Tim Prater

It is now a real race against time to get everything in that was sown at the start of the month and to get the final sowings of winter greens done by the end of the first week in September.  You can already feel the change in the season, the days are shorter and cooler.  We sowed four trays of spring onions, and four of bulb onions, plus a few more winter radish.

Strapped for space, we are being ruthless and twisting out anything that is past its best or not performing well enough, in favour of new plants.  These plantings will take us into mid winter and spring so the beds are given a generous helping of compost  as it is much easier to do so now than in December and working around established plants. 

We planted over 120 plugs of spinach with 1 – 3 plants each plug a potential of some 300 plants however you need a lot of spinach to make a meal and more was sown in the week.  The Nero kale and Florence fennel got planted as well as more coriander, Amsoi, Pak Choi, red giant mustard, mizuna and Green in the Snow.  The mustards are able to withstand a temperature of at least minus six, depending on the duration of the freezing.  Some of them will be grown in beds and some will be planted into mushroom boxes and kept in the cold frames.

The tops of the tomatoes should have all been pinched out by now to allow them to concentrate on ripening the tomatoes they already have, any later tomatoes are unlikely to have the time to mature especially outdoors.  We find a few half chewed as well as pecked courgettes occassionaly, but the wildlife seem to not be so sure of the fat prickly cucumbers pictured below – mind you neither are some of the gardeners at first until they try one!

We are now starting to water the celeriac as they are beginning to swell at ground level, although we are still unsure if any bolted plants will yet perform.  The kale is pushing up the mesh netting and interesting the cabbage white butterflies but soon they will cease to bother with the brassicas at all now the window of opportunity has nearly gone.

Many thanks for all the messages of support following the ITV Meridian report which finally got aired on Thursday following the filming on Tuesday in Sandgate and Cheriton of the Incredible Edible spaces.  The phone did not stop pinging all day and evening.  If you missed the film, here is the link below.

https://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2021-08-26/community-garden-scheme-bears-fruit-in-folkestone

Our next outing is the Sea Festival in Sandgate this Sunday 29^th, and may all be over by the time you read this newsletter.  We will be on the seafront outside the castle with our plants {thank you Jill for your donation of houseplants) and various wares on our table, plus lots of smiles hoping to encourage you to part with some cash for yet more projects.  Erica of the Incredible Edible crew, kindly donated a rather splendid butternut squash from her no dig organic allotment, for the ‘Guess the weight of the squash’ competition.  We picked a bucket of flowers for the Sandgate Society to put in small vases on the tables for the pop-up tea and cake café at the Fire Station, which will certainly be getting visited by many of us when we have finished a stint of rattling the donation box at our stall! 

Finally, if you are interested in the community gardens and like the idea of growing organic, no dig fruit and vegetables then come along to the walk and talk on Sunday 5^th September.  Happily it will be worth the visit just to frequent the pub (The Golden Arrow) at Golden Valley to sup tea or coffee with the new landlords Shona and Richard, both looking forward to welcoming you to see the changes they have brought to the establishment.  Check out the Sandgate Society website to book.

What’s next?

• Tidy the area where the raised boxes were

• First pick of the third lettuce sowing

• Sow more mustards

• Pot up some coriander plugs

• Weed under some of the nets

• Hoe along the outside edge of the fence

• Keep watering the new plants

Thanks to all those who pointed out the typo in last week’s newsletter which seemed to cause much hilarity – it just goes to prove that the update does get read!

It was mentioned last week that tomato blight is in the locality, and it has appeared in our plants at the Golden Valley, so Saturday morning was spent scrutinising the tomato plants at Enbrook, however it seems we have got away with it right now.  Even so it will be a case of really keeping an eye out for it and removing the infected areas or even the whole plant as soon as it is seen.  It is probably a case of when not if. 

As there is so much growth in the garden and we are full to the brim, it is ideal conditions for some mighty big weeds to sneak in, snuggle up against the vegetables and take away the water from their roots – before you know it you have a monster weed and an overwhelmed tiny vegetable plant.  It is always good practice to remove the competition, and whilst picking various things around the garden to also have a container  to collect the weeds so that they can be composted.  The habit is often to leave them for later or to pull them and place them on the floor where they often still manage to drop their seeds or even re-root if the soil and weather is wet.  We put absolutely everything in the compost heap and have no worries about all the weeds from mares tails to nettles and bindweed, they are all composted.  You can tell from turning the compost that there is nothing left of the plant material except good compost, and seeds will have been mostly heated and destroyed as part of the composting process.   If there are vast amounts of bindweed, it can be laid out in the sun to dry out thoroughly before being added to the compost if you are worried about it regrowing.  Most weeds are best removed whilst still small and can be easily hoed on a fine dry day, or just pulled between finger and thumb.  Easy if the beds have a good layer of compost.

Some trays of spring onions and more winter radishes got sown this week.  We had a delivery of ready to sow seeds from the amazing Seed Craft company in Folkestone.  They sent us a box of seeds a little while back and we were delighted to receive this one too – many thanks.  The dill, coriander and chervil plants got planted.  The second batch of  lettuces are now standing up on great long stalks in response to their outer leaves being removed weekly.  The timing between these and the next batch of lettuces may well be just right fortunately, as the new plants are just about ready for a first pick.

Lots of things are going on outside of the garden too.  ITV Meridian News heard the podcast on local radio about the Incredible Edible planters and areas in Sandgate and Cheriton.  They want to run a news story about the concept, and it would be fantastic if other neighbourhoods became as inspired as we were by the original group in Todmorden in Yorkshire.  All going well, Incredible Edible should be set to be on the local news Tuesday evening. 

The Community Gardeners are looking forward to being at the Sandgate Sea Festival next Sunday 29^th, where we will be advertising the garden and raising funds. Please stop and say hello when you see us as it always cheers you up to see some friendly faces.

The Sandgate Society have kindly set up a walk and talk from the Community Garden at Enbrook to the garden at Freemantle Park, followed by refreshment at the Golden Arrow in the Golden Valley with the new landlords Shona and Richard.  The focus is on ‘no dig’ gardening, how to start and to let it be known just how easy it really all is.  You can make a bed and plant it up in just one day.

If you are interested in coming along then please contact the Sandgate Society sandgatesociety@gmail.com  or ring Gemma on 07984 694907. The date is Sunday 5^th September at 2pm.  The cost is £5 to include tea or coffee at the Golden arrow, and any profits will be ploughed back into the garden, so a brilliant cause!

What’s next?

• Start planting the spinach plugs

• Keep watering the new herb bed and smaller lettuces

• Dismantle the last of the strawberry bed and rake ground

• Raise some of the flat nets

• Plant the Nero kale