Tim Prater

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 27th March: Sowing and more sowing, tomatoes coming soon and reclassifying snails.

The days seem to be racing along, so much to do and little time to squeeze it all in.  We did manage to catch up with ourselves this week and finished the list of jobs from the week before.  We can tell that the keen gardeners out there are responding to the warm weather and getting tasks done in the garden.  Many thanks to Enid, Peter and Isobel for the donations of terracotta and decorative pots for which we are grateful as we are working towards gathering plants for our plant sales later on in the year; larger pots are always useful for displays or some larger plants.  Talking of plant sales, our usual tomato plant sale will be announced soon as we will have many spares for sure.  This year we have at least ten varieties on the go, but you will need to be patient as we grow for planting outside, and plants will not be available for at least another four weeks.

The parsnips all got sown, and the last of the seed potatoes planted. More seeds sown in February are now ready to take their chances outside such as coriander, many varieties of lettuce, mange tout, spring onions, and spring cabbages.  Celeriac got sown as did more coriander, and bulb fennel.  The purple sprouting is looking fantastic, and in spite of being got at by pigeons along the way, they are producing some lovely broccoli spears as shown in the picture below.  This is the first time we have tried this variety called ‘Claret’, and we will be sticking with it for sure when sowing again this year.  Some of the kale got completely stripped by pigeons during the winter, but sheltered under some netting, has recovered just in time to give us some more leaves.

Some of us have been continuing work on a new patch of land in a back street of Sandgate.  It got covered in card and compost some months ago and will soon be ready to be planted up.  It is close to one of our gardeners house, and the neighbours have been commenting on how loved it looks already, and appreciate the few daffodils that have popped up there.  It is always possible to transform a scruffy overgrown area with a little bit of love and attention, it just takes time and the will to make it happen.

Talking of transformations, Fremantle Park just gets better and better.  The picnic benches have been in place for a while now, and much appreciated by families and visitors to the park.  We have had several comments from locals that they really appreciate the space and how much more attractive it has become with all the recent plantings and care, so thank you to the Parish Council and the community gardeners, the park is a real asset to the area and seems to be very well used.

On Saturday afternoon, some of us went to visit a ‘no dig’ allotment at Newington, hosted by a good friend of ours, Erica.  It was inspiring to see so many different growing styles going on at the allotment site, and of course, we had to partake in plenty of cake eating, washed down with tea made on site in a little shed with a tiny stove and kettle.  The sun was shining and it was bliss.  We hope to make more visits to different gardens later on in the year.

ITV Meridian got in touch this week and came to Sandgate Community Garden at Enbrook to film a short piece based on the fact that the RHS have decided that slugs and snails are no longer classified as pests in the garden.  The article could well be shown sometime next week but who knows!

What’s next?

• Prick out all the tomato plants

• Lots more seeds to sow this week

• Start to clear the mustards

• Clear the old Romanesco bed

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 13th March: the Spring of Deception

One of our gardeners sent through a very appropriate reminder that we are currently experiencing the ‘Spring of deception’ where you get all excited and raring to get going, but that it could all go horribly wrong if we get too carried away.  The problem is the weather on the horizon is looking reasonable, and we have filled practically all of our seed trays and the cold frames are full.  It is so exciting to see all the little shoots starting to pop up above ground both in the trays and in the garden.  New this week is the very first hop and asparagus shoots; however we will have to remain most patient about the asparagus as the beds still have another year to mature until we can start to harvest just a few spears in April 2023. 

Many of the buds on the fruit bushes and vines are starting to burst, and the kiwi vines poised to scamper up the canes.  The Goji berries are already in acid green leaf and are under threat of being relocated if they do not perform and produce more berries this year.  To be fair they did get attacked by climbing snails last year which probably ate all the flowering buds. 

Many thanks to Diane who contacted us with a gift of a blackcurrant bush dug up from her Sandgate garden which was surplus to requirements.  We certainly have a place to put that!

Seeds sown this week were dill and chervil, peas for pea shoots as well as Mange tout peas, more radishes, beetroot, spring onions, lettuces and spinach.  The broccoli which failed the week before has been replaced by a new sprouting batch which will be thinned out this week to give them more room. 

The kale which had gone to flower last week was removed and the stalks composted, all the autumn raspberries were cut down to the ground as the new shoots are just starting to show through, (however, summer raspberries are not cut right back in this manner).  The enclosure containing the last of the wood chips was emptied, and the wood chips spread about on the paths. 

We are pleased to welcome Miracle to the garden, not quite our youngest member but certainly younger than most of us.  She is working on her Duke of Edinburgh award and has been busy sowing seeds and tending to the hop plants so far.  We hope she will enjoy her visits and gets to absorb what community gardening is all about. 

What’s next?

• Cut back the butterfly bush this week

• Pot up more seedlings just starting to appear, for relocation

• Tidy up the chard beds ready for their last fling

• Random onions still need removing from the Choke berry bushes

• Collect new hop twine and re-string the hops

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 6th March: All Systems Go

It is all systems go from now on; it remains reasonably warm here in the South East, with no frosts on the horizon to knock any of the growth back.  In fact we had to remove the fleece covers from all the broad beans as they have already started to flower and it would not be possible for any of the pollinators to reach them with the covers still on.  Flowers are what we definitely look for as regards broad beans but not what we want with the kale.  As soon as the kale starts to go to flower it means the beginning of the end for that crop.  However the flowers can be eaten before they are fully open, and so we picked as many off as we could and the rest of the crop will be salvaged and removed next week.

Also cropping early are the spring onions sown last September, we were not expecting to be harvesting them until the end of this month and into April.  Most of the Romanesco broccoli and the Kaibroc have been harvested, but as the ground is not required as yet for the next crop, they have been allowed to stay put and send out some side shoots with miniature flowering heads, as an added bonus.  If you have the time, space and decent weather to allow them to do this, they will reward you. 

Just when you think there can be no more parsnips in the ground, four more suddenly put on some top growth and make an appearance above the ground.  To be fair, three of them must have slid down into the path early on in life to have escaped the final collection, but there was still one more to be found actually in the bed.

The peas and radishes sown just seventeen days before, got planted in the week, and we got to try out our brand new super-sized dibbers we had treated ourselves to before Christmas.  They will make life much easier as they can be used without having to be on your knees, not always possible for some of our gardeners.

We had an invite to visit a new garden project by Touchbase Care in Tontine Street.  For the past year they have been working very hard on the main design and structure of their garden in the corner of a field on a farm.  Nearing completion, they have made it wheelchair accessible, there are some beautifully built raised beds, a tool shed, a greenhouse, a classroom or summer house, plus they are now starting work on the all-important compost toilet!  We first heard about the project this time last year and are delighted that they are realising the dream and now reaching completion.  It has been a lot of hard work to put all the structures in place, but it will be an amazing space once it is up and running and such a beautiful spot too. 

What’s next?

• Take up the kale and strip anything edible

• Sow spring onions, more radishes and herbs

• Cut back the butterfly bush

• Remove more of the woodchips in store

• Remove some random onions growing near the raspberries

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.