Tim Prater

This is our very last newsletter of 2021.  With Christmas falling at the weekend, our next edition will be on Sunday January 2^nd – so where did that year go? 

Looking back we have had an amazing growing year in the main garden at Enbrook, and started several other projects.  Going into spring 2022, the garden will be three years old, and it is clear as it matures that it begins to give more and more produce.  There is still work to be done to improve the soil, but it is getting easier to work with as time goes on so we look with excitement to see what this new year brings.  More projects, more collaborations, more links with other community groups and greater friendships. 

This week the job of mulching the plots has continued, as well as putting down more wood chip paths.  The soft fruit bushes got pruned, and where many of the gooseberry stems had trailed along the ground they had taken root, giving us several new plants which were potted up to mature and transfer to other places along with more self-sown flower seedlings discovered along the way.

Some of us joined up with the ‘Go Folkestone’ group as well as the Incredible Edibles to plant thirty trees at the Three Hills Sports Park in Cheriton Road on Thursday.  The great thing about getting to know other voluntary community groups is that when a job needs doing, then the invitation can go out for everybody to lend a hand and make short work of a large task.  Both these groups supported us with the orchard plantings in Sandgate and Fremantle parks recently, and so it was great to be able to return the favour. 

The weather has been unseasonably warm again, with no sign of frost, just cloud and sometimes drizzle.  There are still flowers in the garden, lettuce and broccoli to pick.  On Saturday we had a Christmas gathering for our volunteers, in a time when Covid numbers are starting to sky rocket again and many other Christmas events cancelled.  The fact we are working outside has its benefits, and as It was warm and dry enough we partook in mulled wine and mince pies and talked about what we hope to be getting up to during the holiday period, with luck.  We have been waiting since April when the seeds were sown, to lift some of the parsnips in time to serve for Christmas lunch.  Parsnips are made sweeter for being well frosted, but they looked pretty good as a crop with little or no signs of canker or root boring pests which can be an issue – they were certainly better looking than last year!  Wednesday 22^nd December will be our last gardening session for this year when we intend to get the mince pies and mulled wine out again as there are often different volunteers that day, and anyway…….why not?

All of us at the Sandgate Community Garden would like to wish you a very merry Christmas, and a healthy new year.

What’s next?

• Finish off the mince pies and mulled wine

• Carry on mulching

• Maybe start pruning some of the fruit trees

• The compost bin number one really will need turning and will be a good workout!

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We have had some stormy weather this week which has meant checking on the netted and fleeced beds to make sure it is still all in place!  Most of the netting being more open meshed than the fleece was fine, but the fleece got pulled off and blown about several times so that it was black with dirt and looked most grubby.  Fortunately a few rain downpours soon cleaned them up and they are looking better already.

It was mostly about starting the annual compost and wood chip mulching this week; however there are things to be done before that can be attempted.  The deciduous trees are bare at last, and ahead of any compost or wood chips being laid the very last of the fallen leaves have been picked up and composted so now we can see the outlines of the beds and paths where they should be.  Several self-sown plants were potted up to be placed later in other spaces, and some were simply removed and composted if they were taking up too much space or smothering other plants.  Several plants and herbs were cut right back, and once satisfied the spaces were clear, then the laying down of mulches can begin, a good 4 – 6 cm depth if possible.  There is still much to be done.

Other tasks included trimming the hedge, planting some random onion seedlings, clearing around the back of the pond so that it remains accessible and watering the cold frame contents.  We still have things to pick, such as winter salad, a few radishes, kale, spinach and chard, but we are fast approaching the shortest day and combined with lower temperatures, any growth is now minimal and it takes much longer to replenish anything picked in the way of new leaves.  This is the time when the self-sufficient land owner or traditional farmer would be relying on anything stored from earlier in the year, and plenty of hardy winter vegetables.  The green outside the chip shop in Sandgate has had a tidy up and some bulbs planted, as have the two planters along the seafront and the Ship planter too.

Perhaps one of the most amazing things about living in Sandgate is that we have so many green spaces and trees in our parks with associated wildlife. There was an unusual sighting of what was believed to have been a great white egret in the trees near the brook at Enbrook Park this week.  Apparently this bird is a frequent visitor to the south east of England and more likely to be seen in winter and spring so keep a look out for that one.  Whilst working in the garden we frequently hear and see buzzards circling over the trees and there is often a great commotion as the sea gulls try to chase them off.  Counting our blessings that the only foraging we have to do to find our food is in the community garden or the supermarket, where there is little competition and certainly no fighting!

If the weather is fine we intend to celebrate the festive season and another amazing year in the garden at Enbrook with mulled wine and mince pies on our last Saturday and Wednesday before the 25^th December. 

What’s next?

• Continue to mulch the beds and paths

• Start to prune soft fruit bushes

• Maybe turn the compost heap if feeling strong

• Get organised for mince pies and mulled wine!

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How extraordinarily lucky we were that the Sandgate Christmas lights switch on event did not get completely washed out by rain which had been promised.  A great community event, where so many people associated with the garden were present.  It was a reminder that the creation of the community garden has brought so many people together and it was a busy evening meeting more friends at practically every corner.   We paid for the lack of rain the following morning when it did make an appearance, but fortunately it stopped and the sun came out by 10 am and we spent a happy couple of hours getting on with our tasks.  The rainfall for November was just 31mm, which was not surprising as we had to water in many of our new plantings during the month when usually the rainfall would have done the job. 

With some drop in the temperatures this week, it was important to get some of the beds covered in fleece so that they have a better chance of surviving the winter.  This was the case for the broad bean beds in particular.  There was a final tray of spare broad bean seedlings and a few late pea shoots that got planted.  The broad beans were to replace any missing or failed beans in the beds.  A friend of the garden had lost all her beans to what was probably rodents, always good at finding such large seeds that can make a great meal for them – they can destroy an entire crop in no time at all, but at least we were able to supply a few spares for another try.  Same goes for the pea seedlings too, being just as vulnerable – ours got planted in some mushroom crates filled with compost and put into the cold frames, we shall have to keep our fingers crossed that they grow fast enough for the seeds to not be of interest to the rodents any more.  The changes in the season have also attracted pigeons to the garden and they have been stripping the brassicas so we have had to net them quickly to put them off.

The fluctuating temperatures are not helping the wildlife, and Chris, one of our bee keepers is concerned that the bees are still out and about trying to forage, but with nothing or not much to find, they will eat their way through their winter stores and starve.  Apparently during the colder weather the bees cluster together to keep themselves and the queen warm, but if it becomes too warm, then they will start eating.  Below is a picture taken on 4^th December of a red admiral butterfly taking advantage of the flowering mahonias in the park grounds.

More leaves got collected, and it looks as if we are nearly done with them for the year, the leaf compost bin is full to bursting and they will be left to get on with making compost. All these tasks and more have been written about in a further blog for ‘Explore Kent’.  Now that we are entering into the start of winter, our blog described all the many labours that are perfect for carrying out this time of year.  Unfortunately it seems it was more than there was space for on the website, and it got edited to a shorter version.  You can read the cropped account here at

https://explorekent.org/blog/2021/11/30/winter-gardening-tasks-and-jobs/

Last but not least, we nearly received a Christmas present from Waitrose!  We were contacted by our local branch in Hythe out of the blue to say that we were to be presented with a cheque as we had been nominated as a worthy cause.  In our excitement and baffled enthusiasm, the precise monetary size of this cheque got overlooked, and just as we were about to have it placed into our hot, grubby hands, it got returned to the shop office as it was not correctly written.  So near yet so far, the cheque has been returned to head office and we will not get to see the updated version this side of Christmas!  Oh well, something to look forward to in the New Year, and we can still speculate as to just how much a difference it will make to our funds…….

What’s next?

• Pot up any useful self sown seedlings

• Continue to mulch the beds

• Keep checking on the plants in the cold frames

• Continue to weed the flower garden near the bench and cut back the herbs

• Start work on laying wood chip paths

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