Tim Prater

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 25th February: There has been far too much weather going on this week.

There has been far too much weather going on this week to be able to get on with tasks that need doing.  The rain has been the main feature and the session for Wednesday had to be cancelled. It is all too easy to be negative about so much rain and probably need to reflect on how much our Napier Barracks volunteers appreciate these rainy days because it makes the land so very green and lush.  We have been collecting rainwater from all the structures at Pent Farm over the winter and have now accumulated nearly 12,000 litres for the growing plot there.  Last year we had just 8,000 litres to get us through the driest months of the year which luckily was not too hot and dry.  Hopefully we might be able to manage this summer with what we have; time will tell.

The main activity was going to be seed sowing this week, but not having any shelter in the garden at Enbrook Park means that the slightest gust of wind can blow away a packet of seeds or if dropped they get lost amongst the wood chips.  Therefore it is beneficial to be patient and wait for the right conditions which luckily happened on Saturday morning.  Finally the sun made a brief appearance and quite a few of us sped up to the plot to get on with putting those seeds in their seed trays at last.  We sowed radishes, peas for pea shoots, cauliflowers, and two types of early cabbages, three lettuce varieties, spring onions and spinach. 

There were spring onions to pick, some kale, chard, winter lettuce, parsley and mustard leaves.  There was a good patch of mustard a few days ago until the pigeons found them and made short work of the leaves.  They have had a good go at getting some of the purple sprouting leaves poking out of the raised netting, but luckily they have not dared to go under the netting any further.

In just one short week, the sycamore seedlings which were just appearing and starting to unfurl have now turned into fully fledged upright pesky blighters which will need dealing with soon if we are not to be hosting an entire new sycamore forest any time soon.  Let us hope we will get the opportunity to sort them out this coming week, weather permitting although at the moment it is not looking brilliant on the weather app.  However, to counteract those seedlings we are not wishing to encourage, it was a joy to see many self-sown nasturtium seedlings popping up.  Perhaps if sycamore seedlings were edible we might feel a little more positive about them.

What’s next?

• More seed sowing

• Get hoeing the sycamore seedlings!

• Get some pond weed for the Pent Farm pond from the Enbrook pond

• Move some of the nasturtium seedlings

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 18th February: The wild plum trees are out in blossom this week in the Sandgate Park.

The wild plum trees are out in blossom this week in the Sandgate Park.  Full of flower buds, you get to appreciate how precarious it is to be flowering this time of year and a small miracle that there are any plums on the trees at all in the summer.  The weather can be so windy, wet, and frosty giving little encouragement for any available pollinators to get out there and do the business of pollination.  We shall have to wait and see if there will be enough fruit worthy of picking in a few months’ time.

To be fair we have had a couple of sunny days during the week, but otherwise it has been pretty dismal and drizzly.  For our Wednesday morning session at Enbrook Park we were all geared up to start sowing the first seeds of the season, however it was raining again and the session was cancelled; Saturday did not fare much better either.  Luckily there is no rush to sow seeds and plenty of time to get going when the weather is more favourable as there is no joy to be had in sowing seeds in the rain or wind.

The weather cleared up enough for a few volunteers to come out from the Napier Barracks to help weed both inside and out of the brick borders at Enbrook Valley shops.  The bulbs are just starting to show flower buds and it was good to be able to clear much of the self-sown forget-me-nots which had sprouted up in many of the beds.  This is another plant that can overtake if given the chance and many were put into pots and taken to the kitchen garden at Pent Farm where there is a small wooded area.  Here they were replanted and can flower away to their hearts content with any luck.  Once we had finished weeding the borders a generous mulch of compost was added to the beds to help the plants along in the growing season to come. 

Back at Enbrook Park we are still in the process of putting down new woodchips on the smaller paths around the plot.  It was noted on closer inspection that there are already lots of sycamore seedlings starting to unfurl all over the place, so it would be an excellent idea to get out the hoes and stop them in their tracks before they start to put down some serious roots!

Our hot composter at Folkestone College is being fed every day with food waste and wood shavings.  Although it is cool outdoors, the inside of the composting tank is really starting to get up to temperature which has taken a few weeks.  The first compost to come out of the composter had not been able to get up to temperature and kill off the harmful pathogens, and so it had to be fed back into the machine to go through the system again.  After doing this for a couple more weeks, the tank is now really throwing out some heat and warmed up considerably enough to now be producing some decent compost.  Still not fully broken down, and needing more time to mature before it can be used, this compost is put into a maturation bay to break down even further.

We have had several enquiries from various organisations interested in how the hot composter works, and this week we had a visit from a representative of ‘Heart and Soil’ in Faversham.  We are really pleased to be able to share information on this form of recycling, and really hope that this method of composting cooked food can be replicated in many more areas.

What’s next?

• Get the hoes out for some serious sycamore seedling chasing

• Start sowing some seeds if the weather allows

• Collect some pond weed for the new pond at Pent Farm

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 4th February: Taming the wild garlic and thinning the strawberries.

It has remained dry going into February, and a little milder although with a wind chill it is sometimes difficult to believe that.  The rainfall for January was a mere 45.9 mm, the driest month since last June.  It has given a chance for some of the waterlogged areas to dry out a little.  Not much around in the way of sunlight, but the daylight hours are increasing and it is still light at around 4.45pm.

The park is certainly showing signs of waking up, some of the daffodils have emerged and are flowering (none in the community garden in flower as yet, but still pushing through the ground with the bluebells), and there are some fabulous displays of snowdrops to be seen.  They really cheer you up and make you appreciate the season is at last turning towards spring.  Yet we know not to get too excited as things can dramatically change in a matter of days.

We got to grips with several of our tasks this week.  The mint which escaped from the base of a large pot and into the ground some time ago has been romping away in the compost to the point that it got itself noticed and got a good thinning to make sure it did not have the chance to take over.  Several pieces were planted in pots as part of our stock of spare plants.  The wild garlic has continued to appear in lots of places around the plot, and it has taken some time to tame it and get it back to where we are happy for it to be, but there is yet more to remove!  A happy hour or two was spent removing wayward strawberry plants crowding out the gooseberry and blackcurrant bushes which mean that there is now good access to the shrubs so that they can be pruned.  

The last of the leeks were lifted, and compost put down as mulch on the empty bed.  We are now getting close to being ready for the first seed sowing of the year, not this week, but next – always close to St. Valentine’s Day, although if the weather turns cold again then it will be delayed, so our fingers are crossed that we get an early start.

We have got our seed potatoes already and have them indoors so that their shoots can develop, known as ‘chitting’.  As usual, we have gone for early varieties, and they will not be planted until March.  Now that many of the beds are empty we can plan where all the first seedlings will be planted in the coming weeks.

Unfortunately there will not be a newsletter next week, however we will be back the following week hopefully with news of how we got on with the first sowings – of course that is if the weather is on our side!

What’s next?

• Still need to cut back the dead nettle and the feverfew

• Finish the strawberry job

• Remove more of the wild garlic

• Start work on the gooseberries

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.