Tim Prater

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 19th May: The whole park is looking very lush and green with most plants larger than usual.

This past week has been full of sunshine and showers.  One day it is wall to wall sunshine and the next day it just rains and rains.  Consequently the whole park is looking very lush and green, most plants are just larger than usual, including our foxgloves which are currently full of flower.  Unfortunately the bindweed, mares tails and nettles have also had their growth accelerated, and having spent time lost at the base of other plants, have now started to emerge, tower over everything and make their presence felt.  It looks like next week will have to be spent concentrating on doing battle with the weeds and keeping them in check

After a recent delivery of fresh wood chips, a group from Napier barracks were booked to come out and help haul barrow loads of the stuff up the hill to the garden and lay them down on the paths.  The job was done in no time at all.

We have been commenting on how many lady birds there are on site, and last week about the first appearance of blackfly on the elder section of the hedge.  It seems from the photo below that the ladybirds are having a great time chasing after the blackfly but also each other in order to make yet more ladybirds.   Last week there was no blackfly on the broad bean leaf tips but by the end of this week we could see there were plenty of ants which means the blackfly have arrived.  The ants will collect the ‘honeydew’ which the aphids excrete, and will later defend the blackfly from the hungry ladybird larvae.  Sex and violence is going on at a truly epic scale right under our noses when you stop and take a close look.  We spoilt all the fun by pinching out the tips of the broad bean plants in order to discourage such behaviour.  Great steamed and eaten, that is the leaf tips not the ladybirds!

The tomato plants have all gone into the ground as have some companion plants in the shape of French marigolds.  We have taken a chance and have planted some giant sunflowers, always a risk as there are plenty of slugs and snails hoping to make a good meal of them and in the past they have been killed by the first strong winds that come along.  However we like to be optimistic and hope for the best!  We sowed three varieties of kale, some beetroot and more spinach.  The dwarf beans have just emerged in their trays and so it will not be long before we will need to plant them.  The greenhouses at Pent farm were bursting with so many seedlings last week but already we have made good progress in getting plants into the ground so that the greenhouses can be planted up with tomatoes, aubergines and peppers for the summer months in the next week or so.

We were very lucky to be invited to Shelvin Farm just outside Canterbury, to meet the farmer, Rupert.  Rupert is a real compost nerd and collects all kinds of waste from his farm to make tons and tons of the stuff which is sold and is also used on the farm as part of an experiment to study how runoff is reduced when compost is used to cover the fields, capturing the rain and holding it there for the benefit of the crops.  It was a fascinating visit, and it will be interesting to hear how the experiment goes.  We took away a couple of bags of his compost which has been tested and shown to be full of life and the sort of bacteria needed which plants love to get their roots into.

What’s next?

• We really need to get to grips with the weeds this week

• Get a few more marigolds planted

• Keep the hedge in check

• Get out some of the squashes

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 12th May: Finally we have got out the watering cans and had to seriously start watering.

It seemed inevitable that as soon as the warm and sunny weather arrived the garden would literally explode into life and start growing really fast.  Plenty of sunshine meant that it was a real pleasure to be in the garden, and now there are literally hundreds of plants sitting in the greenhouses at Pent Farm waiting to get their roots into the ground and to get out of their restricting pots.

This is the first week that we have got out the watering cans and had to seriously start watering, especially the tiny seedlings and pots.  However the broad beans are now starting to swell and so they could do with a watering too.

The rush of new growth has meant that we can see the blackfly population has suddenly shown itself.  Parts of the elder hedge are covered in them and of course this means that sooner rather than later their attention will turn to the broad beans.  In view of this, our next task must be to pinch out the tops of the plants which is no bad thing because it also means fresh tasty bean shoots for dinner sometime soon.  We reported some weeks ago that we were inundated with ladybirds, seen emerging from the crevices in the fence and it seems that they are still around as if anticipating there was a great feast to be had if they just hung around for a while. 

With the broad beans practically ready to start harvesting, it was our job this week to sow the dwarf, runner and borlotti beans.  The tomato plants are just about ready to go out now, and the summer and winter squashes will not be much further behind.  In preparation for this we have just started to put out some marigolds which brighten up the beds as well as make good companion plants. 

When most of our tasks were completed we turned our attention to the lemon balm which had seeded itself all over the place in one section of the garden.  It was a case of making a concerted effort to get to grips with the stuff, get it out and composted before it had the chance to start flowering and trying to start the process all over again.

What’s next?

• Pinch out the broad bean tops and check they are inside the string enclosures

• Move the small pots to the raised bed

• Take out and pot up more buckthorn runners

• Start to plant out the tomatoes

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 5th May: Gingerly Green – the polytunnel.

The rainfall for April was a respectable 65mm, definitely not as much as we have had in the past few months, but a good amount all the same.  We managed to dodge the rain for our two gardening sessions on Wednesday and Saturday, in fact those two days were positively spring-like, being warm and sunny.

The sprouting broccoli and the kale have all been removed and composted this week, as did some of the winter lettuce and some patches of nettles.  We love nettles and they have a place in a wildlife garden but not when they encroach on the beds and where we are directly working, so some of it had to go.  We sowed more lettuce seeds and calabrese to follow on from earlier sowings and have started to pull out some of the finished Spanish bluebells before they go to seed all over the place. 

We were most grateful to receive lots of flower seedlings from one of our friends of the garden Erica.  Erica has a beautiful ‘no dig’ allotment at Newington and every now and then we swap spare plants although it is probably fair to say that we end up with more from Erica than she possibly receives!  Some of the plants neither of us had any use for were passed on to ‘Gingerly Green’ during the week.  Gingerly Green has started a beautiful flower cutting market garden just outside of Densole on the Canterbury Road.  There is a polytunnel for growing indoors and many flower beds created outside which will be in full bloom during the summer and autumn months.  Gingerly Green is holding a plant sale next week to raise money for the Shed, the Folkestone Youth Project.  We took along some strawberry plants, pots of mint, lamium and lamb’s ears to boost the sale.

A couple of us went along to the Future Food Forum at the University of Kent in Canterbury on Friday.  It was a chance to meet local food producers, and to hear talks about the current state of the food industry from the issues of eating so many processed foods through to how food is presented to pull on our emotional intelligence.  It was very interesting – we are already aware of the issues created by our current food system but it was good to hear about how some of the smaller local companies are striving to support communities and to produce good nutritious food and what the cost of all that is to the consumer and the producer.  Again the big message was that change has to come from the bottom upwards and to form collaborations locally.  We are certainly doing that!

What’s Next?

• Start to sow the French dwarf, borlotti and runner beans

• Repot the squashes

• Sow more spring onions

• Keep weeding and do not forget to dead head some of the flowers

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.