Tim Prater

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 6th August: Finding where the Asian hornets are nesting, destroying them.

There are times when you wonder if you should be careful what you wish for, having spent so long over the past few years going on about how little rain we have here in Sandgate.  We now seem to have a plentiful amount and the hope is that the sunshine will be returning anytime soon!  The rainfall for July was a massive 90 mm, and we certainly do not remember recording that much for a summer month before.  There has now been 27.9 mm of rain in the initial days of August!  It is the first time we have ever seen the pond full during the summer, or so much fungi around in the beds. 

We are keeping a very close eye on the tomato plants as blight creeps nearer to us.  Just this week we heard from Steve, the community gardener at Napier Barracks, that blight has appeared there, and so we will be removing lots of the lower leaves next week to try and get the air circulating around the plants in an attempt to keep it at bay.

The Wednesday gardening session was fine, but the wind was blowing hard, making seed sowing an interesting affair, involving huddling behind taller plants or anything that made a wind break, to prevent the seeds from blowing away.   The Saturday session was a complete washout.  Just a couple of us braved the elements to pick a few items, as many things during the summer benefit from being picked regularly (for example the beans) and will then respond by producing even more. The more you pick, the more they grow!  Not so for the tomatoes, the concern being to pick ripe fruits before the slugs get to them, or the birds, or the badgers.  Fortunately only the gardeners appreciate the prickly cucumbers, and we picked the first three this week.

Last week we had planted two beds of late flowering purple sprouting broccoli which we covered with lovely new horticultural netting.  However this week we find that something has been making holes and tears in the netting, which must have been quite hard work, so we can only assume that the badgers are responsible.  We did manage to harvest a pot of chokeberries, or Aronia berries from our two plants this week before they did, and very good they were too.  It has to be said it is the first time we have managed to pick them in a ripe state and still on the bush.  They are sweeter the riper they are, and do not ripen at the same time so the race is on to see who gets the next batch, wildlife, or gardeners. 

You may have noticed a ‘welfare unit’ in the car park near the garden all this week.  At 9am on Monday morning, a team arrived from APHA (Animal and Plant Health Agency).  They are an ‘executive agency’ sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Welsh Government and the Scottish Government.  They are here in response to our beekeepers sightings of the Asian Hornet in Sandgate.  Their focus is on finding where the Asian hornets are nesting and to destroy them.  They have to catch a hornet, mark it and observe which direction they fly in and how long it takes them to return, and so work out where the nest is, or indeed nests.  It is encouraging to know that the sightings are being taken so seriously, however the fact they have been here all week must mean there is much work to do.  A successful Asian hornet nest can have up to 6,000 individuals, producing 350 queens and 900 males.  If they were allowed to take hold in the area, it would be the end of honey bees.  So be vigilant and acquaint yourself with what they look like, and the differences between them and our native hornet species.

Another thing to acquaint you with is the date for the Sea Festival.  We are really looking forward to seeing you there on Sunday 27^th August.  We will have amongst other things, a whole range of plants.  This is a major fundraising event for us, so bring sunshine and a whole lot of cash and the willingness to part with it all for a good cause.  If you have any plants going spare, then please do get in touch.

What’s Next?

• Still need to cut the hedge

• Still need to prick out seedlings and sow more seeds

• Still need to bring woodchips up to the garden

• Cut off more of the lower leaves on the tomato plants

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 30th July: Watching carefully for signs of tomato blight.

It was surely tempting fate to mention the dreaded tomato blight in the newsletter last week, as the following day it was found in a group of tomato plants at Pent Farm.  The tomatoes there are planted indoors as well as out, and in several locations.  The affected plants were close together and in bush form, whereas the others are cordons with space around them.  So far these are the only infected plants we have found, and they have been quickly removed, but we will keep a close eye on all the others. 

It has to be said that the tomato plants at Enbrook Park are looking particularly splendid, and you can see from the picture below that they are taller than most of the gardeners and as they have plenty of trusses as well as outgrown their supports, we have started to pinch out the tops to prevent any more growth upwards.  The suspicion is that some of our wildlife is sampling some of the lower fruits as we often find half chewed and unripe morsels scattered about the plot. 

During the week we unsurprisingly had little watering to do except for new plantings of spring onions and purple sprouting and a few potted plants.  More lettuces and endives got sown, and weeds cleared in the brassica beds.  The butterfly bush or buddleia behind our tool box was truly living up to its name this week as it has been smothered in butterflies.  Interestingly, all the butterflies were red admirals, and it was great just to stop working for a while to watch them enjoying the flowers. 

The chokeberries or aronias got netted in anticipation of them being eaten by the wildlife as they did last year.  They are rich in antioxidants and ‘essential nutrients that promote healthy growth of cells and protect tissues from damage’.  They have a sharp, sour taste which may not be popular with everybody, however just a few added to cereal or porridge will be beneficial.

The pond has certainly improved due to the rainfall, and of course the duckweed has made an appearance once more which we are keeping in check by spending some time fishing it out with a net.

It has been a task this year to get hold of woodchips.  We use wood chips to create paths on the plot and to mix with other materials to make our compost.  Through a chance encounter, Alistair, our compost champion, met a tree surgeon willing to drop us a truckload of chips for a small charge.  So happily we now have a great pile of the stuff and can stop scratching around trying to scrape up the last bits we had left!

What’s next?

• Lots of seeds need sowing this week!

• Cut back the hedge

• Bring up some of the wood chips to the composting area

• Prick out some of the new seedlings

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.