Tim Prater

There are still some people who are yet to find us in Enbrook Park, and it can be quite lengthy to explain exactly where we are too!  However, not any more as we have appeared on the maps at the entrances of the park – so there is no excuse, we are on the map!

Again this week we have been very busy clearing beds and fallen leaves, putting down new compost and paths, and planting broad beans.  The fleece needed to protect the plants from wind and frost is yet to arrive in the post, so thank goodness for the continuing mild weather.  The sun is lower in the sky these days, when it can be seen; the days are shorter, and the plant growth is very much reduced and slower.  The addition of fleece further reduces the light by 15 to 30%, and worse with a covering of fallen leaves, it is all important to keep the plot tidy.  Such moist warm weather has been perfect for fungi, and we are noticing some of the most amazing fungal structures – they do no harm within the garden, and are thought to be of great benefit, so we leave them be wherever they choose to pop up.

A welcome bonus has been a few raspberries; they are still fruiting in November, and as young plants need time to mature for a worthy crop – all in good time.  They are autumn raspberry varieties, hence the late fruiting at a time when all other soft fruit finished some time ago.

The hops have lost all their leaves now and are just showing their climbing stems, so it has been time to cover the crown of the plants with a good layer of compost to protect the plant from winter weather and feed the roots for next year when new growth will appear in the spring.  We have now heard that Docker brewery are about to release the Hythe Pale Ale from the scheme hops, and a further brew has been started to make a Christmas stout, we are looking forward to trying it all.  We will let you all know where and when any of these beers can be bought.

Talking about buying local goods – some of us were pleased to buy the new Sandgate bags from the Sandgate Society, made of cloth, not plastic, for a bargain price of £3 with a competition winning picture of the beach on the front.  Beautifully wrapped they make a brilliant present and perfect for us to carry our tools and veg.  All the profits go towards local projects – an even better reason to make a purchase.

What’s next?

• Plant the peas in the prepared bed, and find another space for more

• Tidy up around the tool box

• Continue to pick up leaves and weed

• Spaces for posts to be put in

• How is the pond doing?  Continue to get out any rotting leaves

• Separate recycled compost from the grow bags and add to the compost pile

• If the fleece arrives, cover the new plantings

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Such a contrast to the weather in the last few newsletters, this week we have had some beautiful sunny and warm weather, encouraging more gardeners to get to the garden and make the most of it, especially as we are now in another lockdown.  However this one is very different to the first where we could only work on our own – this time we can follow community garden rules for food gardens, which explain in detail how we can work in the space.  We certainly feel glad that we can carry on as long as we are careful, and we know of the benefits the garden brings to mental and physical health.  How timely that we should receive yet another certificate from the RHS Britain in Bloom, in recognition of how important community gardens are, and how valuable our work is in such difficult times as we have experienced this year.  Always glad to receive a certificate and we shall have to consider where it could be displayed!

Just as we are being given such an accolade, we are then contacted by a Social Prescribing Service for West Kent.  We are being asked to be part of a support service to help people reduce social isolation and loneliness and improve health and wellbeing.  We will be very glad to register.

In the meantime, there is still much to be done.  The first of the fleece covers have been put down and more has been ordered, to protect any vegetables overwintering, to shelter from the wind and frost.  It takes a while to get to know your fleece and what should be avoided.  For this garden there is no point buying a lightweight fleece of less than 30g m2 as it will tear and be useless in no time at all.  It is also wise to make sure the fleece has good UV tolerance as the sunlight makes the fleece turn to dust and simply disintegrate in less than a season.  Who would have thought that fleece can create such a minefield of issues.

All the wooden boxes got their final coats of wood treatment for the year, and the compost area is nearing completion.  Two more packets of broad bean seeds have been sown as have the last of the autumn peas.  They have been quick to germinate and we will soon be planting them out once we have put down more compost on the beds.  The leaf compost bin is nearly full already but leaves fished out from the pond are not added until any wildlife has had the chance to escape back to the water.  

Now is a chance to look at the bare bones of the garden and review how the permanent plants are growing.  Last autumn we planted the smallest of twigs claiming to be gooseberry plants – they had been decimated by sawfly and looked very sorry for themselves, so we got them for pennies, a real bargain as they now resemble good sturdy plants and should be cropping next summer.

You really would have thought that the brassicas would have been given a break from caterpillars by now in November, but unfortunately they are still enjoying making holes in the leaves – even in the vegetation of the High Street planter!   Unbelievable!

What’s next?

• We need to consider a wild flower seed bomb for behind the compost area

• Continue to spread compost

• Continue to collect leaves from the ground and in the pond

• Put the fleece down if it has arrived in the post

• Clear some of the spent salad areas

• Clear some of the finished flowers and compost

• Put a thick layer of compost on the hops.

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