Tim Prater

Looking back at the list of things to do last week, there are still many of the jobs unfinished.  A combination of a seriously cold and soggy start to the week, and the fact we cannot meet in numbers is slowing us down.  We are taking it in turns to visit the garden to carry out tasks, and others are doing what they can if they take their exercise there. 

Some of the parsnips were pulled up, and they did not seem too bad considering!  The outside of the perimeter fence has been tidied, and yet more wood chips moved.  Two large pots of mint have been divided to make several new plants – always satisfying to make many plants from the one parent, and they will all be used for various projects this year.   The Goji berry plants got staked and tied in and the kale covered in netting again, as something had obviously discovered it and had been having a great time tearing some of the leaves off!

In complete contrast, the planters at Fremantle Park are full of brassicas, with no netting, and are looking incredibly good.  Always interesting to grow the same things in different situations and contemplate the results.

We practice ‘no dig’ gardening, and our modern day guru is Charles Dowding.  The principles of ‘no dig’ have been around for longer than gardens have existed, and Charles has a sensible, no fuss approach which is easy to follow and apply to any garden.  He has recently developed a new type of seed tray or growing modules which are perfect for our needs.   Like him, we constantly struggle to find plant trays that will keep their shape and allow you to take the plants out easily without breaking; deep enough to grow most things, and with sixty cells per tray, plenty of plants can be brought on at a time.  After only a few days online, the trays were all sold out, and we emailed to tell Charles how disappointed we were, but took the opportunity to tell him about the garden and include a few pictures.  Lo and behold he swiftly replied, offering to pay for all the trays we wanted when the next batch is manufactured, and £250 for any future project!  How amazing and kind; he has gone up even further in our estimation.  It was also intimated that some of our pictures may be used, with our agreement, on his web site – fame at last.

Talking of fame and being on web sites, the Sandgate Parish Council now has all of our weekly newsletters since the garden began, documenting our progress, on their web site, to be found under the Community section on the main menu.  Tim Prater, our Parish Council Chairman, has spent many an hour patiently going through each letter and putting them down for posterity.  How proud and chuffed we are, thank you Tim!

What’s Next?

Much of the same as per last week:

• Clear the Oca and parsnips

• Mulch the uncovered beds

• Cut back the sedge grass and brambles from the bee hive path

• Start to trim back the perimeter hedge.

• Still got wood chips and compost to sort out

Happy New Year!

Fortunately we did not suffer much in the way of damage following Storm Bella last week, just a snapped sign and a few covers escaped – it could have been much worse.  Neither have we experienced much in the way of frost compared with much of the country.  The pond had a thin covering of ice, but it quickly melted.  However it is being hinted that we are to experience much colder weather in the weeks to come. 

The rainfall for December was 123.7mm locally, which seems quite a lot, although not as wet as October with 230.4mm.  The driest month last year seems to be April with just 13.5mm of rain.

We are still keeping an eye on the pond, and removing any debris that falls or gets blown in, as this can affect the water quality.  Now a year old, we are starting to see the fruits of our labours as regards pond wildlife, and we have seen plenty of water snails as well as dragonfly larvae this week whilst fishing for leaves.  Dragonfly larvae can live in the pond for up to five years, depending on their type, until they emerge and fly away; such an incredible metamorphosis.  We shall continue to monitor what appears in the pond with great interest.

Apart from observing the pond wildlife, we occasionally put up the outdoor camera to check on the nocturnal visitors to the garden.  During December we were visited by various foxes, identifiable by their different tail shapes.  There was no evidence of any badgers which we did see in the warmer months.  On investigation it seems that the badgers are preferring to stay tucked up underground during December, although not hibernating, whilst the foxes are out and about marking out territories and generally making lots of noise as mating season approaches.   As well as foxes, we saw a few unidentified flying objects, which could have been anything, and a couple of locals bringing their veg peelings up to our compost bins!

The compost bins have now been labelled 1, 2 and 3 to help identify which bin is doing what, and so gardeners and locals know where to put garden pruning or kitchen fruit and veg waste.  There are some photographs below showing the system.  Bin number 1 is always the current active bin for fresh additions, and you can see it has identifiable leaves and peelings.  The next picture shows the top of bin 2, with probably about three to four months old compost inside and brandling worms in evidence, still working on it.  Bin number 3 has previously been turned out from bin 2, and is ready for use.  To recap – always put any fresh additions in bin number 1.  Our healthy compost is vital to the garden and it now seems that the RHS is in agreement; Chelsea Flower Show gardeners will now also be judged on the health of their soil, at last the importance of good soil structure is starting to be recognised, but there is still much to be done on that subject in the UK.

It might seem that there is little to do this time of year but that can depend like most things on how much depth you wish to go to, or how long that piece of string is, there are always things to be done. 

What’s next?

• Clear the last of the oca

• Clear the last of the parsnips

• Mulch where the oca and endives were

• Keep bringing the wood chips up from the lower wall.

• Hoe along outside edge of the fence line and the outside wall

• Cut back sedge grass and bramble on bee hive path

We all hope you had a great Christmas however you managed to spend it under the circumstances of tier four.  It has not been quite how we envisaged this Christmas but it was possibly better than being stuck in the cab of a lorry over the holiday period.   One of our gardeners volunteered to spend much of her time collecting gifts and food from Sandgate and delivering to some of the drivers.  It was a drop in the ocean, but at least a few got to appreciate that others were thinking of them, well done and thank you Theresa.

The continuing story of the autumn was the roll of fleece ordered months ago being delayed and delayed.  A further message arrived saying the fleece would now not arrive until mid-March, way too late to protect the plants over the winter months, and then as if by special Santa post it arrived on the doorstep just a couple of days before Christmas.  Incredible!  The broad beans and peas are now tucked up under the fleece blanket ready for any cold and windy weather coming their way.

We had a donation of a few Cerinthe seedlings which have been planted, and a very kind person in Enbrook Road had obviously been clearing their garden and splitting up large clumps of plants, and instead of composting them, had kindly left plants in their driveway for anybody to take and make use of.  This was most appreciated and we had some for a section of the garden we are developing near the bench, of perennial flowering plants for bee and insect life.  If you are considering clearing parts of your garden before the spring, please bear us in mind for any unwanted plants; if we cannot use them in the garden they could be very useful for one of our other projects such as Incredible Edible.

The Incredible Edible alleyway off Chichester Road in Sandgate got a weeding and general tidy up.  Not much going on here for a while but there are herbs and a few swede plants.  Now we are past the shortest day, it will not be too long before we can start planting and sowing seeds again.

Looking back to this time last year it seems that we were busy making the pond and putting the liners in place, it has come a long way since then.  We were also busy wheelbarrowing wood chips to the garden then as we are now, and discussing how much we were looking forward to the arrival of the bees.  What a difference a year has made.  We all wish you a happy New Year, and look forward to seeing how next year will compare with this.

What’s next?

• Review any damage from Storm Bella

• Continue to barrow wood chips up to the garden to store

• Start sorting out the seeds for next year

• Start work on tidying the wheelbarrow area