Tim Prater

Enbrook Park is looking particularly fabulous at the moment.  The growth is looking very fresh and green, and the birdsong you can hear as you travel through is delightful to hear.   Most stunning is the sheer number of flowers throughout the park which are attracting great numbers of bees and other pollinators.  Paul (the park head gardener) estimates there is around 19,000 square meters of flowering meadow this year, which is the most left uncut in the last three years.  The paths forged through and around frame the effect, and it is well worth looking at all the different wild flowers showing through as well as all the different forms of grass flower too – just beautiful.  The picture below does it no justice whatsoever!   

This week the emphasis has been on watering the new plantings and the fast growing such as the onions trying to swell, and the rapid growth of pea shoots and new lettuce leaves.  It has been hot work by hand, but the rolling sea mists have been a welcome event, and helped to provide a little moisture.  The last of the basil got planted as did the dwarf beans, and the kale which was looking healthy and perfect one day, was decimated and torn to shreds the next by pigeons probably as a result of the gooseberries being covered over – and so these were the next to have to be netted or lose them altogether.  Seeds sown this week were beetroot, Romanesco broccoli, kale and swede.  The lettuce seeds sown last week are emerging, and will soon need ‘pricking out’ or transferring  into more growing space so as not to be competing with other seedlings.

The tree spinach pictured below with its cerise pink new leaves is just starting to take off and show itself which means we will soon be able to pick a few leaves and make a colourful addition to salads.  These particular plants are a miracle in that it was thought that all the seed for this was lost, until just by chance, and after several years of not being seen, two seedlings suddenly popped up in a garden plant pot.  They were allowed to flower and set seed then later collected and sown this spring.  Simply amazing.

Below is a picture of several packets of seeds kindly donated to us by Seed Craft based right here in Folkestone.  For just £8 per month Seed Craft will send you 4 packets of seeds ready to be sown, along with comprehensive growing guides and tips to help you make a success of your growing experience.  This seems such a great idea, helping to support gardeners to grow seasonal food at the right time, which unless meticulously planned throughout the year, can be overwhelming.  If you like the idea of growing your own food but lack the confidence, this could be for you and they can be found on Facebook or Instagram, and they have a website www.seedcraft.co.uk.

What’s next?

• Rampaging Goji berry plants still need tackling and tying in

• Keep watering the new plantings especially the dwarf beans

• Maybe prick out the new lettuce plants

• Tackle any emerging bindweed and mare’s tails

• Keep watering and picking salad leaves

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The rainfall for May was 100.3 mm and the sunshine we have had along with Friday’s deluge of more rain is bringing the plants on a treat.  The wind scorched leaves are starting to be overtaken by some new growth and all fingers are crossed that we have some settled weather for just a while. 

The basil got planted as did the cucumbers and a few random tomatoes.  We sowed eight different lettuce varieties, and having noticed that the gooseberries had started swelling, thought it was a good idea to put some netting over them before the birds also discover them.   The onions and garlic are starting to swell, and many of them are throwing out a flower head which must be removed as soon as it appears or else the plant will concentrate all its energy into the flower and the bulb at the base will fail to develop.

We have had just had the delivery of the last two cold frames at Enbrook Park.  As yet they are not in their final resting place but will have to stay just where they are for a while until such time as we get to have a good sort out.

The garden at Fremantle Park is also filling out and looking more interesting.  All the herbs in the Golden Valley community areas are looking particularly good right now, and below is a picture showing six cut bunches (from left to right, top to bottom) – flat leaf parsley, lemon balm, coriander, mint variety 1, mint variety 2, and dill.  The parsley and coriander look so similar we have to keep tasting them to remind ourselves which is which.

There was great excitement during our Saturday morning garden session when we had the sheer delight of witnessing a dragonfly from our pond metamorphose from the larvae into a beautiful dragonfly and finally fly away.  We photographed it drying its wings in the sun where it was perched on the ‘lambs ears’ planted right on the pond edge.  It left behind the incredible empty shell of its old body just sitting on the plant as if it were resting there – simply amazing.  We discovered it was a female Broad-bodied Chaser, being yellow, and that the male is blue.  We shall be paying great attention to the pond area in the hope of seeing more.

What’s next?

• The final bit of spinach needs picking and pulling up

• Some broccoli may be ready

• Remove any bindweed and mares tails creeping in

• Support some of the trailing Goji berries

• Find some open netting for the strawberries

• Sow kale, Romanesco and beetroot

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May bank holiday, June is now upon us and at last the weather is starting to improve.  We were sorry to see that a large tree had fallen in Enbrook Park, always a sad sight; however we were assured that the tree had been suffering from Ganoderma  (a fungus) for some years.  We were lucky enough to benefit from some of the logs to make extra seats for the garden, and on the sunny Saturday morning session we spent a happy hour sitting on the logs sowing spring onion seeds and around 240 dwarf beans.

The poor sick looking plants having spent too much time in their pots shivering and being blown about are finally getting into the soil.  The courgettes are all planted as are the squashes and sweetcorn, plus the chard seedlings, a bit of sunshine and warmth should see them romp away.  We have held back from planting the basil and the cucumbers just yet as they are really tender and could do with getting a little bit bigger and stronger.

Whilst pottering about and planting at Enbrook this week, we came across a very interesting insect none of us had ever seen before.  It was photographed (Picture below) so that we could find out if it was a friend or a foe to the garden.  There have been several new insects and invertebrates to watch out for such as the marmorated stink bug, the harlequin ladybird, and the New Zealand flatworm, to name but a few.  Happily, this fellow is a wasp beetle, and a friend, which seems to occupy most of the world except for Ireland and the Americas – most interesting and we shall now know to be pleased if we ever come across another.

We currently have plenty of fresh herbs as well as salad leaves.  Mixing the two together in a variety of combinations makes for the most amazing salads you can imagine.  The leaves range from bright green through to a deep dark red and various shades between, the herbs are parsley, coriander, dill and chervil which lift the leaves to another level.  Add calendula petals, borage, and viola flowers, then you have something extra special which would cost a fortune in a posh restaurant.   This week we also added pea shoots, a real taste of early summer before the peas arrive!  Absolutely delicious!  We are always pleased to share what we can, and often do with visitors to the garden, and we took a batch to the library for distribution too.  However we were delighted to be contacted by the Kent Food Hub keen to work with us and other groups in or close to Folkestone like the Incredible Edibles, on a new project to promote growing seasonal local food and to make fresh food accessible to all.  We are looking forward to doing as much as we can to enable this to happen in the wider community and to make links and work together on common goals and interests. 

In the meantime we have plenty to be getting on with as we have heard that the judge for the RHS ‘It’s your neighbourhood’ scheme is visiting the Enbrook garden on 17^th June, no pressure!  The judge is coming in an advisory capacity, to evaluate our progress, and our Sheila has been working on the most amazing supporting statement to give to the judge as requested, because he only has an hour. The statement sums up our history and achievements so far.   We have laboured hard on this, and Sheila has turned it into a work of art, but it is still early days and we continue to work on our progress. 

What’s next?

• Keep up with the weeding

• Keep watering the new planting for a few days until established

• Pick the salads and herbs

• Pull up the finished coriander to make way for the basil

• Keep removing old and yellowing leaves around all plants

• Start dead heading

• Plant last of the summer bedding we have sown from seed

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