Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 15th October: Red/Green Hop and Greenstar.

At last the weather has broken and is feeling a little bit more like it should in October.  We have had a serious downpour of water in the latter half of the week and perhaps it will be the end of having to water the garden for this year.  We can at least hope!  However one chore has been surpassed by another as we now seem to be in full swing leaf collecting, and being under so many trees it looks as though we shall be kept busy for several weeks to come.  Not to forget all the sycamore seeds also adding to the work if we are not to be forever pulling sycamore seedlings for most of the spring.

This week, the plants around the pond got a tidy, and blanket and duck weed removed from the pond.  More claytonia lettuces were planted along with a few extra parsley plugs.  The broad bean seeds were sown, and the search was on for marauding cabbage white caterpillars ravaging the purple sprouting.  We had a bucket of bean pods from the plot at Pent Farm, which had been picked in order to dry them, either for eating and/or for planting next year.

We must mention the Eternal Style Event last Sunday with the Sandgate Environmental Action Group.  Some of us were involved either manning the stall and/or baking cakes for the amazing café.  What a fantastic day, great people and fabulous tea and cake.  Well done to Gemma and Heidi for their hard work.

Early in the week a group of volunteers from Napier barracks came out to help clear a lot of growth at Fremantle Park again – fighting with the brambles and ivy as well as planting more rhubarb in two separate spaces.

The hops we contributed for the Hythe Hops scheme have now been dried or made into the ‘Red/Green Hop’ ale by Docker Brewery, or into ‘Greenstar’ by HopFuzz Brewery, both now on sale at Unit 1 in Hythe, or from the Sandgate Village Shop, but be quick as it will not be around for too long!

Sorry to have to say that the newsletter will be taking a two week break and the next edition will be on Sunday 5^th November.  Apologies for the inconvenience however normal service will soon be resumed!

What’s next?

• Keep picking up the fallen leaves and sycamore seeds

• No watering the plots required this week but maybe the small pots

• More tidying of plots in Sandgate required

• Keep an eye out for more caterpillars

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 8th October: We would certainly recommend eating vegetables from the Garden if you can.

It continues to be dry again and many things such as celeriac, leeks, radishes, and salad leaves are trying hard to swell or put on growth but have to make do with their rations of water.  The rainfall for all of September was a mere 28.8 mm and there has been nothing so far in October.  There seems a small chance that we may see some rain towards the end of next week but we shall see.

This week we took down the cucumber structure, always sad when a crop has finished and you know it will be many months until you get to taste that particular crop once more from the garden. 

We had the honour this week of providing a few salads for the Sandgate Society’s wine tasting event at the John Dory.  We sent a few tomatoes, spring onions, salad leaves, cucumber and radishes.  You can tell from the photos of the event and the subsequent reporting, that a great time was had by all, and we received a lovely mention:

‘Accompanying the cheese & meat platters was a salad garnish provided by our Sandgate Community Garden – and goodness, the taste of the leaves, tomatoes, radishes (that big?) and herbs reminded us of how food USED to taste – and still can.   We would certainly recommend eating vegetables from the Garden if you can.‘

As a group we have often commented on the great flavour of the fruit and vegetables grown in the garden.  We put it down to slow grow, real soil, organic methods and no digging.  So many of our fruit and vegetables these days are grown hydroponically, under cover, and bombarded with chemicals of one kind of another.  Whereas ours gets hit by all weathers, and we have to share with most of the wildlife which like them too – we just have to get used to a few holes.  However we know it is the soil which really makes the difference, and we strive to make great compost. 

Since embarking on our latest compost making adventures, we have come across a new addition – Bokashi bran.  The Bokashi method is used for composting all organic waste.  It was developed in Japan and used in Asia to ferment food prior to composting.  The process uses lactobacillus bacteria to predigest waste matter, which eliminates odours and decreases composting time.   As you walk through the garden, you might be mistaken in thinking that you were within a brewery as the Bokashi bran is being added to all our compost piles, and onto the beds.  The smell is quite delicious, if you like that sort of thing of course!  The last ingredient we are looking to source for our compost is biochar – so if you are reading this and you know of someone who makes the stuff, then we would be delighted to hear from you.

During the week we were joined by some of the men from Napier Barracks to help us clear some of the growth at Fremantle Park.  Things have certainly been growing in leaps and bounds and it was a matter of trying to cut our way through the jungle, however we made a good start and will be returning once more this coming week to tackle it again.

On Friday a couple of us went to Canterbury University to attend the Kent Food Partnership and University of Kent Right to Food Summit.  The event was ‘to plan how we can create a sustainable food system in Kent that provides healthy and affordable food for all’.  This is a massive project as you can well imagine, however we are proud to be included within this partnership and be able to contribute to the conversations.

What’s next?

• Finish adding the Bokashi

• Make sure the last of the celery is out

• Keep watering

• More seedlings to pot up

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.