Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 22nd January: PSA – It is way too early to start planting your seeds.

It has certainly been a great deal drier this week with much more in the way of sunshine and bitterly cold.  As usual in Sandgate we missed the snow which was a feature inland and across the country.  It was so cold that many of the gardens had become frozen quite solid which made it impossible at times to do anything, except admire the flowering gorse by our pond at Enbrook Park.  During our Wednesday morning session the sun was shining and just managed to warm the ground enough for us to be able to put down some more compost on the empty beds as well as lay more compost along the wall where there are permanent plants and trees growing. 

We are motoring through much of our compost stock in our quest to get it down before the spring arrives.  On Monday a volunteer group came out from the Napier Barracks to help move some compost from our stock pile up to the garden. That’s uphill, this time with the addition of slippery grass.  We are really grateful for the extra help with heavy tasks, which most likely would have taken us twice as long to do.  Afterwards, and with time left, we took two barrow loads of compost down the hill to the village green outside the chip shop and mulched the long border there.  We then tidied some of the debris and planted a few spare primroses. 

Chris and Theresa got stuck into the emptying of the last of the compost needing turning in the composting bins.  No mean feat, it can be a smelly and stomach turning job in high summer. Fortunately in this cold and with noses being frozen, it proved a little easier.  We now have a completely empty first bin ready to be filled once more with waste from the garden and kitchen peelings.

Already some folk are champing at the bit to start sowing seeds.  IT IS WAY TOO EARLY!  Far better to wait for the slightly warmer and longer days when new sowings will catch up with and often overtake anything sown too early.  It is time to practice some patience.  The only thing we could prepare for in the way of seeds was to buy some seed potatoes.  Now is the time to consider the varieties on offer and decide.  This year we have, as usual, first early varieties, three in total, plus a few Pink Fur Apples to harvest at a later date.  They are all sitting in front of a window in cardboard egg boxes ‘chitting’ away (the term used for sprouting potatoes) until later on in March. Hopefully it will be warm and sunny enough then to plant them out.

What’s next?

• The raspberry patch needs weeding

• Has everything been mulched?

• The path up to the bench needs weeding

• There are still strawberry plants to take out

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 15th January: Compost, wild garlic, weeding and sustainable futures.

Another week has flown by with yet more wind, plenty of rain, and the odd bit of sunshine in-between.  We managed to catch a good day on our Wednesday morning session, but Saturday morning was a complete washout once again so not all of the tasks for the week got done.  Already it is still daylight by gone four o’clock in the afternoon which is most promising and good to see.

Compost bin three got emptied and spread onto vacant beds making room for compost bin two to be turned into it, hopefully in readiness to use by April with luck.  This leaves a rather full to bursting compost bin one to be turned into bin two, and a job to put forward into next week, and so refilling bin one starts all over again.   

We pulled up a few of the leeks to share and a large clump of the wild garlic which had self-sown into a wood chip path and had become so large that the stems looked as big as the leeks.  We have to keep a check on the garlic and use as much as we can, all of it being edible from the leaves to the bulbs, as it is thriving and will quickly take over given the chance.

Rita, our queen of the Golden Valley area spent quite some time tidying, weeding and pruning the planters at the shops as well as litter picking at Freemantle Park.  Before we know it, Spring will be with us once again.

There was a meeting this week with the Folkestone and Hythe Sustainable Futures Forum, and we registered an interest in taking part and to keep up with new developments in the locality.  On 26^th January at 7pm, the Sandgate Environmental Action group will be meeting again in the upstairs Reading Room of the Old Fire Station in Sandgate Road – all are welcome to attend.  Chris Turnbull, a prominent member of the Hythe Environmental Group will be there to give a talk on the history of the group and all the many projects it is now involved with.  I (Leonie) will be attempting to follow his talk with an introduction to fast aerobic composting on an industrial scale, which could be used by all of us, including our cafes, pubs and restaurants – the pros and the cons, plus a look at how it is currently being done around the world.  So, put the date in your diary and come along if you are interested.

What’s next?

• Finish turning compost bin two then start on bin one

• Still got a couple of empty beds needing compost

• Put wood chips down on some of the paths

• Weed the bed with the honey berry plants

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 8th January: Happy New Year!

Looking back at the archive Sandgate Community Garden updates on the Parish Council website reminds us that the New Year newsletters for 2021 and 2022 both commented on the very high winds. This year seems to be no different.

The rainfall for December was 88.6 mm, the second highest recording for 2022.  November had the most rainfall of 194 8mm, whilst July was the lowest at 5.4mm.  It seems that our total rainfall will be close to the yearly average, just that it is arriving all at once and the ground has become saturated.  At the Enbrook plot, this causes few problems as the drainage is very good, however all our other sites are well and truly squishy underfoot and damage to the soil structure can occur by working it or keep walking over it so it is best to wait until it dries out a little.

We had a good turnout in the garden on Wednesday and the weather was kind, however there were high winds and rain on Saturday.  We cleared some of the beds at Enbrook, and put down some fresh compost layers of around two to three cms which should be all that is needed to keep the plots going all year.  The idea of a ‘no dig’ plot is that the ground should be covered all the time with either a crop or failing that a good sheet of new compost.  We are gradually emptying compost bin number three which is our own made compost, to make room so that bin number two can then be turned.  The original cap of old carpet we had to keep in the warmth and keep out the rain had all but disintegrated after a good couple of years, but luckily one of our members had renewed some carpet in their house and had a few spare pieces – and so our compost bins are looking quite presentable with new carpet in place.

Clearing some of the old vegetation revealed two pairs of secateurs that were lost.  This is a common occurrence, and we often find lost items either in the compost bins or amongst the foliage somewhere.  Happily the secateurs can be revived with a bit of TLC involving plenty of WD40, but we do not invest in expensive tools exactly for this reason.

We have a little purple sprouting broccoli which was ready for a picking this week, as well as a bit of kale, and surprisingly a little winter lettuce and chard.  Our main purple sprouting crop is a later variety and will not be appearing until probably the end of March or Early April. 

Much of the food for the next couple of months is about relying on stored harvest that is if you are eating seasonally and local.   However, way back in the distant past, and now experiencing something of a revival, foragers find fresh vegetation to eat all year round, and there is a great deal of information out there about this.  A huge amount of salad burnet can be seen growing just outside some flats in Golden Valley, and there are plenty of fungi examples to be seen both at Enbrook Park and in the woodland above Sandgate.  Below are pictures of two examples found just this week.  The brightly coloured turkey tail fungi is very common throughout the world, packed with antioxidants, enhances gut health and is said to help in fighting cancer.  The other is aptly named ‘jelly ear’ used in the past for sore eyes and throats.  It is edible, but is not highly prized, as eating it is apparently a bit like chewing on a ‘pencil rubber with bones in it’ – think we might give that one a miss for now.

What’s next?

• There is still a little to clear and compost to put down 

• A few paths could do with some fresh wood chips

• A bit of weeding to be done near the herb garden

• Finish washing and drying some of the nets/fleece

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.