Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 9th July: The Johnson-Su system takes some 400 days for the compost to mature.

The lovely drop or two of rain we had last week made an amazing difference to the plants but now we are back to watering again as it continues to be warm and mostly sunny with thunderstorms passing us by, although we can hear the thunder rumbling around in the distance.

As well as helping our vegetable plants, the weeds have benefitted from the rain showers too and are starting to take over in some places which will have to be tackled next week or they will be robbing the water from the vegetables.

 The courgettes have started to arrive, and it is likely we will pick our first dwarf beans next week, just as the potatoes are finishing.  The spring onions are starting to swell, the first sowings of lettuces are now bolting, and as yet, the badgers have not discovered the beetroot.  An executive decision was made to harvest them small or as soon as they are large enough to make something of, in case they should suddenly disappear!  Our first outdoor tomato arrived from a Sungold plant – always a difficult decision as to who should have the very first of anything that has been grown, however all volunteers know that we will fairly share whatever has been grown between us, and/or with any visitors (including the wildlife which seems to get more than a fair share!)

We are starting to make some progress with our new composting system, although we know it is a learning curve on our quest for the perfect compost, and we are only just starting on this journey.  We have certainly had to dedicate a lot more time and effort to making it, from the collecting of the materials to the mixing, and we know we are missing some ingredients which we need to source.

We are grateful to Alistair, one of our dedicated team, for his DIY skills and determination in the making of our new compost bays, and Johnson-Su style compost bins.  There are four compost bays –

The first bay is for the green waste (food waste, weeds, finished plants, and pruning materials) which will enrich the compost with nitrogen.

There is a bay for brown waste (wood chips, dried grass, shredded paper/card, and dried leaves).  These materials feed the compost with carbon.

There is a bay for manure/compost to include cow manure, spent mushroom compost or green waste composts.  These add nitrogen to our compost mix which we hope will also provide a diverse biology.  We are grateful to Farmer Tom at Pent Farm for the cow manure which has come from the cow sheds where the beef herd have been housed over the worst of the winter months, before being turned out into the fields.

The final bay is for maturing the made compost for several weeks/months until it can be put onto the vegetable beds.  This compost will have been through the Johnson-Su style composting system before being placed into this bay.

The Johnson-Su system was invented by a Dr Johnson and his wife Hui Chun Su.  Their system takes some 400 days for the compost to mature; however by turning the compost several times, it will speed up the process.  The successful outcome depends on the materials being as small as possible which is an issue for us as this relies on the use of shredders and electric power which we do not have at the community garden.  It therefore means we have to manually chop the materials into as small pieces as we can, which is often hard work and takes time.  Our results so far have been mixed.  Sometimes the compost mix is too hot and at other times too cold – we gauge the temperature with a thermometer, and heat is required to kill off any seeds, harmful bacteria, and can apparently break down any herbicides and pesticides 32 times faster than a cold composting system.  Sometimes the compost mix is too dry which then halts the composting process.  One thing which is fascinating is how quickly the mix is infiltrated by all manner of organisms; in as little as three days after putting the compost mix together, there are worms and all manner of minibeasts to be found just under the surface!  Incredible!  As we make new discoveries in this composting world, we will bring them to the newsletter to share with you all.

What’s next?

• Prick out the lettuce seedlings

• Create a space for all the pots and seed trays

• Weed where the weeds are taking over

• Sow some more chicories/endives

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 22nd July: the birds are obviously finding the tayberries irresistible.

How can it be possible that it is July already?  The rainfall for all of June was a mere 24.3 mm; a paltry amount, but welcome all the same.  It meant a little respite from spending so much time having to water for the Saturday session at least.  It is surprising how much more we can get done when watering is off the agenda, although we still have to check that the pots are not too dry.  This coming week looks to be cooler with a possible chance of a little more rain if we are lucky.  Sandgate is up to its usual trick of dodging the rain when the rest of the country is treated to a deluge.

The broad beans are now finished, so all had to be cut back and chopped into smaller pieces before going into one of our composting bays.  The creation of some space has meant we have been able to plant out some purple sprouting plants as well as two types of winter kale.  It seems hard to believe we are sowing and planting for the winter and spring to come.  We have more purple sprouting plants on the way which were pricked out into larger pots; they will be planted out in a couple of weeks.  The cabbage white butterflies can be seen dancing around the brassicas, and so starts the summer long battle with their caterpillars, which if we lose, will be the end of the plants. 

We sowed more trays of spring onions, some radicchio, and a few varieties of lettuce.  This time of the year it is often difficult to grow a decent batch of lettuces as they do not like the heat, so results are often a bit of a disappointment. 

Some of the potato leaves are starting to turn yellow, an indication that the potatoes are ready to harvest.  We have been watering them for the past couple of weeks to help the roots to swell into a decent crop.  We pulled up a few of them, and were pleasantly surprised that they are of a fair size considering how dry it has been.  We also decided to pull a few of the beetroots although they are still quite small, as we know it is only a matter of time before the badgers realize they are there and plunder the crop.  We had a few random beetroot plants dotted about the plot un-netted, which have already been found and eaten.  The tell-tale sign being the leaves and very top of the beetroot are left on the ground.   Talking of wildlife enjoying the fruits of our labours, the birds are obviously finding the tayberries irresistible and in spite of being netted with a fine close knit mesh, the birds have pecked holes into it to extract the fruits!

We are still experimenting with our compost making technique, and have spent some time organising the materials needed and mixing them together in some quantity.  Fortunately, with our association with Pent Farm, we have been able to access cow manure from the cow sheds where the cows were overwintered.  They were turned out into the fields a few weeks ago, and as they are a beef herd and not dairy cows, then the manure is good for our compost making.  The manure was also most useful when filling the second large planter at Folkestone West station this week.  The base was first filled with some cut logs and sheep wool, followed by several bags of the manure and topped with a good layer of compost.  The tomatoes, courgettes, squashes, cucumbers and beans should enjoy getting their roots right down into all that.  The first planter completed just over a week before has already started to flourish and is growing well.  Luckily there are a few volunteers living in a nearby street, happy to water them.

What’s next?

• Weed around the inside of the hedge line

• Turn out the two new compost rings

• Collect more manure

• Are there more seedlings around the plot to be potted up?

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.