The weather continues to impact on progress this week, but not that surprising for early February.  It was too wet to work at the garden on Wednesday as it was last Saturday, but happily there was a break in the clouds for this Saturday morning and a scramble to book an hour session. 

The figures for January rainfall were 152.1mm, which is rather a lot and certainly explains why the grass at Fremantle and Enbrook is so saturated and slippery. 

In spite of the fact the snowdrops are out in full flower and now the wild primroses at Enbrook, we are in for a tough week to come with snow and the freezing cold out to test the vegetables we have been nurturing and covering in the past few months – it will be a difficult time for them.  Many of these winter hardy plants have their own inbuilt anti-freeze, and are not therefore reduced to a mush when a hard frost happens, however, they do have their limits.

No sooner had our newsletter gone out last week mentioning the need to order some wild flower seeds for a bare earth patch, one of our gardeners, and font of knowledge about such things, had been on the case and got the seeds already.  We are to look forward to a wildflower mix of 16 flower species, known as a ‘moths and butterflies’ garden mix – sounds fabulous.  These days there are a multitude of wild flower mixes available for every garden situation you can imagine, the choice is mind boggling.

The seed potatoes are now available to buy.  Too early to plant out as they suffer from the frost, so they are being ‘chitted’, the process of allowing them to put out a few shoots whilst sitting on an indoor window ledge, just waiting for that time in early April when they will be planted.  We have just one variety called ‘Charlotte’, and we may get others, but space is tight and they take up rather a lot, so you have to be selective.

A few weeks ago I mentioned a kind local who instead of getting rid of, or composting spare plants from the garden, had put them out on their drive for anybody passing to take.  We had another opportunity to acquire more flowering perennials being removed from a garden, and so planted some in Enbrook garden, as well as potted up many more to be planted in any of our other sites.  Day lilies, geraniums, crocosmias, and irises, will all make a lovely display to benefit us, and of course the visiting insects.  It looks as if there will be lots of things to look forward to in the garden this year.  A picture of a vase of sweet peas has been added to the photos below to remind you of what is around the corner.

What’s next?

• If the frosts are severe it would be best to just keep checking all the covers and nets are in place

• Make sure the pond is not frozen solid – make a hole in the ice

• First seed sowings will be in mid – February, so check out plant trays and compost in preparation.

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This newsletter is all about saying thank you to the people who are helping us to get things done, there are times when it can seem the task is too great, or will cost too much, but more often than not we manage to find ways to progress.

Two things needed sorting out at Enbrook – Our tool box has been broken for some time now, and we have to raise seedlings or keep plants at various houses.  Fortunately Councillor Rory Love of Kent County Council has awarded us a grant through the Combined Member Grant Scheme to enable us to replace that tool box and keep seedlings cosy in some cold frames until ready to be planted out.  We realise how fortunate we are when such help comes along and it makes a big difference to how we function.

This week some of us have been concentrating on work at Fremantle Park, Sandgate.  The Parish Council are kindly allowing us to take on some growing space there, and we reported last year on three large wooden containers that were set up and planted with vegetables and herbs which have been watered and looked after by locals living nearby.   The plan is to turn some of the grass into a growing area for vegetables and fruit, plus some bee attracting flowers. 

The ‘no dig’ methods we follow meant covering the area in a double layer of cardboard topped with a good thick layer of compost.  The card smothers the grass and gradually gets broken down and drawn into the soil, the compost gives the fruit and veg a great start and can be planted into straight away.  The only problem is that compost of any type is incredibly expensive, especially in such large quantities; however the horticultural department of the Folkestone and Hythe District Council came to the rescue bringing us two large trailers full of their own compost created in their yard from their work all around the area.  Unfortunately the ground within the park has been saturated by all the recent rain making it impossible to tip the compost straight onto the plot so it had to be dumped on the verge and we took turns to work on barrowing the whole lot to where it was required.  It will take some days to dry out and to make it workable enough to rake into all the right places, but at least a start has been made and we can begin planting soon.

Whilst working there, so many people have walked by, or popped out from their houses to say how great it is to see things going on and how much they appreciate the park in the first place.  The space we are working is very visible to many of the residents as houses and flats overlook the entire park, so we hope to be able to make an interesting and colourful display.

At Enbrook Park our gardeners took turns to check on the plants and cover some of the brassicas being attacked by pigeons, cut back and tidy plants around the pond and spread more compost on one of the asparagus beds where the roots keep being exposed, probably by digging squirrels!  The Saturday session was called off as it has continued to rain, however in spite of the wet, Chris, one of our bee keepers noticed her bees have been busy bringing lots of off-white pollen back to the hive which is thought to have come from hazel catkins.  Flowers in the midst of winter are proving their worth to the colony.

What’s next?

• If it is drier, begin to put down more wood chip pathways at Fremantle Park

• Do not mention the barrowing of chips and/or compost up to the Enbrook garden!

• There are still some seedlings to pot up

• Check on pruning required to trees and shrubs.

• Order seeds for small wild flower area.

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Another week has flown by, whilst the wood chip pile at the lower wall continues to gradually diminish, and the wood chip piles within the Community Garden grow ever larger.  We are still wheelbarrowing!   It has been colder this week, and an hour of work is enough before the fingers and toes start to complain – we continue to take it in turns to be there, and appreciate that we have become quite a close knit community, shopping for one of our gardeners with Covid, and passing on information about a multitude of questions on our WhatsApp group. 

There have been some frosts, enough to have to break the ice on the pond a couple of times, and yet another storm flew through so that covers needed retrieving and putting back over plants, and one of our plastic compost bins needing fishing out of the pond.   In spite of all this, the rhubarb is pushing its way above the compost mulch obviously un-phased by challenging weather.

It is now a year that our pond has been in place, this is the best time to establish a new pond or to sort out an old one as the plants will be dormant and the wildlife hunkering down in the mud in the deepest part.  One of our gardeners has an established pond right in the High Street, and has been re-lining it as there was a leak.  Below is a picture of one of the frogs helped to temporarily relocate until the work is done.  A pond is the best thing you can have to attract wildlife to a garden, and how simply fantastic to have such wildlife right by the sea and on a busy High Street – it just goes to show how wildlife can flourish in pockets of space if the right conditions are there.  The Kent Wildlife Trust recorded the earliest sightings of frogspawn in mid-January, so it would just be perfect to see any in our pond this year.

With most of the winter work nearly complete, the beds have a mulch of compost, the paths have a covering of wood chips, and the compost bins all turned, the three main workers of organic matter can get to business.  We follow ‘no dig’ principles which mean that the worms, fungi and bacteria work for us to break down organic materials be they fresh in the compost bins or on the paths.  This year we have seen a delightful range of mushrooms and soil mycelia which some of the gardeners find disconcerting, until reassured that these forms are beneficial for the garden and to be welcomed.  The world is only just beginning to understand the relationship between fungi and plants but it is known that they live to benefit each other to access nutrients, water and carbohydrates.  No dig enables the plant roots to find mycorrhizal fungi in the soil which wrap around the roots to begin the exchange, and to continue this relationship without any soil disturbance which will break the cycle.  Below are a few of the fungi forms both great and small seen recently in the garden, of course we always respect the fact that unless you really know your edible fungi, they should never be eaten.

What’s Next?

• Continue the wood chip migration

• Net the kale as the birds are making a meal of them

• Search for any more seedlings worth potting up

• One asparagus bed needs extra mulch

• Rake up escaping compost

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