Tim Prater

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 23rd October: Planning forward and planting for 2023.

We are just coming up to the ideal time to be preparing the ground for next year and to be thinking about cutting back old growth and getting the gardens tidy.  However the warm weather continues, pushing back the dormant time for plants.  In the Meadowbrook alley garden, the globe artichokes had been cut right back at the end of summer, but the new shoots for next year have already grown tall and are producing artichokes – in October. 

We have been keeping up the routine of fishing leaves and duckweed out of the pond, picking up the fallen sycamore seeds and leaves, and remembering to water the various pots around the plot.  We now add the task of checking the cold frames each and every session to check for slugs.  They seem to have made a direct pilgrimage to the cold frames where they can spend uninterrupted and safe time feasting on the lettuces.  They are safe until we search them out, remove, and relocate them to pastures new.  In the meantime the lettuces are disappearing fast, and it will be a miracle if the rest survive much longer.

We did start to tackle the list of tasks for this week, but this period of clearing and weeding will probably be with us for some time to come, and so the list continues into next week for sure.  We have started work on making some new plant labels for the plots, and are continuing to pot up lots of new strawberry plants that keep popping up in some of the paths.  They will be useful to relocate to some of the other gardens.

Our bird watching, visiting couple came by the garden again this week to let us know their house purchase is close to completion and they will be moving away from Sandgate.  We will miss the informative discussions on local wildlife.  This week we heard about the sighting of a raven (although we never knew they were a rare thing here) and three firecrests.  The firecrest is a tiny, brightly coloured bird, which apparently was once only a visitor to the south but is now starting to breed here. 

On Friday we completed the mulching of the Queen’s Jubilee Orchard in Fremantle Park.  In the spring this year, we only had enough time and compost to spread between half of the trees, which we then planted in late spring/summer with fruit bushes, rhubarb, herbs and flowers.  We organised a day to collect four truckloads of compost from our friends at Hope Farm in Capel who kindly allow us to take it.  The compost they produce is used on local farms and not sold commercially, but their generosity has meant that we have been able to get on with various tasks that would otherwise have used much of our funding – compost is an expensive commodity.  It has also meant that we can practice the ‘no dig’ method, and take care of the soil first, which will then take care of the plants.  We used two truckloads of compost on the lower end of the orchard, with a little left over to replenish some of the soil on the opposite slope we are developing, as well as some parts of the orchard where the compost has worn thin.  The plan is that in the spring we will plant the newly mulched area with more fruit bushes, herbs and flowers.  In-between truckloads, the volunteers started planting spring bulbs, and we will continue to plant more around Sandgate in the next few weeks.

In the afternoon of the compost run, we delivered two truckloads to Enbrook Park for use on the community garden plus of course the alleyways and various planters, not forgetting the other orchard area at Sandgate Park.  We are grateful for help from Saga volunteers that day plus volunteers from the Napier Barracks.  It would have been an impossible task without them, and we certainly would not have managed to complete as much as we did.

What’s next?

• Water all pots, plus cold frames, check for slugs, clear leaves on plot and in pond

• Continue to make new plant labels

• Continue to pot up strawberry runners

• Sort out the bay tree planters

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 16th October: Comparing notes, know your mushrooms and the flight of the Sandgate Storks…

We have all sorts of interesting people come up to the garden at Enbrook Park to have a look around and to chat.  Many visitors to the area and local residents drop by; some of them on a regular basis to see how the garden is doing; to look at what is in season and perhaps compare how the growth is in their own garden or allotment.  So we compare notes and talk about the effect the weather had this summer on the growth now, as well as how many things are desperately trying to catch up or getting a ‘second wind’ and surprising us in mid-October. 

As mentioned last week, there are plenty of fungi appearing all over the plot, and it is interesting to note how different people react to it.  Unfortunately most of us know so very little about it, and when it appears in its many forms it is often viewed with suspicion and maybe a little bit of fear.  Perhaps the best thing to be learnt about fungi is that it is to be respected and cannot be collected and eaten unless you really know your stuff – it can be lethal.  However, just as it is possible to know one or two berries that are safe to forage from the wild (for example blackberries and elderberries), it is also wise to begin foraging for fungi by really knowing just one or two safe examples.  Needless to say, none of our gardeners know a thing about our fungi, so we just leave well alone.  What we do understand is that fungi in a garden is a good thing, and generally is helping to bring food and moisture to the plants.  As a subject there is so much to learn about it, and was probably something our ancestors knew much more about than many of us do today.

One of our returning visitors is the elderly gentleman who gave us the little lemon tree which he planted up against the brick wall.  He likes to see how it is getting on and to give it a few words of encouragement.  He was pleased to observe this week that it was happily flowering away and had a tiny lemon too.  The plant is only a mere 15cms tall but is really trying its best and certainly gives much pleasure for its stature.  The gentleman was also comparing our banana tree to one in his garden which has produced a flower and now bananas!  Well, who knows, maybe next year our banana tree might produce some fruit too.

Another interesting visit was from a couple who are temporarily living in Sandgate until their house purchase goes through in another part of Kent.  They are avid bird watchers or ‘twitchers’, always armed with binoculars, as they walk around the area, and constantly on the alert to catch sight of migrating birds.  They relayed how one morning whilst walking along Sandgate seafront, they caught sight of an entire flock (or muster) of storks flying across from the channel and inland.  We are aware of storks nesting at Knepp in Sussex, so maybe this was where they were heading.  It is an experience of sorts to have seagulls nesting on your roof, but just imagine if Sandgate had storks…. not too sure we are ready for that just yet.

What’s next?

• Finish weeding the outside edge of the fence

• Keep picking up leaves and fallen sycamore seeds

• Fix the leaf compost area

• Keep up the weeding of all areas

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 9th October: Keeping the garden tidy, a full pond and late growth.

After all the rushing around of the last few weeks, getting all the plants into the ground and settled in as quickly as possible, it has suddenly gone very quiet now in the garden, giving time to catch up with a few things and to actually sit down and spend time having a good chat to volunteers and visitors.  There is not much to harvest at the moment.  Daylight hours are so much shorter, and this has an impact on the speed of growth, or lack of it, and once something has been raided, it takes that much longer to recover than it might have done in high summer, to be at a point where it can be raided again.

The leaves are now continuing to fall along with bountiful amounts of sycamore seeds which always keep us busy when they start to sprout in the spring, so it will be lots of picking up and constantly tidying from now on.  Where leaves cover any seedlings, they cut out the light and the slug and snail population quickly move in.  Keeping a tidy garden helps to keep problems at bay.  The damper cooler weather has encouraged the fungi to appear all over the plot, and there are some rather large spectacular displays appearing just outside in the grassy areas as pictured below. 

The pond is full again at last, something we have not seen for many months.  We have been clearing the fallen leaves and duckweed, however looking at the amount of scum on the top of the water; it is evident that many birds and perhaps mammals have been enjoying taking a dip in the deeper water.  There is always a kerfuffle and commotion when you first enter the garden as the birds bathing take flight and fly away.

Now is the time for some of the flowers to look their best having got through the drought, stressed and attacked by blackfly, the dahlias and fuchsias are now making a spectacular show and really having a final fling before any frosts finish them off. 

The last of the rather large purple sprouting cages were completed this week as the broccoli was straining to burst out of their hooped netting and grow taller and wider.  You can sense the relief; looking at those plants released from their confines last week, already seeming larger and healthier for having the space.

One of our garden friends, Rosemary (from the Marsh community garden, and Napier Barracks garden volunteer) got in touch to say she had been collecting many seeds that we could have, as well as an electric garden shredder.  We snapped up the seeds, but having no electric power on any of our sites, the shredder was passed on to one of our sister groups, the Incredible Edibles in Cheriton.  We know they will be able to make good use of that, thank you Rosemary!

What’s next?

• We still need to cut back the foliage that is growing into the pond.

• Keep on picking up leaves from all over the site

• Weed, weed, weed

• Water the pots and cold frames regularly

• Still plenty of seedlings to pot up and move to other sites.

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 2nd October: From the Brockhill walled kitchen garden to a more sustainable Sandgate.

We are into October already and still in the process of getting out as many of the autumn plants as possible, either in the ground, or under cover in the cold frames.  The rainfall for September was a fantastic 84.1mm which is the most we have had in one month for the entire year.  The tree leaves had already taken on some autumn colour and might have managed to cling on to their branches for a little longer had the high winds not persuaded them otherwise on Friday.  Enbrook Park was littered with leaves and a few broken branches, and many of the sweet chestnuts in their prickly cases had been blown down and were rolling around the car park.

We had recently been commenting on how our banana tree had managed to keep its leaves whole, but all that has changed and it looks more like a palm tree where the leaves are now shredded.  Some of our netting was displaced, but otherwise we did not seem to have much damage at all within the garden.  Many tree leaves had fallen into the pond and had to be fished out with a net whilst tackling the duckweed at the same time.  

The lettuces had finally put on enough growth to be large enough to be planted out.  Compost bin one got turned into compost bin two, to make space for the courgette plants, tired of life at last.  We have been remembering to water the cold frames, and were pleased to note that the mustard plants are already mature enough for a first picking.  Each time we visit the garden there are new seedlings popping through which are being put into pots to take to other projects.

Last week, the vegetable plots at Fremantle Park had a sprucing.  It had been difficult to grow much this year due to the drought conditions and there being no water on site.  But as soon as the rain came along, the beds got a good weeding and a generous mulching of compost to set them up for winter plantings. 

One project we have been following is the new walled kitchen garden at Brockhill School.  The renovation of the period greenhouse has been started, as has the ‘no dig’ mulching of the vegetable beds.  We went along to have a look at the progress so far, taking some of our self-sown seedlings, some mustards, bulb fennel, coriander and parsley.  Some of the year groups at the school have already been helping with the work of putting down the card, compost and wood chips.  The hope is to start a gardening club soon, and the long term plan is to teach agriculture.  Such an exciting project, and one we are delighted to follow and help with any advice we can give. 

Talking of new plans – it was very exciting to hear that the Sandgate Society have arranged a meeting for Thursday 13^th October at 7pm in the Reading Room at the Old Fire Station to discuss ideas and explore ways forward to make Sandgate more sustainable.  There are already many suggestions being made from a tool library to improving local services and facilities, with just about everything in-between.  Simply email sandgatesociety@gmail.com if you would like to attend the meeting, and if you have any suggestions for discussion, everyone is welcome, and you do not need to be a Sandgate Society member.

What’s next?

• Continue to remove leaves and duckweed from the pond

• Cut back foliage falling into the pond

• Start to pot up the strawberry plants going everywhere!

• Put up more brassica structures

• Check on the condition of our fleece nets

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.