Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 26th November: How is it possible that we are into the last week of November already?

We have had a few dry days this last week, and a slight frost, so we are glad that the fleece is in place over the broad beans.  How is it possible that we are into the last week of November already?   A few more cold nights should see the last of the leaves dropping from the trees, and the task of raking them up can be put aside for yet another year.

During our Wednesday gardening session, time was spent raising the fleece over the broad beans by putting in a series of hoops.  If the fleece was left touching the plants, any frost could blacken and kill the leaves.  They are generally tough plants but being still very young they will need all the help they can get if they are to survive the winter, able to take temperatures of -8 to -10 degrees.

In the first photograph below you can see that some of our netting is suspended above our purple sprouting, this is to give them room to grow and deter any hungry pigeons from stripping all the leaves and destroying the new shoots of the coming broccoli heads.  Fingers crossed that we do not get any determined pigeons this year.

The rhubarb has taken its energy away from the leaves and stems which have now all but disappeared as the plant retreats below ground to sit and wait for the winter to come and pass.  The asparagus fern-like growth is now just starting to turn yellow which is a sign for the top growth to be cut right back, and for a good layer of compost to cover the surface of the bare earth.  Empty beds have been treated to a compost blanket already, and as more are cleared then they will get the same treatment. 

Not all of the plants are retreating as the weather gets colder.  It was surprising to see that the wild garlic leaves have already shown themselves in the garden, and true to their invasive nature, are appearing in even more places than they were last year and so we will have to start sharing those wild garlic recipes once more and remove a great deal more of the stuff again over the next few months.

What’s next?

• Cut back the asparagus top growth and mulch the beds

• Raise the netting over the last purple sprouting bed

• Take out more strawberry plants

• Rake up the wood chips under the tree to make space for compost

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 19th November: Noah weather for a community gardener.

The consensus is that surely we should be building an ark instead of trying to tend the gardens.  It has simply rained and rained and rained with little respite. 

Yet another planned compost run had to be cancelled due to the fact that the hired vehicle had apparently caught fire, so we ditched the company and found another that could provide us with the transport we needed.  Surely all of our transport issues must have been orchestrated so that we had fine weather when we needed it, as both cancelled days turned out to be seriously soggy, yet the rebooked days were fine, warm and sunny – being the only two days in the week which were!

Once again we would like to thank the staff of Hope Farm for their incredible generosity and help in the providing of compost for the gardens.  It is an amazing experience to be able to collect compost from the farm where it is processed, simply because the scale is quite staggering to behold.  The compost is not produced for the general public but is used on their and other local farms to fertilise the crops.  During the two whole days of compost collecting we came away with eight truckloads of compost, or about twelve tons.  Not all of the compost will be used on the Sandgate gardens, as most of it was destined for the Touchbase Care Kitchen Garden at Pent Farm where some of us also volunteer.  In partnership with each other, we combined resources, including labour so that we delivered to two sites.  We would never have achieved quite so much over the two days were it not for the help of some volunteers from the Napier Barracks and a fabulous lunch supplied by the kitchen at Touchbase Care in Tontine Street.  It certainly hit the spot when we were flagging on the second day and about to unload the very last collection, which had to be done by hand.  No doubt there are some sore muscles this week.

At the garden on Wednesday we managed to mulch a few beds with some of the new compost, and begin the work of raising the fleece covers over the broad beans.  Unfortunately Saturday morning was a complete wash out and the session had to be cancelled and most of our jobs for last week will be put forward into the next.

What’s next?

• Cut more wire lengths to make hoops

• Cut back the shrub

• Get the broad beans covered

• Pot up those cuttings

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.