Sandgate Community Garden

How extraordinarily lucky we were that the Sandgate Christmas lights switch on event did not get completely washed out by rain which had been promised.  A great community event, where so many people associated with the garden were present.  It was a reminder that the creation of the community garden has brought so many people together and it was a busy evening meeting more friends at practically every corner.   We paid for the lack of rain the following morning when it did make an appearance, but fortunately it stopped and the sun came out by 10 am and we spent a happy couple of hours getting on with our tasks.  The rainfall for November was just 31mm, which was not surprising as we had to water in many of our new plantings during the month when usually the rainfall would have done the job. 

With some drop in the temperatures this week, it was important to get some of the beds covered in fleece so that they have a better chance of surviving the winter.  This was the case for the broad bean beds in particular.  There was a final tray of spare broad bean seedlings and a few late pea shoots that got planted.  The broad beans were to replace any missing or failed beans in the beds.  A friend of the garden had lost all her beans to what was probably rodents, always good at finding such large seeds that can make a great meal for them – they can destroy an entire crop in no time at all, but at least we were able to supply a few spares for another try.  Same goes for the pea seedlings too, being just as vulnerable – ours got planted in some mushroom crates filled with compost and put into the cold frames, we shall have to keep our fingers crossed that they grow fast enough for the seeds to not be of interest to the rodents any more.  The changes in the season have also attracted pigeons to the garden and they have been stripping the brassicas so we have had to net them quickly to put them off.

The fluctuating temperatures are not helping the wildlife, and Chris, one of our bee keepers is concerned that the bees are still out and about trying to forage, but with nothing or not much to find, they will eat their way through their winter stores and starve.  Apparently during the colder weather the bees cluster together to keep themselves and the queen warm, but if it becomes too warm, then they will start eating.  Below is a picture taken on 4^th December of a red admiral butterfly taking advantage of the flowering mahonias in the park grounds.

More leaves got collected, and it looks as if we are nearly done with them for the year, the leaf compost bin is full to bursting and they will be left to get on with making compost. All these tasks and more have been written about in a further blog for ‘Explore Kent’.  Now that we are entering into the start of winter, our blog described all the many labours that are perfect for carrying out this time of year.  Unfortunately it seems it was more than there was space for on the website, and it got edited to a shorter version.  You can read the cropped account here at

https://explorekent.org/blog/2021/11/30/winter-gardening-tasks-and-jobs/

Last but not least, we nearly received a Christmas present from Waitrose!  We were contacted by our local branch in Hythe out of the blue to say that we were to be presented with a cheque as we had been nominated as a worthy cause.  In our excitement and baffled enthusiasm, the precise monetary size of this cheque got overlooked, and just as we were about to have it placed into our hot, grubby hands, it got returned to the shop office as it was not correctly written.  So near yet so far, the cheque has been returned to head office and we will not get to see the updated version this side of Christmas!  Oh well, something to look forward to in the New Year, and we can still speculate as to just how much a difference it will make to our funds…….

What’s next?

• Pot up any useful self sown seedlings

• Continue to mulch the beds

• Keep checking on the plants in the cold frames

• Continue to weed the flower garden near the bench and cut back the herbs

• Start work on laying wood chip paths

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At last the cold stuff has arrived at the very end of November, and you can begin to think that the festive season really is around the corner.  Plenty more leaves have fallen from the trees although some are still in place, however a good blast of wind probably due to come along any time now will do the trick, and the leaf clearing will soon be over.  We have managed to fill our leaf bin full to the brim, and have squashed leaves into every available gap to make space for more.  We cleared some of the herbs that had bolted, although the flower heads, such as the Dill, are full of flavour and good to mix into salad leaves.  We had a few last onion sets to plant in any spaces where nocturnal animal visitors or birds had pulled them up and given them a taste!  Fortunately none of the raiders seem to like onions and either spit them out half chewed or simply drop them on the path. 

We had a most welcome message from ‘Seed Craft’ during the week, offering us a box of garlic for which we were most grateful.  Still time to plant onions and garlic if you have not done so already.

More compost got bagged up to use at the alleyway and Golden Valley.as part of the great annual compost mulch for all ‘no dig’ enthusiasts.  This is the time to dress as many of the beds as possible with a layer of new compost, and there certainly is plenty to do there. Paul, the Grounds Manager of Enbrook Park, took great pity on us having to barrow the newly acquired compost uphill to the garden from where it had to be delivered, and using some machinery, got it up to the garden for us!  Not sure quite how, but one day it was down the hill outside the garden, and the next day, up the hill and in the garden…..happy days, thank you Paul!  Now we can mulch away to our hearts content!  Saturday was to have been the day to make a start, but we had to dodge the heavy showers mixed with hail, and just about managed to get the broad bean beds covered with fleece in preparation for promised frosts.on Sunday and Monday.

The greatest news of the week is that the fruit and nut trees at Sandgate and Fremantle Parks got planted at last after the initial hiccup in arranging planting days which did not then happen.  There were twenty five trees in total.  Apples, pears, plums, cherry and cob nut trees.  There were twenty four bought and paid for, but we found a cheeky interloper hidden amongst them and thought we had better plant it anyway.  We are most grateful to all those who came along to do the hard work, and there is now a small orchard in each park which we will all be watching over and helping to take care of. 

There are future plans to develop the areas under and around the trees, and we understand there will be official ceremonies to welcome the trees in June 2022, as part of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, and organised by the Sandgate Parish Council.  Thank you Parish Council for thinking of providing fruit and nut trees, giving flower and fruit for wildlife and local fellow humans to enjoy for many years to come.  We understand that it is possible to sponsor one of the trees for £100 by contacting the Sandgate Parish Clerk Gaye Thomas at clerk@sandgatepc.org.uk or by calling 01303 248563.  The trees are semi-dwarfing varieties and will therefore not grow to be enormous!

What’s next?

• Start on that mulching at Enbrook

• Fill in any broad bean gaps

• Plant some pea shoot boxes for the cold frames

• Still more leaves to collect, the final push? Put fleece over the spinach and check on the brassica netting

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It continues to be mild, and the garden is still confused.  There are many things that would have been cleared or finished by now in the depths of November with Christmas being advertised as just around the corner; but the cosmos, nasturtium.and marigolds are still in flower, being visited by many bumble bees.  We have been pulling leeks and black radishes, and there are still salad leaves, kaibroc and plenty of chard and spinach if you do not mind the holes!

The mustards we planted in boxes in the cold frames are proving most tasty but can only harvest a couple of leaves from each plant per week as the short daylight hours restrict the growth rate, and it takes time for them to replenish themselves.  The autumn leaves continue to fall and we have quite a full leaf compost bin already,  Unfortunately whilst fishing fallen leaves from the pond, our net got broken having been well used, so we will need to invest in another before all the leaves have eventually fallen to try and keep the pond clear. 

Although there are no new seeds to sow or seedlings to plant for a while, there are plenty of tasks needing to be done to maintain the structure of the plot, and since our amazing gift of green waste compost, we will soon begin on the mulching of many of the beds and permanent plantings.  We bagged up some of the new compost,  several bags were used to mulch the alleyway between Chichester Road and Meadowbrook, and the rest is to be taken to Sandgate Park and Fremantle Park for the great fruit tree planting on Sunday 21^st. 

Later we will start to replenish the paths at Enbrook with our store of woodchips too.  The paths are just as important as the beds as many of the plants send their roots into the paths where they can still find moisture and space to grow.  The quieter months are a time to think about getting organised for next year, and our fabulous tool box got a proper sprucing and sort out.  It now looks so good we are a little afraid to use it and risk making a mess.  Other jobs included cutting down the finished hops, weeding and keeping all the brassica plants free from yellowing and trailing leaves which encourage slugs and snails to hide amongst them.

On Saturday the ‘Disco Soup’ event in Radnor Park happened.  Morrisons donated large crates of root vegetables and leeks – ideal soup making ingredients for such an occasion.  The Hythe gleaners brought potatoes, squashes and apples, then with plenty of herbs, plus lots of pairs of willing hands, some amazing tasty soups, stews, crumbles and jars of pickles were created all with a party atmosphere helped along by the DJ adding the disco sounds.  It was a fabulous day, good food and great company, what more could you want?

What’s next?

• Get those trees planted in the parks and start process of creating mulched bases

• Keep clearing and composting the fallen leaves

• Clear the bolted herbs

• Bag up more compost

• Few more onions to plant?

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After the great excitement of announcing the big plant up of several fruit trees in the Sandgate and Fremantle Parks, the bad news is we got let down on the readiness of the trees for this weekend, and so the planting had to be cancelled.  Apparently they should be ready this coming week and so we are hoping to plant the trees in Sandgate Park on Sunday morning at 10.30 am, and in Fremantle Park on Sunday afternoon at 2 pm.  Here is one of the pitfalls of buying bare rooted trees in that they have to be planted soon after collection or risk drying out the root system.  Let us hope there are no problems this week! 

Get in touch if you would like to help, through our Instagram or Facebook pages, via this email, or text Leonie on 07840138308.

The good news is that we have COMPOST from Hope Farm in Hawkinge!  You may recall we had a setback in being able to receive the compost as the tractors on the farm are simply too large to be able to access the dropping off site, so we had to hire a drop side truck for the day and go and collect it ourselves.  It was incredibly interesting at the farm especially if you are a compost nerd, and appreciate the processes required in the making.  Hope Farm takes in all the green waste from several council re-cycling centres, and processes the waste themselves into compost; 50% is spread on their own farm, and the rest is taken to several farms around Kent.  None of the compost is sold commercially; it only goes to Kent farms.

Hope Farm have been most kind in agreeing to support the garden and allow us to have compost free of charge, and we are indeed most grateful as although we make as much of our own compost as we can, we cannot make enough for our needs and have to buy supplies which have been spiralling in price over the past year or so.

The compost making farm is constantly busy, with huge trucks delivering garden waste where it starts the conversion process by being taken into a huge shed with a conveyor belt and large stones, plastics and metals are removed – basically everything that is not going to break down.  Large bits of wood are shredded, and the material, now made smaller, is laid out in a massive yard in long, mountainous lines where it gets turned by machinery, and the moisture content monitored.  It was a cool day when we visited the farm, and the heat given off by the compost could be seen in large plumes over the top of the buildings.  The finished product takes eight weeks, but it is still too active for our garden.  When we went to move and bag up some of the compost on Saturday morning, following collection, it felt very warm in the middle of the pile, and when bagged up, the bags were very warm to the touch.  We can use some of the compost now on older or mature plants, but not for young plants or seedlings.  We will need to leave the compost to mature over the winter and early spring in a pile, just to let it finish the natural chemical reaction of decomposition, and allow the bacteria and minibeasts to multiply there.

The drop side truck we hired for the day had a 1.5 ton limit, and so the farm workers had to calculate how much compost to drop into the back from a gigantic bulldozer.  Our truck was weighed on a weighing bridge before and after the collection to make sure we were not overloaded, and we were issued with a ticket, a requirement so that we can prove our load has been monitored.  We were able to make three collections until we ran out of muscle power back at Enbrook Park.  All very easy to collect the stuff, but back at the park it was a case of having to shovel and push the stuff off our truck.  There were six of us in total to help with this task, but special thanks go to Greg, Antony and Ed who answered the SOS from the Sandgate Society to lend a hand, which was very much appreciated.  We are now the proud owners of a rather large pile of lovely compost which will be put to use already this coming week for a couple of jobs!

All that only took a day to complete, but other things did get done too this week.  The alleyway between Chichester Road and Meadowbrook got cleared, more bulbs planted, particularly at Golden Valley; the last of the broad bean seedlings found themselves in a comfy bed, and just a few more sown in case of any casualties.  The last of the garlic and onions got planted, lots and lots of fallen leaves picked up and composted.   Weeds got weeded although this will be ongoing as now the hops and raspberries have diminished, those cheeky weeds hiding amongst their stems are suddenly in view and larger than life so will have to go before they take over!

Remember, plenty going on next weekend, 20^th and 21^st November – Disco Soup at the Bowls Club at Radnor Park, a great day out for all the family, and a fabulous, community orientated way to use excess food which might have ended up as landfill.  On Sunday we hope to be planting fruit trees subject to them being ready, get in touch if you are interested so we can keep you informed.

What’s next?

• Mulch the alleyway where the ground has now been cleared

• Bag up more compost for tree planting

• Few more bulbs to plant

• Cut back the hops and mulch

• Keep weeding and tidying

• Tree planting on Sunday..?

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This seems to be the first week we have started to feel the cold whilst working in the gardens, and late autumn is really upon us.  The rainfall for October was 106.6mm, a fair amount which mostly seemed to arrive just when you are busy outdoors!  So it was at the dismantling of the planter at the Re-rooting exhibition, and by the time we had transferred it to Cheriton we were soaked.  A big ‘thank you’ to Erica for using her car to transport the planter, and all the time she spent helping. 

The rain does come in handy when you are planting beds however, and the broad beans are in their new homes, as well as some of the garlic, with more to be planted out next week.  Some tulips and daffodils for spring colour got planted in some of our large pots, the hedge got a trimming, and we are starting to cut back many of the perennial plants in the flower garden.  One of our volunteers decided the banana tree should be wrapped up for the winter, and time will tell if it needed it or not! 

Even though we are into November, we are seeing the brassicas still being eaten by new hatchings of caterpillars – unbelievable!  The kale bed was looking somewhat diminished and it became clear that it was under attack from pigeons as the leaves were showing the tell-tale signs where the flesh of the leaves is stripped leaving the main veins behind, and so it will be sensible to start netting all the brassicas before they disappear.  On Saturday it was noticed that there were a great many ladybirds around too, possibly making their last searches for food before they find suitable crevices to hibernate for the winter.

Some of our volunteers love the community garden WhatsApp groups, and have been sharing pictures of what they have made using some of our produce, as well as recipe ideas.  A couple of the pictures are featured below.  It is always interesting to see what different people come up with.

It is with great excitement that we can now mention a project initiated by the Sandgate Parish Council for the Sandgate Park off Military Road, and Fremantle Park, in Fremantle Road.  To commemorate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022, as part of The Queen’s Green Canopy (QGC) our community is being asked to help plant an orchard of 12 trees within each park mentioned, on Saturday 13^th November at 2pm in Sandgate Park, and Sunday 14^th November at 2pm in Fremantle Park. * We will be planting apple trees, pear, cherry, plum, and cob nut, so if you would like to come along and be a part of this community event, then contact us, Sandgate Community Garden, through our social media platforms, via email sandgatecg@gmail.com or text Leonie on 07840138308.

[ * UPDATE 11/11/2021: The Fruit trees will not be available from the supplier for this weekend, so the planting is postponed until further notice. Thanks to all those that said they would help, and we’ll update again when we have the trees!]

Many hands make light work, and before we know it we will be enjoying and sharing the fruit from the trees hopefully for several years to come, so get in touch and be involved.

What’s next?

• Finish planting the beans, garlic and onions

• Continue the bulb planting

• Net the brassicas

• Weed along the wall

• Plant the orchards!

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We have always agreed in our garden WhatsApp group that should it be blowing a hooly or tipping down with rain on one of our designated gardening days then we would throw in the towel and not turn up.  On Saturday it was blowing and tipping at the same time, so that was that.  The site being rather exposed, at the far end of the park with no shelter or even anywhere nearby to take cover and wait until the worst passes, means you have to take the plunge and make a decision when the weather is dodgy.  All the same, the garden is always open for anybody to access from dawn till dusk and so if the gardening urge is too great to resist, then some of our gardeners can be found therapeutically weeding or deadheading whenever they feel compelled to do so.

Happily, the Wednesday session was reasonably fair, and there was a great number of volunteers making short work of our ‘to do’ list. We picked kale, salad leaves, chard, spinach, winter radishes and leeks, moved compost around to prepare some of the empty beds for re-planting, and the leaf compost bin got emptied.  The leaf compost was collected last autumn – fallen leaves were raked up from the grass and picked up from the plot and the pond, to be left to rot down for the year in the assigned compost area. 

This seems to be the first week that the autumn colours have started to show on the trees, that is the leaves that are left, as there are few leaves to compost so far, most seem to have been blown away!  Someone somewhere must be piled high with our leaves wherever they have been blown to, and we may not have many to compost this year.

The climate is quite different at Fremantle Park, with shelter from the wind, and the ground seems to collect more moisture sitting within a dip.  All the gardeners that volunteer there met up last Sunday to weed and tidy the plots and pathways, put fresh compost down and share which crops did well for them.  It was interesting to find we have a phantom planter, as nobody confessed to establishing a line of fabulously flowering osteospernum plants along the outer path edge.  So obviously we have a secret and shy gardener who would be welcome to join us if they made themselves known!

We are still establishing the slope within Fremantle Park, and gradually removing brambles and shrub runners as they try to reappear, with the view to putting some fruit bushes and more flowering plants there in 2022.  The strip of annuals we planted in the spring have made a lovely display and on looking to see if it needed cutting back and removing, although a trifle battered, was still full of flower and alive with bees, so we have left it and probably will not remove anything now until the first frost or the plants give up the ghost themselves, whichever comes first.  Rita, our queen of plant propagation and flower seed sowing, planted some donated iris roots and perennial wallflower plants she had grown from cuttings – something the bees just love!

Talking of donations, the Hyth Hops group got in touch with offerings of free beer from Hopfuzz and Docker brewery, a can or bottle from each brewer to all hop growers to say thank you for the donated hops grown within the collective.  In true community spirit, all the gardener names were entered into a lucky dip, and two were chosen to be the lucky recipients.  There are cans of ‘red-green hop’ available in the Sandgate village shop if you are still yet to sample some of the fresh ‘green hop’ brews.

Still on the subject of donations and especially community spirit, we are pleased to advertise and take part in an event on Saturday 20^th November 11am to 3pm at the Radnor Park Bowls Club, called ‘Disco Soup’.  The idea is to take part in transforming surplus food into a community feast, and activities will include apple pressing, learning how to fement food in jars, and various craft stalls.  A great day for the family, and a wonderful way of using food which may otherwise have gone to landfill.  See the poster below for more information and how to take part.

What’s next?

• Dismantle the fringe exhibition

• Start planting the broad beans

• See if there is space available for other things

• We have bulbs to plant for the spring

• Keep checking on the plants in the cold frames Still weeding and cutting back to be done

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This week seems to have been all about ‘almost’, ‘not quite’ and ‘maybe’.

It is difficult to pinpoint, but along with the changing of the weather and the season, there is a shift in how our volunteers are having to arrange their free time to fit in with a change in work patterns, trying to grab a holiday before winter sets in, visiting or being visited by friends and family.  There has been a sprinkling of ill health, medical procedures, and various ‘jabs’ of one sort or another topped with a bit of COVID ‘pinging’ just to add to the mix.  We have had some new faces too, which is refreshing, and always interesting to know why people seek us out and want to come along.  The good news is we are a friendly bunch!   

We have been in talks for some time to try to get access to a supply of good compost.  We established contact with a farm just outside Folkestone where they actually make compost to put on their own fields and sell the remainder to other farms in Kent.  The farm owners are keen to support us by bringing a large trailer load of the ‘black gold’, however, at the last leg we got scuppered by the fact that their enormous tractor is too large to gain access to the tipping site.  Not knowing anybody in the locality with a spare smaller tractor or transport happy or able enough to help us out, we find ourselves back to square one until we can find a solution to the dilemma. Oh well!

We have managed to complete the ‘what’s next?’ list – the onion sets and garlic all got planted, the remaining mustard plants were nestled into some mushroom crates and housed in the cold frames, and will now be spending their time under cover until the spring returns.  The flowering plants and seeds are being looked after with the view that they will be planted or sown and in place for next year, wherever that may be, in Sandgate.  The tree leaves are starting to fall in greater numbers now, mostly bypassing the autumnal riot of colour and simply dropping.  So begins the prolonged clear up, not forgetting that they are a useful resource and go straight to the compost bin as lying around on top of some of the leafy growing crops like spinach or chard can make them start to rot and encourage slugs or snails which we have in plentiful supply as it is.  In fact the appearance of many a hole in the various crops verifies just how warm and wet it continues to be.  It all goes to show how organic we are though, and accepting that you have to share your food with insects, wild animals and molluscs, although it is never good to find something sharing at the same time!

Talking of sharing, we are sharing our words of wisdom and experiences in the garden with Explore Kent.  Their website can be found here Get Out and Explore Kent – Explore Kent and we were asked to send some pictures of the garden and contribute autumnal and wintery ‘blogs’ on what we are up to and all that  can be done in the garden.  There is always plenty to be done during the colder months and quite amusing when the assumption is that we will be ‘shutting down’ for the winter to then re-open again in the spring. 

What’s next?.

• Plenty of leaves to pick up and compost

• Plenty of weeding to be done along the wall and behind the posts

• Plenty of compost to shift from one place to another

• Still plenty of crops to be picked after sharing with the wildlife

• Can we fit in some onions between the fennel bulbs?

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Have you ever wondered what happens to the town’s bedding plants when the season is finished?  We certainly have, and made some enquiries with Folkestone and Hythe horticultural department that carry out all the summer and winter floral displays all around the area from the parks to the street planters.

Most of the plants are annuals, which means after their display, they are literally exhausted and finished, fit only to be composted.  Some of the plants are perennials and can survive all year and come back to flower once again.  These were the plants we were interested in, as there were quite a few of them from dahlias to verbenas, gazanias and salvias.  It seems that most of the plants are removed from the beds and reused which is good news.  We were concerned that these plants might also end up on the compost heap and were keen to rescue them if that were indeed the case, and put them to good use in some of the areas we are looking after.

However, having removed all the plants the council decided that they did indeed have a few too many perennials left and offered them to us.  Always keen to save valuable resources, we jumped at the opportunity, and liberated several plants which we shared with the Incredible Edible team.  Many thanks to Folkestone and Hythe Council for thinking of us for these spare plants, and you never know, after planting out the winter bedding, there might be the possibility of a leftover plant or two – you never know!  The great thing about gardening is that nature is the master of recycling, and nothing is wasted.  Plants give their all by flowering or providing fruit/vegetables, and even when finished make the best compost, and the cycle continues. 

Talking of compost, our compost heaps all got turned this week, which was warm work!  Bin 3 which contains the finished compost got turned out and put onto empty beds, whilst bin 2 was turned into the now empty bin 3.  Bin 1 was full to bursting with all the new waste from veg peelings to finished plants, and got turned into bin 2, leaving an empty bin 1.  By Saturday, bin 1 was half full again, but you can be sure that by the time we return for our garden session on Wednesday the compost will have started to rot down and make some more room!  Turning the compost gives an opportunity to mix the ingredients together for a perfect end result – too wet, then add some brown or dry ingredients, too dry then mix with green (wet) ingredients.  Always interesting to see the compost wildlife, especially the worms, hard at work.

As well as flexing some muscles turning the compost, the onion sets and garlic got planted, and hundreds of broad beans sown in anticipation of an early crop next year.  Planting or sowing into modules has given us time to empty some of the beds over the next month or so and cover them with a new layer of compost to benefit all the plants in that bed for the next year. 

As the days are starting to shorten, the garden is entering a new phase in preparation for the winter to come.  The dominant summer planting making way for the hardy autumn and winter crops.  Leafy chard, spinach, cabbage, kale and sprouting broccoli alongside the roots of swede, celeriac, and parsnips.  Their time is about to come, and some first pickings have been made.  These plants enjoy a slower pace unlike their summer predecessors, often maturing at different rates with an ability to be left in the ground or on the plant until required.  A useful state in a family allotment, but probably not appreciated in a community garden where the demands on fresh vegetables is at a premium – no time for storing or biding time, unless the destination is a jar of chutney or frozen meal of course!

What’s next?

• Search out more planting boxes for the cold frames

• Finish planting last of the onion sets

• Check on seeds needing sowing in the autumn for flower beds/herbs

• Start clearing fallen leaves

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