Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 1st May: Tomato down, fence up, bench built, but the rain is AWOL.

There is still no rain for Sandgate and very little promise of any on the horizon.  Apparently we had 21.1 mm of rain this month which must have come on the very first day or so, or crept in during one night! 

The plants have to really put down their roots to find any moisture in the soil and clearing any of the plots to make way for new plants is a fight.  Some of the roots and stems seem welded into the soil or set off in concrete, whilst others are sitting within a dust bowl; such is the difference between contrasting areas of the same garden.

The spinach from last autumn had gone to seed, and the parsley was trying to do the same, there are new plants of both and so the compost heap gained a deep new layer of vegetation.  The sweet peas got planted with two newly positioned wig-wams near the pond (where they are sheltered from the wind).  A liberal dollop of horse manure got added too, providing a mulch as well as fertiliser for such hungry plants.

An executive decision was made to plant the tomatoes this Saturday.  The temperatures are fine both day and night, but the wind can be a threat and so they have been netted just for a couple of weeks to get them settled in.  More will be planted this coming week, and we will start to plant in spaces along the wall.  The beans, courgettes and squashes are following along just a week or two behind them, so we have time to concentrate on one thing at a time. 

Concentration was certainly not happening when a complete idiot (me of course), managed to drop an entire tray of pots full of seedlings just on their way to be pricked out into larger pots.  Fortunately we had some patient and capable volunteer gardeners there, who carefully salvaged all they could from the situation, and seedlings were saved but many were lost.  Luckily, and on the very same day, Rosie turned up with donation plants she had grown and potted on at home for us.  Thank goodness for that. 

Thanks also go to Rosemary from the Romney Marsh community garden as she had even more seeds to share with us and a few plants for the Incredible Edible plant sale and seed swap which is next Saturday 7^th May from 10am to 2pm outside the United Response Community Network in Cheriton High Street.  If you are a keen gardener or looking to fill some spaces in the garden or house, then this is the event for you, and the place to get some terrific plants for a small donation.  We will be providing some potted herbs as well as spare tomato plants, courgettes and squashes if they hurry up and get a little bit bigger for the day.  We also have some garden plants and some of our very decorative tree spinach too. 

Always looking for recycled additions for our garden, Rita offered a beautiful slab of slate retrieved from a neighbour throwing it out from a house renovation.  We matched the slab up with some concrete blocks, hid them from view with strategically placed logs and we now have a new bench, just in front of the pond, a great place to have a sit and a chat, or a seat to work from.

We are indeed very fortunate at the garden for all the kind people who donate time, energy, or other gifts to make the garden what it is today.  A very special thank you to Paul for making such a fabulous job of the boundary fencing, now finished, it just looks terrific, and we are receiving many compliments on how good the Sandgate Community Garden is looking – now all we need is RAIN.

What’s next?

• Finish planting up the second tomato bed and start planting along the wall.

• Repot the winter squashes

• Clear some of the beds and prepare for replanting

• Check on the number of hop shoots per plant

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 24th April: Whatever happened to April showers?

There does not seem to have been any rain on the horizon for several weeks now, and any hint of rain on the weather forecast seems to pass over and come to nothing.  The ritual is on arrival at Enbrook garden, to poke a finger into the soil to determine if there is any moisture there, and if we have to water.  The new plantings have the priority along with plants in pots, then fast growers such as lettuces and pea shoots.  Everything else has to get on with it, and it is often surprising to find there is some moisture for more established plants to access deep down where their roots are encouraged to go to look for it.

This week we have had a major epiphany as regards watering at the Sandgate Community Garden in Enbrook.  Our water supply comes via a water bowser or tank and we hand water using watering cans which can take up to two hours to complete, what with all the trotting up and down plus waiting for the watering can to fill up if you are not fortunate enough that particular day to have a willing watering partner with you to load up the watering cans whilst you do all the trotting!  Not all our gardeners are capable of carrying heavy cans across the plot, so it comes down to a hardy few.  However, we have researched and invested in a battery operated water pump which is immersed into the bowser and pumps with decent water pressure some 25 meters up the plot.  It is now the best thing since sliced bread, although we still have a few things to iron out, such as getting the job done in half an hour before the battery runs out, and getting water to the rest of the plot beyond the hose/pump reach of 25 meters!  The trick might well be to position a small water butt at 25 meters and fill that using the pump which will then give us access to water at the other end of the plot and therefore makes for less trotting up and down.  Bingo!  We will get there, and work it all out eventually.

Paul, the Park grounds manager, has very kindly erected a stretch of fencing along the perimeter of the garden where we previously had put up (somewhat badly) fence posts and netting.  It is looking far superior to what we had before and it sets the garden off a treat.  All we can say is ‘thank you’ and very much appreciated.

We have also been very busy sowing beans, lots of flower seeds for the pollinators (well, and for us too), and repotting lots of tomato plants as well as courgettes and summer squashes.  Plants are being crammed into every available space in cold frames, and will have to be nurtured for another couple of weeks at least until it is deemed safe enough to put them outdoors to fend for themselves.  The temperatures are currently good, but the wind is still too strong for small tender plants and brings with it a chill factor.

The potatoes are earthed up every time we visit the plot, and as more tree spinach plants appear, they get moved into pots or left if they have appeared in the right place.  The hops are being trained to climb the strings and posts but we are pinching out some shoots if they have nowhere to go and restrict the number of hop bines. The autumn raspberries are doing their best to pop up as far as possible from the actual place they were originally planted, and have to be either cut down or repositioned.

The recently planted beautifully formed cabbages were discovered by pesky pigeons and had to be recovered, and the three newly planted rhubarb plants have been dug up and chewed, presumably by a foraging badger and had to be replanted and covered in the hope they might possibly re-sprout and not get bothered again.  We can only hope.

What’s next?

• Hundreds of seedlings to prick out and pot on

• Keep an eye on the mares tails pushing through

• Weed around the orchard areas

• Maybe set up a water butt half way along the plot?

• Keep pinching out the hop shoots not required.

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.