Tim Prater

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 8th August: sometimes, you just can’t hold back any more.

Crikey!  It is August already!  We are into the summer holiday period with some of our volunteers going away, and new volunteers turning up whilst they are holidaying in Sandgate.  We are getting reports of how much greener parts of the country are looking compared with scorched earth Sandgate, and accounts of rain falling when there is none here.  On the last day of July up to about 10pm, the rainfall for all of July was just 2.1mm in Sandgate.  However it then started to rain, and by midnight the gauge had jumped to 4.9mm.  Well, not enough to solve all the problems caused by the drought, but enough to freshen things up a little.  It was interesting to read on social media that we are not to have a hosepipe ban inflicted upon us contrary to what we keep seeing on the news.  It seems that Affinity Water does not rely on reservoirs but on groundwater aquifers and supply should not be a problem this year, subject to there being enough rain later. Parts of Kent not covered by Affinity Water will be under a hosepipe ban.  However many people wisely continue to be most careful with using water, and have taken to collecting bath and even shower water to use in the garden as plants do not mind soapy water.

The strawberry farm has released their spent grow bags for the season, and left them to be taken free of charge to be used as a soil improver.  Happy to oblige we made a few journeys and collected as much as possible.  Where new areas have been mulched, the lack of rain has meant that where the cardboard layer is under the compost, some of it has remained dry and not therefore been able to start decomposing, and then in places starts to become exposed.  This has happened in a few places at Fremantle Park, so with the help of some volunteers from Napier Barracks, some of the foraged/recycled fruit farm compost was used to cover the gaps and generally add a deeper layer around the trees.  Some of the strawberry grow bags smell quite strongly of strawberries, attracting many wasps and making it hazardous to collect more compost, however we shall persevere!

There comes a point where we just have to plant some things in the ground and not hold them back any longer, in the hope that there may surely be some rain as we get nearer to September.  The executive decision was taken to plant the beetroot, and other things will have to follow as they outgrow the larger pots.  The sweet peas struggled this year and we have decided to stop watering them and let finish flowering and go to seed as the flower stems are so short they are difficult to pick and make into bunches; so we shall just have to enjoy them for this final week before they get pulled up.

The lettuce seedlings got pricked out into single modules to grow on, dill and coriander got sown but the parsley forgotten.  The chard moved on into larger modules.  The alleyway in Meadowbrook had a cut back and tidy.  It has produced many artichokes this year, and continues to bring a smile to travellers as they pass through.

This year we have been feeling quite smug that we had not allowed the tomato plants to run away from us, producing side shoots and flopping over – oh no!  This year we have been in control studiously pinching out the unwanted growth and making sure the plants are properly staked.  However a new phenomenon has been noticed which I certainly had not seen before, where some tomato plants not only send out side shoots between the joint where a leaf meets the main stem but also from the leaves themselves as shown in a photo below.  My goodness, as if the task was not already tough enough! 

What’s next?

• Sow trays of flat and curled parsley

• Keep up the watering, but only the plants that need it

• Repot purple sprouting and Chinese cabbages

• Probably a good idea to pinch out all tomato tops now if not done already

• Check on the plants for the plant sale at the Sea Festival end of this month

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 24th July: the absence of water.

So it is that the drought continues here in sunny Sandgate with perhaps a millimetre or two of rain just to tantalise, whilst the north and west of the country are treated to torrential downpours.  The grass is more yellow, and any growth is stunted and slow.  Having finished the carrots and had a good go at the beetroot, the badgers have turned their attention to the courgettes and probably been eating those as we have seen very few and what is left has teeth marks all over them. 

We have left a couple of bowls of water around the garden for any visiting wildlife, as the pond is fast evaporating.  On Saturday one of our gardeners noticed there was something lurking in the mud and last remaining water of the deepest section.  All we could ascertain is that the creature was quite large and had legs and as our knowledge of the Ukrainian language is worse than our gardeners grasp of English, we had to be satisfied with the information we had been given and just imagine what it could have been. 

During the same morning, the kind elderly gentleman who gave us a lemon tree came along armed with a container filled with water and ‘special feed’ for the tree.  We have now discovered his name is Abdul, and we hope he will visit again even though we did not manage to find out what the ‘secret’ ingredient was in the container.

The garden honey has literally been selling like ‘hot cakes’, and Ray the beekeeper kindly gave us two jars, so all our names were put into a lottery to win them.  Just by coincidence the winners were a volunteer at Fremantle and a volunteer at Enbrook Park.  There will be some of the garden’s honey on our stall at the Sandgate Sea Festival on 28^th August, so put the date in your diary and come and visit us there.  We are busy sowing seeds and potting up plants in preparation for the Sea festival, which is a great fund raising event for us, so our fingers are crossed that we can manage to keep the plants alive until then, and that the sun still shines on the day.

This week our list of jobs did get completed.  The fennel, lettuce and Chinese cabbage seeds got sown, and we spent a great deal of time watering which is unsurprising.  Basil, chives and mint got repotted into larger pots to grow them on for the sale.  In the meantime the tomatoes are looking pretty good with many of them now reaching six feet, however the object being to grow tomatoes not stems and leaves, we are hoping they will get to produce something bearing in mind that we will soon be approaching the time to be on the lookout for blight.  In preparation we have removed all the leaves below the first truss which should help when we are watering.  We have now stopped watering the rhubarb as it will have to fend for itself.  The time to stop picking rhubarb is the end of June so that the roots can put on plenty of growth ready to produce more stems next year. 

On Monday, which was a very warm day, we had an afternoon booked for some volunteers to come out from Napier Barracks to help us with some tasks in the Golden Valley.  The weeds all around the planters at the shops, and in the pavement crevices were removed, the beds were thoroughly watered, and a thick mulch of compost was put down.  We decided to do this now as we should have added more plants to this area, following on from the spring and early summer flowers, but it being so dry and hot we decided against that idea for now until the weather changes, as new plants would struggle to survive.  At the same time, most of us were struggling to survive too in the hot sun, however we were well looked after by the shop staff, being offered drinks.  The landlord of the Golden Arrow, Richard, gave us pint glasses of iced water which was most welcome.  Even a passing local took pity and bought us all a soft drink in the grocery store. 

Afterwards we moved on to weed at Fremantle Park, clearing the orchard area and park edges where the brambles encroach on the planted areas.  It is hard to believe that the planting there is looking good considering, with the plants still alive.  We probably have to thank Harmers, the tree watering contractors for that, and the fact that Fremantle Park is usually much wetter underfoot than Enbrook Park.  One of the trees in the orchard is a Pomegranate and it currently has several flowers which with any luck could produce a pomegranate or two this year.  It did grow one last year whilst it was living in a pot, but now that it is planted in the ground it might go berserk and make even more!   The flowers are very attractive, long waxy trumpet shaped and bright red.  The small family plots and the herb planters are really struggling, with most folk deciding not to plant anything just yet and to wait for the rain.  In the meantime we all have plants, plants, plants all over the place in pots just sitting and waiting.

What’s next?

• Water, water and more water to keep the smaller plants alive in particular

• May have to repot the chard as it cannot be planted yet

• Prick out the lettuce seedlings

• Watch out for blight and remove plant affected

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.