Sandgate Community Garden

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 9th April: Happy holiday y’all!

Well, not too sure that we are out of the woods as regards the frosty weather but it seems that the plants are just starting to wake up and do something at last albeit a little tentatively.

The little orchard in the Sandgate Park got weeded and some more herbs planted.  The bulbs there are just starting to flower, and there are new leaves or blossoms which have just appeared over this last week. 

At Enbrook Park we planted a bed with broccoli, and another with lettuces, whilst yet another sixty plugs of radishes went to join the radishes planted the week before.  We sowed plenty of flowering plants in anticipation of catering for the bees on site, and pricked out over one hundred and twenty snapdragons, as well as some cornflowers.  The sweet peas got planted at last around their wigwam frames, and the broad beans got staked as they are now rapidly growing and flowering.  We had managed to rescue most of the purple sprouting broccoli plants from the pigeons and that meant we picked the first spears/shoots/flowers this week, and what a beautiful colour they are too.  We even had a picking from the earliest rhubarb type, whilst the other varieties are still just starting to wake up.  However we are amazed this week that we still have any garden left at all at Enbrook as we have had a visit from a determined badger.   There were several great holes dug along many of the paths and into some of the beds, and can only imagine that they were searching for some of our juicy fat worms!

The Nepalese community project at Pent Farm has been held up by the weather.  The members of the growing project have been growing all their seedlings indoors on the ample window ledges of their community centre in Cheriton; and have now had to repot them until such time as the ground works have been done.  It will probably be another two weeks until their patch of ground will be dry enough to work on.

There has been much admiration of the Golden Valley community garden patch this week as the flowers are looking fabulous, and the plants have put on lots of new growth.

We were interested to learn from one of our regular garden visitors that it seems our humble newsletter even gets an airing in America of all places.  So, we would like to wish you all in America or Sandgate, a very happy holiday!

What’s next?

• Take out some brambles appearing amongst the base of the fig tree

• Plant some cauliflowers if we can find room – maybe interplant with spring onions

• Plant more lettuces alongside the others

• Sow courgettes this week

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 2nd April: Ten varieties of tomato, coming soon.

That sunny warm spring seems to still be eluding us, with a continuation of yet more rain and stormy days.  The rainfall for March was 109.3mm, double the monthly average.  In March last year the total was just 29.5mm.  

Sandgate is filled with the sounds of chainsaws felling trees and the loud crunching of the wood chipping machines.  It has been going on all week from Romney Avenue in Golden Valley in one direction, and from the woods in Military Road, making way for yet more housing.  There is an empty sky where there used to be a canopy.  When you read that trees are capable of sensing when their neighbours are under attack and can send signals of alarm further afield to other trees, it just makes you sad.

Let us dispense with the misery and consider happier things.

We did manage to dodge more rain, and weed the rest of Fremantle Park.  We just managed to put in a couple of dozen strawberry plants before we gave up and let the rainfall water them in. 

We finished planting the seed potatoes and directly sowed the carrots and parsnips.  The parsnips will not mature until the first frosts so we could be being a little optimistic there, considering our possible time left at Enbrook!  The peas for pea pods got sown and the spinach planted.  The cabbages, calabrese and thyme seedlings got pricked out and potted on, as did some 250 tomato plants.  Now that amount of tomato plants will be more than enough even for us, so we are sure to have plenty to pass on later this month.  We have ten varieties to choose from, so something for everyone. 

We are battling with the sycamore seedlings as we do this time every year, but whilst searching them out we come across so many other seedlings that randomly pop up which we can use in other gardens or pot up in preparation for one of our events.  It is such a delight to benefit from plants for free, and always interesting to see them emerging and then puzzle over what they could be until they become large enough to recognise.

We have been observing the rhubarb patch as it has evolved over the last month.  Our earliest variety showed itself some weeks ago, yet most of the other plants are still to appear or are just revealing a first stem and leaf.

Last but not least, one of our vigilant gardeners spotted something called a bee-fly.  It looks and behaves like a bee, sipping nectar with its long tongue or proboscis, preferably from flowers such as primroses and wild violets, of which there are plenty in the Golden Valley gardens this time of year.  There is a photo of it below, so keep a lookout for it in your street.

What’s next?

• Weed at the Sandgate orchard and plant more herbs there.

• Plant another tray of radishes

• Might need to consider staking the broad beans as they are growing fast

• Pot up Goji berry runners for transplanting elsewhere

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 26th March: Time ticks on.

Crikey!  The clocks have moved forward an hour, how did we get to that point already?  The winds have been an issue this week with yet more downpours of rain; we had to cancel the Wednesday session following on from the previous cancelled Saturday session, which meant we had a fair bit to catch up with on Saturday.

We sowed more onion seeds, and a tray of spinach, mainly to replace the trays of seedlings we lost when one of our anchored and weighted mini greenhouses took off in high winds and spilt all the seedling trays inside.  Oh well, we just sow more and luckily we still have the time for the new seedlings to catch up.

Most of the potatoes got planted, as did around one hundred plugs of spring onions.  We potted up four donated bay trees from a local garden just before the heavens opened again and we all had to run for cover – we finished early with all things considered.

On Tuesday some of us went over to a Lyminge Gardeners’ Society talk which was all about looking at soil at a microscopic level.  It was fascinating to see slides showing many of the tiny creatures living right under our noses yet invisible to the naked eye.  We have so much to learn about fostering the  conditions to keep and nurture the right sort of microscopic beasties.  Definitely work in progress!

Although the weather was diabolical, we had a visit from the manager of the Muddy Wellies Community Garden, just outside Ashford.  We went on something of a magical mystery tour to all of the sites to show that we also have a fair amount of space to take care of; however it just happens to be spread about in lots of different places.  She was able to see how the spring flowers particularly in the Golden Valley are looking beautiful right now.  The hyacinths outside the shops smell amazing, and all the little daffodils are looking beautiful in Fremantle Park. 

On Saturday afternoon, the vegetable plots in Fremantle Park got a makeover, weeded and new wood chip paths put down, whilst the orchard area was weeded and tidied up.  Again we had to dive for cover when a rain cloud came over, but it soon passed and we could continue.  It was good to see that the pomegranate tree seems to still be alive in spite of the very cold spells we had this winter, and many of the flowering plants had sown seeds around the plot.  We still have lots of planting to finish in the two recreation parks, but they should look good this year.

The next meeting of the Sandgate Environmental Action Group will be held in the Old Fire Station, Sandgate Road, at 7.00 pm Thursday 30^th March – all are welcome.

What’s next?

• Finish planting the potatoes

• Finish weeding Fremantle Park

• Sow peas for pods

• Prick out the tomatoes, cabbages and thyme seedlings

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 19th March: A bee, or not a bee?

We had a touch of frost during the week but from then onwards the temperatures have started to climb, and although we are not out of the woods as regards the possibility of frosts, we can at least restart the sowing of seeds, and the current seedlings stand more of a chance of getting growing.  We had good enough weather for the Wednesday morning gardening session, however Saturday was cancelled as it was very wet and blustery and as much of the tasks are about sowing more seeds, it can be difficult when some of the seeds are as fine as dust and get transported all about the plot on a sudden gust of wind, and there are none to go in the seed tray.

Some of the blossoms are out in our hedge growing against the fence, not the sea buckthorn, but some of the other hedge plants of wild cherry, crab apple, and wild plum.  All the Sandgate wild plum trees are now in flower and doing battle with the elements so that it is always astonishing that they can manage to bear fruit after the severe battering they often get this time of year combined with a lack of insect life.  We were pleased to note that the two varieties of Pulmonaria we have growing close to the pond have survived the winter and are starting to flower – they will certainly attract the bees. 

Talking of bees, The Sandgate Environmental Action group is hosting a free Bee identification training day on 15^th April should you be interested in taking part in Bee surveys locally to help support the work of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.  You can book by emailing sandgateenvironmentalaction@gmail.com or messaging Gemma on 07984694907.  The training will take place in the Old Fire Station, Sandgate from 10am to 2pm.

Not having a session to garden on Saturday has put us back a little this week as we had hoped to get the first early potato varieties into the ground; they will now have to wait until next week; however we did manage to get the peas for pea shoots planted, and a further half tray of radishes.  The structures for the sweet peas got put up, and the spare sweet pea plants got repotted as they were climbing out of their smaller modules.  A few plants were delivered to the Saga children’s nursery in the park which they will plant into their raised bed/pots, and we pruned their apple tree to keep it in good shape.

A little time was spent working through the compost compound as it seems that the bind weed has had a wonderful time travelling into the rich compost from outside, and sending out great long ‘bootlace’ roots which as we know will rapidly grow even if broken into tiny pieces.  The roots could be composted, and are frequently put in our large compost bins, but as there were quite a few, it was decided to put them in a compost bag and allow them to ‘cook’ for a while in there to start the breakdown process before they do eventually get put on the compost pile.

During the week there was a catch up visit to ‘Muddy Wellies’ community garden just outside Ashford.  Last year a few of us had helped to prune some of the trees in their lovely orchard, and it was good to see the group is still thriving and have new facilities as well as others in the planning.  Next week one of their managers will be coming out to visit us and our gardens.  It is always helpful and useful to be able to exchange ideas and sometimes resources with other groups.

What’s next?

• Sow more onions and radishes

• Sow some of the flower seeds

• Plant those potatoes

• Maybe plant the spring onions

• Prick out the thyme seedlings

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 12th March: A truck, six tons of compost and plenty of muscle

It has been avery interesting week as regards the weather.  There have been lashings of rain with cold icy blasts of wind, dismal grey skies with a glimpse of the sun every now and then.  It was bucketing it down with rain on Wednesday when we were due to have another gardening session at Enbrook Park, so it was decided to give it a miss; luckily Saturday was much drier and a little warmer.  However it seems that a large part of the country has been subjected to snow and so we are grateful not to have to contend with that!  We are so close now to seeing the spring, and you just know that when it does eventually arrive, everything is going to gallop ahead at a rate of knots and it will be really busy.  The hops growing against the wall are just starting to appear above ground which is a worry as we will have more frost this coming week. 

Thank goodness, it seems we had picked the best day to collect compost from our friends at Hope Farm, to take to the Touchbase Care Kitchen Garden at Pent Farm, Postling.  We hired a truck to collect around 6 tons of compost, and had plenty of muscle to help from some of the Touchbase Care members as well as some of the lads from the Napier Barracks.  It was a busy and exhausting day, getting all the compost off the truck and wheelbarrowed into place in the garden.  We are just getting to the point where we have almost covered all of the site with compost now, the process being started last spring, and so this year the vegetable plots should be bursting with plants.  We were grateful to Touchbase Care for providing a lovely lunch from their café based in Tontine Street.

It seems it is that time of year again when the youngsters at secondary school are looking for placements for their Duke of Edinburgh award.  We had some last year, and this Saturday we were joined by a willing volunteer keen to learn some gardening skills.  He planted some radishes, and learnt how to multi sow coriander seeds into modules.  Always interesting to host volunteers with little or even no liking for vegetables of any description, however this young man seems to enjoy eating them too which must be a bonus.

On Saturday 29^th April, supported by the Carbon Innovation Lab, the Folkestone and Hythe Sustainable Futures Forum will be hosting an event featuring TED x style talks – ‘to give businesses, community leaders, and individuals from the Folkestone and Hythe district area the chance to share and inspire the local community with their environmental and sustainability ideas, projects and stories.’  The event will be held at the Burlington Hotel Folkestone and should be a really interesting afternoon.  The tickets are free, and can be ordered here here.

What’s next?

• Sow more radishes, onions, etc

• Probably warm enough later next week to plant the peas for pea shoots

• Prick out the thyme seedlings

• Might need to repot the sweet peas

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 5th March: Good news from Thanet Earth.

Believe it or not we were actually short of rain for the month of February, with a mere 10.3mm of the wet stuff registered.  It continues to be chilly so the seedlings are still not moving much.  In the past we would have planted the radishes and the pea shoots by now, but they are still not quite ready, and with the threat of frosts to come this week, we have halted the seed sowing until it warms up a bit more.  We have been busy pricking out the lettuce seedlings, as well as the early cabbages and cauliflowers as they really needed to be moved into larger pots before they got too many roots to be able to separate easily. 

On Tuesday, some of us went to an event held by Low Carbon Kent at Brogdale Farm to find out about the possibility of being matched with a business or producer that has organic waste as a by-product which could be put to another use.  We would have been interested in being matched with a cob nut farmer who has loads of nut husks to dispose of which we could have used to make paths or simply to compost, however the farm was in Tonbridge and therefore too far a journey.  However the concept is a great one as we all know that one man’s rubbish is another man’s treasure.

On Friday the garden at Enbrook Park had a visit from ‘The Black Gardener’ Danny Clarke, garden designer and television presenter who has worked on various garden shows for the BBC, ITV and Channel 5.  He came with a film crew from Saga to talk about the garden, how it was started and the features within it.  He was able to recognise that it was a ‘no dig’ garden from the mounds of compost on the beds and the wood chip paths.  It was really interesting to hear about his career and the projects he is currently working on as well as his garden at the Chelsea Flower Show last year.  The film is to be put together and it is hoped that we may be able to send out a link on its completion so that you can see it too.

That was enough excitement for one week! 

Having got on the soap box last week to comment on the lack of tomatoes and cucumbers from abroad and suggesting it would be more environmentally beneficial to eat seasonal and local; it seems that if you really cannot do without tomatoes and cucumbers in winter, you can buy them from the visiting greengrocer at the Saturday morning market in the Folkestone West station car park.  They come direct from Thanet Earth, Kent; and happily, the cucumbers are not wrapped in plastic. Of course the great news is they have not travelled far but the cost has come from having to heat and light those massive greenhouses.

What’s next?

• Supporting Touchbase Care by collecting compost

• Keep an eye on the temperatures this coming week

• Might have to transplant more seedlings

• Keep checking the netting as there are hungry pigeons around

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 26th February: Seasonality, and the mole in our midst.

No, we do not have any tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries or bell peppers growing in the garden at the moment, and it seems the supermarkets do not have any either.  The global market has told us that we can have any fruit or vegetable we want at any time of the year, and so we have come to expect that.  When the far away countries that grow those things to be brought here suffer the effects of bad weather and the crops fail, the fact we cannot get such things creates some panic as happened this week across the country.  We will and can grow such crops, but not until late summer will we be able to eat them, for a time of maybe between two and ten weeks if we are lucky; and what a treat that will be – something to look forward to.  What a pity it is that many of us no longer know what is in season in the UK and are probably buying whatever is on the supermarket shelf little realising that these foods have travelled halfway across the globe to get there.  What a cost to the planet, what a cost to our own UK food production and the loss of many untried seasonal and local dishes.

We have been sowing more seeds this week, and many have now germinated, and are being put outside to shiver in this winter sunshine under the protection of cold frames.  The increased daylight hours are all important, the sunshine is a bonus, but the protection from the cold blasts of wind is what saves them.  Probably the most frustrating conundrum is trying to find a suitable seed and general compost that is fit for purpose.  It is almost impossible to recommend or stick with any one brand as the content varies all the time and basically you never know what you are going to get or even if it is any good – sometimes they can be so diabolical that nothing wants to thrive in them.  It continues to be a constant problem and guessing game.  However, so far, so good, and most of our seeds are growing. 

Talking of compost – a couple of us went all the way to Horsham in West Sussex by invitation of the head gardener of a huge spa and hotel, boasting three restaurants, serving fruit and vegetables from the walled garden and extensive grounds.  In the garden there is a ‘Tidy Planet Rocket aerobic composter’ which is capable of composting all food scraps, peelings and general food waste from the premises; producing a fine compost within a matter of two weeks which is later put back on the gardens to grow even more food.  Our mission was to see this composting beast in the flesh as up to now we had only read about it, and wanted to speak to somebody who actually has and uses the thing.  It was most interesting, the machine does do what it says it can do, and we had a great time seeing the kitchen garden and talking to the head gardener about all things to do with compost and vegetables – in particular the trials and tribulations of working with demanding chefs with little notion of the job of the gardeners, together with some of the amazing dishes they can produce that most of us will never see the like of at £90 and upwards per head! 

The February meeting of the Sandgate Environmental Action group was held this week in the Old Fire Station.  There was a talk from Nikki Gammans of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, which was absolutely fascinating.  There is nothing that Nikki cannot tell you about bumblebees, and we are hoping that the trust will come out to Pent Farm where some of us are volunteers, to record the bees in residence there. 

Wildlife was something we were concerned with during the week when one of our volunteers spent some time removing more leaves from our pond.  We always make sure the leaves are left at the side of the pond so that any creatures can crawl back into the water.  We were pleased to see that there were many interesting creatures amongst the leaves, and helped some of them to get back to their home.  One of them is pictured below.

The Sandgate Park in Military Road also has a new addition to the wildlife population – a mole; in fact it seems a rather massive mole as you can see from the picture below, the mole hills are rather spectacular in size and are in evidence around the newly planted trees as part of the ‘Queen’s Green Canopy’ and now making their way right across the park.  Cheeky!

What’s next?

• Prick out the other half of the lettuces

• Put down some more wood chips

• Keep picking the kale sprouting flowers

• Weed around the asparagus beds

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 19th February: The strange case of the out of place Hume’s Warbler.

The snowdrops are out, as are the first of the daffodils and the primroses; all of which can be seen in their glory from the walking paths around Enbrook Park.  The weather has continued to be predominately dry, and although chilly it really feels like spring is on the way at last.  On walking through the park this week it was interesting to see so many people with cameras on tripods and binoculars, all looking to see if they can catch a rare sighting of a Hume’s warbler.  This bird seems to be way off course as apparently it should be spending winter in India, and breeds in the mountains of inner Asia. It certainly caused a kerfuffle for several days as it flitted amongst the trees by the brook.

Our tool box got a good spring cleaning during one of the sessions this week and is now looking spectacularly tidy – woe betide anyone who messes it up any time soon.

With the passing of St Valentine’s Day, it is time to sow the very first seeds of the season to be grown outdoors.  Still too cold to sow directly outdoors, seeds are allowed to germinate indoors, then spend their first day or two on a sunny windowsill before being put into a cold frame until the plants are strong enough to be able to cope outside.  We have sown sweet peas, peas for pea shoots, spring onions, beetroot, spinach, radishes, early cabbages, cauliflowers, kohlrabi, calabrese, coriander, flat and curled parsley, plus about ten different varieties of lettuce, some French marigolds and thyme.  The beds are waiting for them as soon as they are ready!

We had to start watering things already.  Not anything planted in the ground, but the various pots we have around the garden, plants in waiting, as pots dry out before you know it as soon as the sun starts to shine.

We continue to monitor what grows well in the garden and what struggles.  We have not had much success with our autumn raspberries, so decided to take up one of the beds and move them to other places to see how they fare there.  We are disappointed with the goji berries performance so far, and decided to cut them right back to see what they make of that.  We have also cut back much of the rosemary and a bit of the fig tree, but will be leaving some plants to start sending out some new shoots before we cut back much else.  One plant which has coped well despite the heavy frost has been the Claytonia or winter purslane.  With such little leaves, it is hard to believe it grows so well in the cold, and there have been some welcome green salad leaves.  Another winter salad leaf, lambs lettuce, is just starting to be big enough to pick but has also managed to survive.

What’s next?

• More seeds to be sown

• Might need to repot some things

• Sort out some of the things in the cold frames

• Keep checking the brassicas for any pigeon damage

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 12th February: The huge Saga quandary.

It was with great sadness that we heard this week that Saga is to close their office and children’s nursery at Enbrook Park with effect from 17^th March.  With our main garden being on site, it meant that we were in a quandary as to what this would mean for us and the Community Garden – do we bother to sow any seeds from now on?  Do we need to take up some of the plants straight away, as right now would be the best time to move them.  It left us with many questions, let alone the thought of how much work we had put into the garden over the years, to have to leave it behind us.

Later that day we had a message from Saga:

“As you have already seen, today we announced to colleagues that we have taken the decision to close Enbrook Park, our head office. The building will be mothballed while we consider options for the site, which will be closed from 17^th March.

“I would like to reassure you and the rest of the community garden volunteers that the grounds will remain open and maintained as usual and we will continue to keep you updated with developments as they progress.”

So it was that we decided as a group to carry on and grow as normal for the spring, and sow seeds for the summer.  With no fixed date in sight, we shall have to take a gamble and see what happens.  Not an ideal scenario, but also to remember that some people will be losing their jobs with this decision.

As for the public access to the grounds, as long as Saga owns the property, we can all still enjoy the wooded area, the various paths and lawns.  After that we do not know.  Who or what sort of company would be able to buy such a site in a prime location there in Sandgate?  It has to be said that Sandgate’s green areas are rapidly disappearing to accommodate more housing.  Just this week there was an invitation from a housing company to view the proposal to build eight houses on an open space in the Golden Valley area.  The Government is telling us that we need our green spaces, but how does that fit with the pressure of building yet more and more homes?  Just how big will that green space be that is left?  It will probably not be big enough for a community garden.

What’s next? 

• Start to sow the very first seeds of the season

• Water the pots now that warmer weather has appeared

• Cut back the goji berries

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.

Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 5th February: From repotting strawberries to space planning in Singapore.

So now we are into February.  The rainfall for January was a mere 63.9mm, something nearer to what we are used to, and the ground is starting to dry out.  No frosts this week, and even a day when the temperature was in double figures, however it looks to change to being much colder but brighter next week. 

On Monday a small group of volunteers came out from the Napier Barracks to help move compost from the lower wall, up the hill to the community garden.  We then all bagged up a few bags of compost to take to the Incredible Edible group at All Soul’s Church in Cheriton to help top up the planters along the High Street where the levels have dropped over the year.

It is that time of year when all manner of ailments seem to be rumbling around amongst our gardeners and garden friends.  Luckily not Covid, but everything else that has not made an appearance for some time, has suddenly decided to pop up and remind us they are still around.  Somehow a few hours spent outside gardening on a freezing cold dull windy day, when you are feeling under the weather, is not as appealing as it might be on a warm sunny day.  That is surely the time to give in and keep warmer indoors.

This week has been all about getting the last of those strawberry plants up out of the ground and potted up ready to be replanted in other areas – that certainly took some time.  The soft fruit bushes also got a thinning and pruning, and all the plants under the netting got looked at to make sure all was well there.  We had four rhubarb roots that needed potting up and protecting until the spring, and we were kindly given three hazel whips which we can use in another one of the gardens.

We have a couple of garden friends (Rita and Eddie) who have been visiting Singapore and sent back some really interesting pictures and information about parks, community gardens and even rooftops filled with trees and herb gardens.  It is quite inspirational that Singapore has only 400sq miles with a population of about six million yet from the 1970’s the ‘ministries of environment and development’ have worked hand in hand to create a city garden habitat which has brought nature into residential urban spaces where birds and insects share the same places.  All it takes is a little imagination and education.

What’s next?

• We need to remove some of the raspberry canes

• Cut back some of the shrubs

• Little more mulch required around the soft fruit bushes and over the artichokes

• Move a plant near the smoke bush

This weeks update from the Sandgate Community Garden Diary.