Tim Prater

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 9th April: Happy holiday y’all!

Well, not too sure that we are out of the woods as regards the frosty weather but it seems that the plants are just starting to wake up and do something at last albeit a little tentatively.

The little orchard in the Sandgate Park got weeded and some more herbs planted.  The bulbs there are just starting to flower, and there are new leaves or blossoms which have just appeared over this last week. 

At Enbrook Park we planted a bed with broccoli, and another with lettuces, whilst yet another sixty plugs of radishes went to join the radishes planted the week before.  We sowed plenty of flowering plants in anticipation of catering for the bees on site, and pricked out over one hundred and twenty snapdragons, as well as some cornflowers.  The sweet peas got planted at last around their wigwam frames, and the broad beans got staked as they are now rapidly growing and flowering.  We had managed to rescue most of the purple sprouting broccoli plants from the pigeons and that meant we picked the first spears/shoots/flowers this week, and what a beautiful colour they are too.  We even had a picking from the earliest rhubarb type, whilst the other varieties are still just starting to wake up.  However we are amazed this week that we still have any garden left at all at Enbrook as we have had a visit from a determined badger.   There were several great holes dug along many of the paths and into some of the beds, and can only imagine that they were searching for some of our juicy fat worms!

The Nepalese community project at Pent Farm has been held up by the weather.  The members of the growing project have been growing all their seedlings indoors on the ample window ledges of their community centre in Cheriton; and have now had to repot them until such time as the ground works have been done.  It will probably be another two weeks until their patch of ground will be dry enough to work on.

There has been much admiration of the Golden Valley community garden patch this week as the flowers are looking fabulous, and the plants have put on lots of new growth.

We were interested to learn from one of our regular garden visitors that it seems our humble newsletter even gets an airing in America of all places.  So, we would like to wish you all in America or Sandgate, a very happy holiday!

What’s next?

• Take out some brambles appearing amongst the base of the fig tree

• Plant some cauliflowers if we can find room – maybe interplant with spring onions

• Plant more lettuces alongside the others

• Sow courgettes this week

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 2nd April: Ten varieties of tomato, coming soon.

That sunny warm spring seems to still be eluding us, with a continuation of yet more rain and stormy days.  The rainfall for March was 109.3mm, double the monthly average.  In March last year the total was just 29.5mm.  

Sandgate is filled with the sounds of chainsaws felling trees and the loud crunching of the wood chipping machines.  It has been going on all week from Romney Avenue in Golden Valley in one direction, and from the woods in Military Road, making way for yet more housing.  There is an empty sky where there used to be a canopy.  When you read that trees are capable of sensing when their neighbours are under attack and can send signals of alarm further afield to other trees, it just makes you sad.

Let us dispense with the misery and consider happier things.

We did manage to dodge more rain, and weed the rest of Fremantle Park.  We just managed to put in a couple of dozen strawberry plants before we gave up and let the rainfall water them in. 

We finished planting the seed potatoes and directly sowed the carrots and parsnips.  The parsnips will not mature until the first frosts so we could be being a little optimistic there, considering our possible time left at Enbrook!  The peas for pea pods got sown and the spinach planted.  The cabbages, calabrese and thyme seedlings got pricked out and potted on, as did some 250 tomato plants.  Now that amount of tomato plants will be more than enough even for us, so we are sure to have plenty to pass on later this month.  We have ten varieties to choose from, so something for everyone. 

We are battling with the sycamore seedlings as we do this time every year, but whilst searching them out we come across so many other seedlings that randomly pop up which we can use in other gardens or pot up in preparation for one of our events.  It is such a delight to benefit from plants for free, and always interesting to see them emerging and then puzzle over what they could be until they become large enough to recognise.

We have been observing the rhubarb patch as it has evolved over the last month.  Our earliest variety showed itself some weeks ago, yet most of the other plants are still to appear or are just revealing a first stem and leaf.

Last but not least, one of our vigilant gardeners spotted something called a bee-fly.  It looks and behaves like a bee, sipping nectar with its long tongue or proboscis, preferably from flowers such as primroses and wild violets, of which there are plenty in the Golden Valley gardens this time of year.  There is a photo of it below, so keep a lookout for it in your street.

What’s next?

• Weed at the Sandgate orchard and plant more herbs there.

• Plant another tray of radishes

• Might need to consider staking the broad beans as they are growing fast

• Pot up Goji berry runners for transplanting elsewhere

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 26th March: Time ticks on.

Crikey!  The clocks have moved forward an hour, how did we get to that point already?  The winds have been an issue this week with yet more downpours of rain; we had to cancel the Wednesday session following on from the previous cancelled Saturday session, which meant we had a fair bit to catch up with on Saturday.

We sowed more onion seeds, and a tray of spinach, mainly to replace the trays of seedlings we lost when one of our anchored and weighted mini greenhouses took off in high winds and spilt all the seedling trays inside.  Oh well, we just sow more and luckily we still have the time for the new seedlings to catch up.

Most of the potatoes got planted, as did around one hundred plugs of spring onions.  We potted up four donated bay trees from a local garden just before the heavens opened again and we all had to run for cover – we finished early with all things considered.

On Tuesday some of us went over to a Lyminge Gardeners’ Society talk which was all about looking at soil at a microscopic level.  It was fascinating to see slides showing many of the tiny creatures living right under our noses yet invisible to the naked eye.  We have so much to learn about fostering the  conditions to keep and nurture the right sort of microscopic beasties.  Definitely work in progress!

Although the weather was diabolical, we had a visit from the manager of the Muddy Wellies Community Garden, just outside Ashford.  We went on something of a magical mystery tour to all of the sites to show that we also have a fair amount of space to take care of; however it just happens to be spread about in lots of different places.  She was able to see how the spring flowers particularly in the Golden Valley are looking beautiful right now.  The hyacinths outside the shops smell amazing, and all the little daffodils are looking beautiful in Fremantle Park. 

On Saturday afternoon, the vegetable plots in Fremantle Park got a makeover, weeded and new wood chip paths put down, whilst the orchard area was weeded and tidied up.  Again we had to dive for cover when a rain cloud came over, but it soon passed and we could continue.  It was good to see that the pomegranate tree seems to still be alive in spite of the very cold spells we had this winter, and many of the flowering plants had sown seeds around the plot.  We still have lots of planting to finish in the two recreation parks, but they should look good this year.

The next meeting of the Sandgate Environmental Action Group will be held in the Old Fire Station, Sandgate Road, at 7.00 pm Thursday 30^th March – all are welcome.

What’s next?

• Finish planting the potatoes

• Finish weeding Fremantle Park

• Sow peas for pods

• Prick out the tomatoes, cabbages and thyme seedlings

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.