Tim Prater

It is with great excitement that the hops are going to be picked this Sunday both at Enbrook Park and Fremantle Park.  Last year the harvest was a little earlier and we picked just 2.12 kg although this year we have three extra plants at Fremantle too!  The suspicion is that although the hops are older, they have suffered this year, so we shall see. 

We knew it would only be a matter of time until blight arrived at the last place to show signs of it – Enbrook Park.  Two plants were infected so far and have been removed and composted.  It is fine to compost plants with blight as the disease is airborne and not spread through the soil. 

The last of the small seeds for this year have been sown.  We still have more spring onions to plant, and bulb onions to put in for next year.  The last additions to the plot will be garlic and broad beans to overwinter. It will be strange not to be looking after any seedlings now until mid February 2022 when we start all over again!   A further 120 plugs of spinach got planted this week, as did 120 plugs of spring onions, some more winter radishes and more parsley.  The coriander sown just a few weeks ago decided to go to seed already, an example of how things  just decide to do their own thing no matter how much you try!

We removed a bed of squashes which had struggled all the way through the summer – sometimes you just have to give up and try again, and so the bed is being prepared for bulb onions instead.  Frustratingly, a random leftover squash plant was planted in a part of the garden near the fruit trees and just left to get on with it.  The plant took up the challenge and with total neglect from us has rambled all over the place and produced some large squashes as pictured below – typical!  You win some and you lose some, we think that we need to get the soil right in various parts of the garden so that most things will have a fair or more equal chance.

You may recall that we had started our first experiment using a natural soil bourne bacteria to spray on the brassicas to deter the caterpillars from stripping them bare which happens every year no matter how much you think you have protected them.  Pleased to report it has actually worked and we have brassicas standing to attention and looking fabulous already so that they can get even bigger and better over autumn and into winter.  However the brassicas at Fremantle did not get the spray and have been chewed to bits.  There is now a move to rescue what is left, but we are pleased to know that it really does work;  if there was only such a deterrent for pigeons!

This coming week we should finally find out how we fared from our visit with an RHS community gardens inspector.  It has been some time since the visit, and there is no pass or fail, it just tells you how you are doing and if there are any recommendations which could be implemented.  Always room for improvement, it will be interesting to know what they thought.

What’s next?

• Finish the preparation of the bed with new compost for the bulb onions

• Weed the gooseberry patch

• Keep watering the new seedlings

• Pot up any spare herbs and plants Try moving the cold frames into winter places

What a fabulous time we had at the Sea Festival last Sunday.  Nobody could have wished for better weather considering what it had been like previously.  Tucked up against the wall on the seafront outside the castle, we managed to stay out of any wind amd it was just perfect.  We managed to raise a massive £308.29 from the stall with the help of many of the volunteers plus a £20 donation from favourite auntie M.  A special mention to Ali and Tania pictured below as they raised over £30 by baking some most delicious muffins for the occasion.  Many thanks for all the love and support we experienced from everyone there. 

Well now we are in September, and it might have felt as if it has always been raining in August, but the rain gauage said that just 77.8 mm of the wet stuff came down during the month, and it is getting quite dry again.  The first Hythe hops collection date was supposed to have been  Thursday, however the Oast House where all the hops get dried was not able to take them, and so the next harvest date is Sunday 12^th September instead, weather permitting.  Many of the hop growers are saying that the harvest is very variable this year, some had been slow to make a start, and some, like our own, had been damaged during high winds.   Time will tell, and we shall see once all the hops are gathered and the collective weight recorded. 

The sweet peas finally gave up the ghost this week and have been removed, they certainly lasted longer than they did last year and seemed to enjoy the cooler wetter weather.  Only the tomato plants at Enbrook park are blight free now.  Some people seem to worry that tomato plants affected by blight will make the actual tomatoes inedible.  As long as the fruit shows little or no sign of blight, then they are fine to eat – even green tomatoes can be removed and ripened on a windowsill, so just try to make the most of what is there under such circumstances.

The second sowing of mustards and winter lettuces did not get done so will have to be urgently on the list for this week.  The third lettuce sowings of the year are now mature enough to pick and take over from the second sowings which have finally gone to seed as have the tree spinach which will be left to mature for collecting, however that will most likely seem pointless as once you have let this one go to seed in the garden, it will likely be with you forever!

On Sunday 5^th September, the Walk and Talk about the Sandgate Community Gardens and ‘no dig’ will be taking place, so if you have booked a place with the Sandgate Society, we will look forward to seeing you there!

What’s next?

• Sow those mustard seeds and winter lettuces pronto

• Keep watering and watering

• Prepare the area where the sweet peas were and plant up with seedlings waiting to go out

• Plant out the new spinach plants Consider having to resite the cold frames for the winter

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