Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 25th September: It really has started to feel autumnal.

It really has started to feel autumnal; the days are noticeably shorter which means that the plants need so much longer to grow.  A tray of lettuces pricked out just a week ago is struggling to get growing whereas in the height of the summer they would have grown twice as fast.  Most of the leafy vegetables are appreciating the cooler temperatures and the rain; the tomatoes, not used to so much water, expanded too fast for their skins to keep up and many of them started to split.  This can happen with many fruits and vegetables when they come out of a dry period to a time of plenty of water.

We cut down the tomato plants, and took the green tomatoes to either ripen at home or to make into green chutneys.  The squashes and courgettes will soon be following the tomato plants to the compost heap and make space for the last sowings of the year, the broad beans, later in October.  A few more mustard plants, some coriander and claytonia were planted out, or tucked up inside one of the cold frames which we now have to remember to water.  The duckweed is getting a regular going over to try to reduce their number, and this seems to be working, leaving the weed at the side of the pond just in case any pond creatures got caught up with it and have the chance to get back to the water. 

The weeds are making the most of the rain and cooler temperatures to suddenly spring to life and do something.  The dry heat of the summer had kept many things dormant, but now the race is on for them to get going as quickly as possible. If only the lettuce seedlings felt the same way!  A weed is just a plant in the wrong place of course, and we always try to recover anything useful that can be taken to another site.  At Fremantle Park, the orchard area has hundreds of cosmos seedlings surrounding the cosmos flowering there.  It is unlikely they will survive the winter, but you never know, if it turns out to be very mild.

The time has come for the overwintering purple sprouting broccoli to have cages constructed around them for their protection over the next few months.  When they were first planted out in early August, they were covered with a fine mesh netting to prevent the butterflies laying their eggs on the leaves and consequently the caterpillars emerging and finishing them off, leaving bare stems in a matter of a day or two.  The mesh is also protection against pigeons which will make a meal out of the tender leaves.  However now the plants are crammed inside the mesh and needing space to be able to stretch their leaves and grow taller stems.  With any luck the butterflies have given up their quest to lay eggs for this year, however pigeons carry on being pigeons and still enjoy stripping foliage.  The plan is to construct a frame around the plants so that the netting can be draped over the crowns of the plants, preventing the pigeons from landing on top of them to feast.  The lower part of the plants are left out in the open but being that much taller and tougher the birds are thwarted – well, that is the plan…

What’s next?

• Continue to search out useful weeds to pot up or weeds to compost

• Keep up the duckweed bashing

• Perhaps get the rest of the broccoli cages done

• Is it time to turn the compost again?

• Don’t forget to water the cold frames

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 18th September: A sudden and unexpected flowering in the Queen’s Orchard.

It has been a long long time since we had to say that we were rained off one of our gardening sessions.  It happened this Wednesday, with hours of the sort of useful rain that started to soak into the ground and begin to make a difference.  We have gained so much time, not having to water most of the plot, and of course, lots of energy. The change in the weather has caused some confusion in the plant world.  The Bramley apple tree planted in the Queen’s orchard at Sandgate Park has suddenly burst into flower.  Apparently this can happen if there is a colder snap in the weather, and the tree is fooled into thinking that winter happened, and time to make flowers when the sun came out again, as if it were now spring.  All advice states that it should not stop the tree from flowering again once the true spring comes around again – we hope not.

Last Sunday we collected the hops from the vines at Enbrook Park and took them to the Hythe Hops scheme collection point where they were weighed and put into sacks with all the other collected hops on that day.  We could only contribute 1lb 6oz or 0.624 kg this year which is a sorry amount but all things considered, we are glad we were able to contribute something.  The plants at Fremantle Park were in an even sorrier state than those at Enbrook, so we did not even bother to pick any there.  Ah well, always next year to have another go. 

Thinking about next year, now is the time to save seeds from your own plants if you have not been raiding the bargain seeds to be had at the end of season sales.  Tomato seeds are easy to collect, and one of our varieties this year has been particularly good, called Indigo Cherry drops.  It has great flavour, and has produced prolific amounts of large black and red cherry tomatoes.  It is not an F1 variety, which means the seeds will grow true to the parent plant.  F1 varieties can however be saved by rooting a side shoot from the plant late September/October, and overwintering to grow on in the spring.  To save seeds from the Indigo Cherry drops, a couple of tomatoes were cut open and the seeds scooped out and dropped into a small jar of water.  The jar is left at room temperature for a few days whilst a mould grows, breaking down the gelatinous coating surrounding the seeds.  Then the seeds can we washed in a sieve and laid out to dry on some kitchen paper.  It will be something to look forward to next year to grow this variety again as it can be very annoying when a particular variety cannot be sourced from a supplier.  Such has been the fate of many of our fruit and vegetable varieties in the past.

Most of the list of tasks for the week got tackled, and a few more added!  There were more winter lettuce seeds to prick out, a net was put over the remainder of the beetroot to hinder the badgers (we hope), we started to remove blanket upon blanket of fast growing duckweed from the pond, emptied the leaf compost bin, and planted up the first few crates of salad leaves to grow inside the cold frames just in case those growing outside get totally frozen and lost over the winter period.  There has been plenty to cut back now that some things have finished flowering, and the rain has brought new useful and welcome seedlings to light around the garden for us to use as well as plenty of unwanted ‘weeds’ we are busy removing and composting not quite as fast as they are appearing.

What’s next?

• Keep an eye on the duckweed situation and remove as much as possible

• Keep up the weeding around the plot as more pop up

• Can any more plants be squeezed into any spaces around the plot?

• Start taking down the tomato plants and ripen green tomatoes indoors

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 11th September: Remembering the Queen, and life going on.

It was on that very morning, Thursday 8^th September that the Sandgate Society sent out an email to announce that the fabulous topper for the Sandgate letter box outside the Village Shop to mark the Queen’s Jubilee had been presented to the Society for posterity.  There is a photo of it below, and it can be seen at the Old Fire Station when open on Saturday mornings.  Although we all knew it was inevitable that the Queen would pass away in the not too distant future, it still came as a shock, and how pleased we are as a group to have planted the orchards for her Jubilee, and to be able to remember her and this year as we look after those areas.

Having had bone dry water butts for so many months, it just fills you with joy when the rain comes and there is water again.  The pond is being replenished at speed, the grass is coming back lush and green, the plants are standing to attention and we can give the water pump plus watering cans a rest.  We are lucky at Enbrook Park to be given a weekly bowser of water by Paul the grounds manager.  Many allotments and gardens rely on rain water collection for irrigation and have had to collect hundreds of thousands of litres of rainwater over the autumn and winter months to keep them going over this drought year.  That process starts over once more and there is great relief that the water collection tanks are filling once more.

With the rain come the inevitable garden molluscs.  The dry weather had kept them hidden away, but now they are on the march and it becomes important to remove old and dying leaves where they love to hunker down.  There were two large snails hiding under a yellowing rhubarb leaf, however they are now relocated to another part of the park.  It pays to keep a close eye on your plants because before you know it they can be munched and simply gone.  

We managed to get some of our list of jobs done for the week.  Shrubs were cut back and composted, spring onions planted and winter lettuces pricked out.  Until the tomatoes and squashes are finished there is little available space for planting new seedlings, however the badgers continue to try and make some for us by pillaging the beetroot and digging more holes.  Always interesting on our visits to the garden to spot what has happened since the last visit.  This week we have found a multitude of scrapings made in the wood chip paths, and so we hope whatever it was, found whatever they were looking for.

The Uchiki Kuri squashes did get taken up on Saturday as they had grown all they were going to.  Most of our squashes and courgettes really struggled with the water situation or lack of it this year.  The squashes have too little time to be able to catch up now, but the courgettes seem to be having a final fling once the rain came back.  The mildew stopped, new green leaves appeared and they gave more courgettes.  We will give them another week or two and then they will be removed along with the tomatoes to make way for the broad beans, winter salads and perhaps more spring onions.

Sunday 11^th September is the date of the first Hythe Hops harvesting.  Sandgate Community Garden will have some hops to offer, but the amount is very much less than last year, however there are more growers in the scheme so the hope is there will be plenty of hops to go to the brewers on Monday.

What’s next? 

• Start planting the crates for the cold frames

• Lots of weeds popping up near the raspberry plot

• Hoe under the hedge along the outside of the plot

• Pull out more duckweed from the pond

• Cover the beetroot

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.