted as a job for next week as were preoccupied with bringing wood chips up to the garden and laying them down to replenish the old paths.  A large tray of broad beans got sown for planting out some time in November, and more will need to be started off this coming week.  The weeds along the hedge line were cleared as were wheelbarrow loads of nasturtiums which had started to take over the asparagus plots as well as amongst the radishes and spinach.

Both the winter and the French radishes were ready for picking, as well as plenty of spinach, some kale and the last of the summer sown spring onions.  We had a sit down session to tackle the spring onion seed heads which were grown at Pent farm in the hope of being able to sow them this coming spring.  It seems we had plenty of flowers but possibly not enough bees to fertilise them.  It was a struggle to retrieve what seeds there were and nobody is convinced that growing our own was a brilliant idea!  We will give it a chance in February when it is time to start the sowing season again.

As well as laying the wood chip paths, our other main consideration is to get any empty plots covered with a layer of new compost.  We have so far emptied our compost bays where it was stored, and having turned the main compost heap into a neighbouring bay, we were able to use a few barrow loads at the bottom of the heap which was usable.  The activity of revealing and turning the compost brought our garden robin right up close to swoop in and pick up anything that looked tasty enough.  We left the covers turned back so that he could continue to scavenge.

It will be a while before we have any more of our own compost and so we resorted to calling on the ‘Friendly Farmers’ in Densole to bring us a couple of ton bags full of great compost they make on the farm.  Now the issue is to get that compost up to the garden but with any luck, perhaps the lads at Napier barracks will be free sometime next week to give us a helping hand.

What’s next? 

• Get the compost moved
• Finish laying the wood chips
• Cut the hedge again
• Trim the bay trees and raise up in the pots

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 27th October: A fast downhill spiral towards the end of the year.

The clocks have gone back and now it begins to really feel that we are on a fast downhill spiral towards the end of the year and all that it brings.  The weather has continued as it has been for the past few weeks with lots of warm sunshine but less rain than we have had of late.

On Wednesday the overwintering onions got planted.  We sowed the seeds some weeks ago and they currently look just like young spring onions, but hopefully by next summer they will be fully grown brown onions.  Another tray of spring onions were planted as well as six more chive plants.

The brassicas were checked for caterpillars again, as last week they were smothered in them courtesy of the cabbage white butterflies, however it seems we did a good job of clearing them as only four were found this week.  Just as we were thinking we were winning the battle with the wildlife for once, we got a reminder that nature will always come out on top when it was noticed that the Chinese cabbages were absolutely smothered in sawfly caterpillars and being rapidly shredded.  We decided to cut our losses and scrap the lot because they were just too bad to try and rescue.  In the past we did manage to pick off the sawflies and rescue the crop but time is not now on our side.

The weeding and bed preparation continues – with the weather being mild, the old potato beds where a few small potatoes got left behind, started to sprout again and random potato plants are popping up.  It seems no matter how hard you try not to leave any behind, some always do and appear in the most awkward of places in the middle of another crop.

The shorter days and some cooler weather has started to turn the leaves to autumn colours and drop – so begins the task of collecting them all up and composting them, with of course as many sycamore seeds as we can find to save ourselves the trouble of having to pull up the growing seedlings next spring in their thousands!

The growth was cleared around the pond, and some pond weed removed as the water has been well and truly overtaken by lots of new growth.  Some of the pond weed will find new homes in our gardeners’ ponds or to Pent Farm, to the pond there.

On Saturday we worked together to make a human chain, bringing trugs full of wood chips from the lower wall at the bottom of the hill, up to the garden and down on the ground to replenish the paths.  A few more garden sessions and with any luck we should get all the paths done and the garden looking much smarter.

What’s next?

• Start sowing the broad beans
• Continue laying the wood chip paths
• Hoe under the hedge outside the garden
• Tidy the hedge again as it is still growing!

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.