Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 12th June: Potatoes, Brockhill School, Stream Walk Community Garden and the Golden Arrow.

It seems the temperatures are beginning to rise, and the cucumbers are not looking quite so sickly, even the dwarf beans have started to perk up a bit and the courgettes are just starting to show the first fruits.  We seem to have managed to keep up with the removal of the side shoots on the tomatoes this year, and are doing the same with the hop plants too.  One of the beds of broad beans got stripped and uprooted to make way for a new planting of lettuces.  It made an entire trug full of bean pods, and we were able to let any visitors take some, and have plenty enough to take home too. 

Having inspected the first plot of early potatoes, we took an executive decision to pull them up as they looked large enough on having an initial rummage around in the soil, and anyway we do need the room.  Our gardeners working towards their Duke of Edinburgh Award had planted them back in March, and they were delighted to now be harvesting them, so we left them to it, listening to all the squeals of delight when they found more buried ‘treasure’.

Our young volunteers are at Brockhill School in Hythe, and we were invited to go and have a look at an amazing walled garden the school has on site.  It has been out of use for some time, and the fantastic greenhouses need lots of restoration, but what a fabulous resource to have.  The master plan is to get the garden up and running again for the children to start learning about horticulture.  Such an exciting project, and so looking forward to seeing the progress as it happens.  We hope to keep you informed on that.

We also had an invite to go and visit Stream Walk Community Garden in Whitstable.  We had visited the garden some time ago, but during the pandemic, the garden had a change of committee and new blood to carry the project on and indeed upwards to yet another level.  Much larger than any of our spaces, the garden is right in the community and so gets plenty of people using the space.  The gardeners made us feel so very welcome, and spent much of their time with us telling us about the project.  We always like to analyse such trips to consider our practices and if we can take anything learnt on board, and usually come to the conclusion we are different in several ways – however who knows what the future may bring.

One thing we do really appreciate is that we are also quite visible in our community, in lots of different areas, and fortunate enough to have local support to keep us up and running.  After the jubilee weekend, we were invited to go to the Golden Arrow to pick up the takings from the various events that went on such as the tombola and raffle.  Richard and Shona the landlords handed over a massive £570.  They wanted any money they made to go to the Sandgate Community Garden team as we are always out and about in the Golden Valley and Fremantle Park, and we are all working towards community in the Golden Valley.  We are most grateful and humbled.

This week in the Golden Valley at Fremantle Park, some of the lads from the Shorncliffe Barracks came out to help us plant the globe artichokes, some gooseberry and currant bushes, as well as more flowering annuals.  Next week they are going to be helping one of our other contacts, Rosemary at the Romney Marsh Community Garden with several chores she has lined up.  They are certainly keeping busy.

Finally: Advance Notice – next week’s newsletter will be a day later, because of a family wedding in East Sussex (that is if the groom has recovered from covid which appeared in the last couple of days!).

What’s next?

• Prick out the kale, swede and basil seedlings.

• Plant the next batch of lettuces and spring onions

• Sow the purple sprouting

• Order more seeds

• Take up the next bed of broad beans

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 5th June: Planty Jubes.

Happy Jubilee weekend!

We hope you are enjoying the celebrations this weekend, and that the weather is not spoiling things going on wherever you are.  In the garden we have been rejoicing over the appearance of some decent rain, which lightens the load as regards watering, and saves us much time, however now some of the more tender plants, especially the cucumbers are complaining about too much water and cooler temperatures – still, that is British weather for you.

The Parish Council have had the signs put up in Sandgate and Fremantle Park in the new orchards as part of the ‘Queens Green Canopy’ for the Platinum Jubilee, and very smart they look too.  We are still working on the orchards, adding herbs and bee friendly self-sown flowers in Sandgate Park, and more of the same plus fruit bushes and globe artichokes in Fremantle Park.  As we are working we have several people stopping to say hello, which is always welcome, and to comment on how well cared for the parks are looking, and how lovely it all is.  Sometimes when it is cold, damp and blowing a ‘hoolli’, you begin to wonder as a volunteer, exactly why it is you are there, but just one positive comment from a passer-by makes it all worthwhile.  We always try to pass on the thanks to the Parish Council too, as the improvements are not just about that ‘cherry on the top’ that we are doing.

A couple of us were helping out at the Golden Valley family fun afternoon hosted by the Golden Arrow on Friday.  It was a fabulous afternoon, and a great time was had by all with Face painting, tombola, children’s games, cake competition, barbecue, a talented singer to entertain, and Pimms tent.  Not sure who had the idea to hand out water pistols to all the children at one point, but we all really enjoyed the event.  The highlight for us was being asked to judge the cake baking competition, probably based on the fact that I in particular, really like cake, so it was a match made in heaven.  Many thanks go to Sandqate Parish Council for being kind enough to donate three prizes which were given out to the winners.

Lots of seeds got sown this week such as swede and beetroot, a few more spring onions, and more basil.  The pea shoots were taken up on Saturday as they were getting tired of having their shoots removed twice every week, making way for the leeks sown in April, and a few celeriac plants.  In spite of the weather, the tomatoes have managed to put on a little growth and needed tying in again to their stakes; then the carrot bed got a good sort out as it was thoroughly overcrowded and needed thinning, this involved crawling around on hands and knees or just sitting right in the patch itself to get done properly.

Our Saturday morning session brought many visitors again, including a new young family to Sandgate finding us for the first time, a lady from Canada from growing zone three, (where there is literally only three growing months in the entire year before it gets simply too cold), and our delightful Ukrainian ladies came again to sow more seeds and admire the beauty of the mares tails before finding out how much of a nightmare they are in the garden and to ruthlessly pull them up instead!  In contrast, the Ukrainian ladies were saying just how cold is the English summer compared to the Ukraine, where our temperatures feel more like their winter, therefore the jumpers and cardigans were out in force, whilst we were sporting shorts and T shirts!

What’s next?

• Still got lots of annuals to plant in various areas.

• Keep checking for mares tails coming through at Golden Valley planters.

• We need some more beetroot and spring onion seeds

• Keep checking new plantings for moisture levels and all pots watered.

• Plant the globe artichokes

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.