Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 24th September: It can take 12 visits by a bee to pollinate a female flower.

We were glad of the rain this week mixed with some gloriously warm sunshine. The shorter days have certainly made a difference to the growth rates, and with cooler temperatures, things are starting to slow down. The leaves of the squash plants are beginning to die back away from the fruits to allow them to harden off. We have had an abundance of male flowers on our winter squashes this year and that can be for a variety of reasons. For a start male flowers take the plant less energy to produce than a female flower, and are used to lure in the pollinating insects. However it was interesting to read that it can take as many as twelve visits by a bee (for example) to pollinate a female flower, so you do wonder where there are so few insects around, how anything fruits at all. We have not had to resort to pollination by hand just yet, but let us hope we never have to get to that situation.

We managed to get more wood chip paths put down, the endive is now being picked but cutting down the hedge runners will have to be a job for next week. The decision to plant garlic cloves has not been made yet as we never seem to be too successful with that at Enbrook Park, but it is always good to remember that every year can be different and where something fails one year, it can be a real success in another. We did plant a few elephant garlic cloves which were saved from this year, as we had them.

One of our volunteers came equipped with a pair of wellingtons to get into the pond to clear it from some of the growth. Things were going well until they came across the deep bit and the wellingtons were definitely not long enough to keep the feet dry!

Saturday was the day of the Disco Soup event at Hythe alongside the Hythe Environmental plant and seed swap plus apple pressing. There was fresh produce donated by Thanet Earth, as well as gleaned field produce from local farms. All of the food was deemed not good enough to be sold in the supermarkets (wonky, too big, too small, wrong colour etc), and would otherwise have been ploughed back into the fields or composted, so it all went to make a great feast to be enjoyed by many local people, as well as help to create a fantastic community social event.

We provided the herbs to make herbal teas, to add to some of the dishes being made, or just for people to take away. We are now looking forward to the next Disco Soup. We are most proud that our herbs helped in some way on the day, herbs can certainly help lift a dish and are often collected by our volunteers to use at home. Below is a picture of some rosemary smudge sticks made by a volunteer for us all to share.

What’s next?

• Cut back the hedge runners

• Weed outside the hedge along the fence line

• Remove cut debris from Saturday

• Are the salad plants ready to pick?

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 17th September: Green hop beers created by Docker brewery and Hopfuzz brewery are coming.

It has been an extraordinarily quiet week.  There are no seeds to sow for anything that needs to grow outside, and so we are just repotting a few seedlings to bring them on for when there is room to plant them, to include wallflowers for some early spring colour.  Much of the plot is full of flowers from the tall spikes of the amaranth, to dahlias, one random gladioli, French marigolds, nasturtiums, and of course all the courgette, squash and cucumber flowers. 

There is as usual, the watering of the seedlings to occupy our time, all the establishing plants and of course the celery and celeriac which always demand water, but yet again many things such as the parsnips and leeks will have to take their roots deep underground to find some moisture.  Of course there are always plenty of weeds to evict and lots of self-sown tomatoes in the wrong place at the wrong time.  With the daylight hours ever decreasing, many of the summer crops are starting to look tired and are slowing down – there is always something to tidy.  More of the wood chip paths have been re-laid, with more to follow next week.

On Sunday we picked our hops for the Hythe Hops Scheme, taking them to the collection station to be weighed, checked over and registered. We had 1kg of hops from our plants – our best amount yet and probably due to the wetter summer. Many of the hop growers had issues with blight which turned the hops brown, and meant they cannot be used.

The total hop harvest from the community growers was 125.2kg. Last year it was 130.5kg, so all things considered, not a bad haul. The green hop beers created by Docker brewery and Hopfuzz brewery are in the making. The rest of the hops having been dried and vacuum packed now waiting to be used to make various beers into next year. We are looking forward to hearing where and when they are available.

Last but not least, another mention for a great event happening Saturday 23^rd September at Oaklands Park Hythe and Oaklands cafe (See poster below).  There is a great seed and plant swap, apple pressing, and of course an opportunity to join in with the Disco Soup crew, helping to make an amazing array of dishes from gleaned and donated food – a great family afternoon not to be missed!

What’s Next?

• Finish off the wood chip paths

• Pick some of the endive

• Clear the duck weed from the pond

• Cut back hedge suckers

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.