Sandgate Community Garden

The return of some warmer and drier weather was certainly a welcome relief, and on Saturday the garden was alive with butterflies, bees and dragonflies, as well as gardeners and visitors all making the most of it.  Such a contrast to the previous Saturday, with lashing rain and high winds,  After the garden session, there was a migration to the harbour to at last sample the green Hythe Hop beer and very good it was too. 

Here is some information from Hythe Hops about where you can sample the green ale from Docker and HopFuzz but you will have to be quick as it will not last long.

“Official launch of 2021 Docker and HopFuzz Green Hop Ales made using our hops takes place at Docktoberfest at Folkestone Harbour (East Yard) from 12 noon Saturday (9th October).

“The same Green Hop Ales (Red Green Hop Ale and HopBuzz) are to be/have been distributed to the following local pubs:

Beer Shop – Folkestone

Docker Tap Room – East Yard, Folkestone Harbour

The Goods Shed – Canterbury

Unit 1 – West Hythe

Bouverie Tap – Folkestone

Broken Drum – London

Duke William – Ickham

Freed Man – Deal/Walmer

Hidden Treasure – Dymchurch

Inn Doors – Sandgate

Larkins Alehouse – Cranbrook

Lighthouse – Deal

Smugglers – New Romney

Tankerton Arms – Tankerton

Three Mariners – Hythe

Unit 1 – West Hythe

Waterworks – Rye

“We cannot guarantee precisely where and when beers will become available or sell out so if you’re planning to make a special trip to any please check with the pub first.”

Very busy as usual in the garden.  Some spare plants, seeds onion and garlic sets were handed over to the nursery children at Saga so that they can get planting and sowing.  We always look forward to seeing what they are growing in their playground.  We took down the last of the tomato plants, cleared the ransacked beetroot bed where the badgers had helped themselves, and removed the dwarf beans.  We now need to get the cleared beds prepared for new plantings, and make space for the compost heaps to be turned as our current bin is really full to bursting.

On Wednesday after the garden session, some of us made our way to the Folkestone Fringe event ‘Re-Rooting’ to set up our planter and plants.  The planter will be there until the 30^th October.  We enjoyed setting it up and being able to take part in something different, and hope that visitors will enjoy seeing what is looking good in October.

Below is a picture showing some of the fungi that has suddenly appeared on the plot and in some of the beds.  Fungi is a welcome sight and we just let it be to do its thing as it does no harm.  So much to understand still about the role of fungi in the garden, but as an organic ‘no dig’ garden it certainly encourages plenty of it.

What’s next?

• Plant some of the mustards still in seed trays

• Plant more mustards in mushroom trays for the cold frames

• Check on the Re-Rooting planter for water levels and condition of the plants

• Sow broad beans in large modules

• Plant garlic and onion sets in large modules

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Well, it has definitely all changed for wetter and cooler weather!  The rainfall for September was at 3.9 mm for most of the month until the very endo when it surged to 40.5 mm.  It has probably rained more than that in the first couple of days of October. 

Docker brewery had to postpone the launch of the green Hythe hop new brew until Saturday 9^th October for fear of losing their gazebo on the harbour to the high winds, let alone the lashing rain.  We were only thinking how fabulous the banana tree was looking in the Enbrook garden with a full set of leaves, and took a photo before it was tattered to bits.

Unfortunately the leeks added to the plant confusion as to which season we were in and also started to flower, which is totally unheard of in October.  With any luck the trend will be over and it will be clear we are now in autumn. 

Arms full of herbs got collected this week and sent to a ‘wild remedy workshop’.  Whilst collecting some rosemary it was interesting to see that there were several metallic looking beetles amongst the leaves which after research turned out to be the Chrysolina Americana or rosemary beetle becoming established in the 1990s apparently, and originating from southern Europe.  Luckily it does not do much harm to the plants and seems to have scarpered since the rain started anyway.  However the weather has not deterred the badgers from demolishing the entire beetroot crop in one fell swoop,  another reminder that it can be a BIG mistake to remove netting sometimes.

Sections of the netting around the garden have been damaged by our nocturnal animals, and one of the pictures below shows the holes created.  The squirrels (or is it the foxes?) have worked out how to get under some of the netting and have great fun digging about in the soil.  Not to be left out, a mole has worked its way from the other side of the garden wall and is happily pushing up the soil all around the tool box and compost heaps where we hope it will stay!  The badgers seem to have turned their noses up at the winter radishes so far which we have just started to pull up, and very tasty they are too.  Much larger than the spring varieties, they can get as big as a turnip and withstand winter temperatures although it is doubted they will last that long.  The cheeky late sowing of winter lettuces had been safely tucked away in a cold frame making plenty of growth until the wetter weather encouraged just one snail to find them and make a meal of all but six – it only takes one snail.

The nursery children at Saga are keen to be planting up their pots and planters in their playground now that the summer is over, and we will be supplying them with a few cloves of garlic and onion sets to plant, along with a few broad beans and mustard plants.  They have visited the garden to see what is growing there as part of their educational walks around the park grounds.

This coming week we are pleased to have been asked to take part in an exhibition as part of the Folkestone Fringe, called ‘Re-Rooting’.  We will be installing a large planter in the window of the venue at the Shakespeare Centre in Sandgate Road, full of plants with information on their medicinal uses and any associated folklore.  Six volunteers from the garden have stepped up to the plate to get the job set up and eventually dismantled.  The exhibition will run from 8^th to 30^th October (Thursday – Sunday 11am to 4pm) just incase you happen to find yourself in that vicinity and feel in need of a cultural experience as apparently there will be four artists exhibiting their work at the event too.

What’s next?

• Take down the tomatoes left standing at Enbrook and distribute green fruits

• Remove the beans and prep the ground for replanting

• Any wood chips left?

• Clear the demolished beetroot bed and add compost for replanting

• Take plants and seed to the nursery for the children to plant

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The unseasonable weather has continued this week with a possible break coming soon of cooler and possibly wetter conditions.

It has been interesting how the autumn plants have fared under unusual circumstances. Used to thriving in a typical autumn, the Chinese cabbage has bolted, and the mustards are trying to do the same.  You begin to wonder if the sowing dates may have to be altered, however the daylight hours remain the same, and such plants need to be able to put on growth in the shorter days available before it gets simply too cold.  It is a constant juggling act trying to get the conditions right, luckily most of the time we manage it.  The cheeky sowing of some winter lettuces shot up within a couple of days – again, another gamble of taking chances.

We have started to think about the clearing of some of the beds, beginning with the Golden Valley Planters.  Rita has been working hard over the months sowing collected seeds, taking cuttings, and nurturing lots of plants at home for putting out eventually in Golden Valley and probably parts of Fremantle Park too.  The first job is to clear, cut back and pot up some plants, put down new compost and replant parts with new stock.  A start has been made but now we are waiting for  a decent downfall of rain as mulching a dry bed is not a good idea.  

The new cold frames we had made this year have been languishing at the end of the garden being used every now and then in the earlier months to shelter a plant or two, but will now soon be starting to do their work.  They are mighty heavy to move from one end of the plot to the other,so it was a case of waiting for some strong willing volunteers to be in the garden at the same time to be able to shift them into a space with the chance of getting some winter sun.  They will need a bit of a clean up, but will soon be protecting those new winter lettuces and mustards so that we may have a few salad leaves even in the deepest darkest depths of winter.

Following on from last week – the Hythe Hops scheme made a second and final collection of the hop cones, making a grand total of 110 kg.  Docker brewery have announced that the green brew from themselves and HopFuzz will be available from noon on Saturday 2^nd October at the East Yard on the Harbour Arm.  Some of us will be rushing over there straight after our gardening session that day to try it before it sells out!

The Hythe Environmental group were in the centre of town on Saturday 25^th for their annual seed and plant swap with apple pressing going on at the same time.  We took some of our spare seeds for exchanging, admired the apple press at work and tried some of the amazing fresh juice. 

We would like to give a mighty ‘THANK YOU’ to the Sandgate Society for organising the walk and talk of the Sandgate Community Gardens and for donating the money raised to us, after expenses – we are indeed very grateful for £64.30 which will be going into the kitty towards all the seeds and numerous other things on our current wish list.

What’s next?

• Clean up the cold frames and start collecting together mushroom boxes to be planted up with salads

• Remove and compost the bolted Chinese cabbage

• Keep checking the mustards for and flowers which should be removed.

• Prick out the new mustard plants and lettuces in the modules

• Plant the saffron crocuses in a safe place

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We have been experiencing issues with watering this week.  It has been very warm and dry again, with some promises of rain dissolving into nothing.  So hand watering it is, of the many newly planted beds of spinach, spring onions, mustard greens and herbs.  The autumn raspberries are managing to produce fruit, but they are small, and the leaves are starting to turn yellow. 

Our lettuce mix now has a good percentage of endive and chicory.  We have two types of endive, a broad leaf and a frilly strapped leaf. they are super nutritious and pictured below.  Both have a slightly bitter taste, and can survive very cold temperatures in the winter.  Bitter foods are considered to be very good for our gut health, with evidence that they may work like prebiotics. 

We had our results from the RHS.  We have made progress from our last inspection to level 4 or ‘Thriving’, with five levels possible in total, the last being ‘outstanding’.  The inspector said that it was ‘difficult to offer any words of advice’ apart from addressing our reliance on mains water.  We have all tried to solve that problem from the very start, to no avail as yet.  The only other point was that the garden was difficult to find within the park, however there are new signs made and  installed at all the park entrances, and it is clear now where we can be found.  In effect we are doing alright, and if they cannot offer much in the way of advice to improve our situation then we should be happy with that!

The hops got picked this week.  All the hops at Fremantle and Enbrook had to be picked on the same day, and taken to the Hythe collection point for weighing and putting into hessian sacks for transportation  to a brewery to make a fresh hop (green) brew, with the rest going to an oast house to be dried for use throughout the year.  We were not expecting too much from the four Enbrook plants as they had suffered this year, but they gave 650g compared with last year’s 2.120kg.  Fremantle has three hop plants, and one of those got invaded by ants and only just survived, leaving  two plants which gave an amazing 865g.  In total across the scheme, there were 83kg of hops collected, with another collection date for less mature hops arranged for 19^th September. 30kg of fresh hops has gone to Docker and Hopfuzz breweries, and the remaining 23 kg went off to be dried and will then be sent to Docker for further brews in the year.  The green hop ales will be available in 4-6 weeks at selected local pubs as well as in bottles or cans.  We will let you know where you can try it when we know, but you have to be quick to visit the pub, as it can sell out within a day!

What’s next?

• Get in a cheeky sowing of some winter lettuces if possible

• Plant some saffron crocuses

• Water water water

• Anybody around strong enough to help move the cold frames?

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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

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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

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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

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Thanks to all those who pointed out the typo in last week’s newsletter which seemed to cause much hilarity – it just goes to prove that the update does get read!

It was mentioned last week that tomato blight is in the locality, and it has appeared in our plants at the Golden Valley, so Saturday morning was spent scrutinising the tomato plants at Enbrook, however it seems we have got away with it right now.  Even so it will be a case of really keeping an eye out for it and removing the infected areas or even the whole plant as soon as it is seen.  It is probably a case of when not if. 

As there is so much growth in the garden and we are full to the brim, it is ideal conditions for some mighty big weeds to sneak in, snuggle up against the vegetables and take away the water from their roots – before you know it you have a monster weed and an overwhelmed tiny vegetable plant.  It is always good practice to remove the competition, and whilst picking various things around the garden to also have a container  to collect the weeds so that they can be composted.  The habit is often to leave them for later or to pull them and place them on the floor where they often still manage to drop their seeds or even re-root if the soil and weather is wet.  We put absolutely everything in the compost heap and have no worries about all the weeds from mares tails to nettles and bindweed, they are all composted.  You can tell from turning the compost that there is nothing left of the plant material except good compost, and seeds will have been mostly heated and destroyed as part of the composting process.   If there are vast amounts of bindweed, it can be laid out in the sun to dry out thoroughly before being added to the compost if you are worried about it regrowing.  Most weeds are best removed whilst still small and can be easily hoed on a fine dry day, or just pulled between finger and thumb.  Easy if the beds have a good layer of compost.

Some trays of spring onions and more winter radishes got sown this week.  We had a delivery of ready to sow seeds from the amazing Seed Craft company in Folkestone.  They sent us a box of seeds a little while back and we were delighted to receive this one too – many thanks.  The dill, coriander and chervil plants got planted.  The second batch of  lettuces are now standing up on great long stalks in response to their outer leaves being removed weekly.  The timing between these and the next batch of lettuces may well be just right fortunately, as the new plants are just about ready for a first pick.

Lots of things are going on outside of the garden too.  ITV Meridian News heard the podcast on local radio about the Incredible Edible planters and areas in Sandgate and Cheriton.  They want to run a news story about the concept, and it would be fantastic if other neighbourhoods became as inspired as we were by the original group in Todmorden in Yorkshire.  All going well, Incredible Edible should be set to be on the local news Tuesday evening. 

The Community Gardeners are looking forward to being at the Sandgate Sea Festival next Sunday 29^th, where we will be advertising the garden and raising funds. Please stop and say hello when you see us as it always cheers you up to see some friendly faces.

The Sandgate Society have kindly set up a walk and talk from the Community Garden at Enbrook to the garden at Freemantle Park, followed by refreshment at the Golden Arrow in the Golden Valley with the new landlords Shona and Richard.  The focus is on ‘no dig’ gardening, how to start and to let it be known just how easy it really all is.  You can make a bed and plant it up in just one day.

If you are interested in coming along then please contact the Sandgate Society sandgatesociety@gmail.com  or ring Gemma on 07984 694907. The date is Sunday 5^th September at 2pm.  The cost is £5 to include tea or coffee at the Golden arrow, and any profits will be ploughed back into the garden, so a brilliant cause!

What’s next?

• Start planting the spinach plugs

• Keep watering the new herb bed and smaller lettuces

• Dismantle the last of the strawberry bed and rake ground

• Raise some of the flat nets

• Plant the Nero kale

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It has been ‘hunt the cucumber’ week as all the plants have been scattered along the wall and in any available space so that when they trail along and produce fruit, they can appear just about anywhere.  It makes for an interesting time finding them, and an achievement when one gets found after the search is called off.  The tomatoes are starting to try to do something now with a first fruit picked, but many gardeners are telling how theirs are lost to blight this year.  We shall have to keep fingers crossed that ours survive as they are slow to get going this year and have been put back further by the strong winds.  We have been comparing site conditions as one of our gardeners has been picking tomatoes for some time. 

The Hythe Hops group has started the process of deciding on harvest dates for all the hops in the area.  It seems optimistic to be contemplating a harvest as our poor hops at Enbrook were looking somewhat brown and crispy after the salty winds last swept through however happily some new shoots have fought their way through and are sending out some flowers so all is not lost, there should be something to pick and contribute. 

The winter radishes sown last week got planted on Saturday, and the mustards sown in the week along with the spinach, are up already through the soil in their modules, which puts the pressure on to find and clear more beds to make space.  The celery bed should be free soon as we are having to harvest them quite quickly as some of them are bolting.  Like the celeriac, after they were sown way back in the early spring, we had several days of colder weather making them believe they were experiencing winter so that when the summer arrived, they had been fooled into thinking they were in their second summer which triggers them to produce flowers followed by seeds.  The plant then becomes tough and bitter so needs to be removed as soon as possible.  Chris, obviously our speediest gardener made hers into a fabulous soup within two hours of being picked.  It looked fabulous in a picture on our WhatsApp group.   Other plants confused by the seasons are some cowslips planted in the seafront planters, now currently flowering. 

We have been checking under the netting of the brassicas, removing yellowing and doyley leaves chewed by the illusive keel slugs.  We have invested in more fine mesh this year, not just for the brassicas but also to protect new plantings until established.  The netting over a bed of chard was removed in order to use it to protect the new radishes, as the chard is now a few weeks old.  However, as soon as it was removed, an opportunistic pigeon caught sight of the unprotected chard and swiftly flew in to start work on them before being noticed and shooed away!  The chard got covered again!

There is a picture below of a Jersey Tiger moth seen at Fremantle Park this week, such a beautiful creature and a treat to see, we are always on the lookout for more unusual sightings in the locality.

The Sandgate Sea Festival is fast approaching and we are starting to collect things for our stall to raise some funds to keep our Sandgate projects old and new progressing as well as contributing to our sister group, The Incredible Edibles based in Cheriton.  Many thanks to Terry for contacting us and donating some beautiful house plants, thanks also to Marjorie for funding towards seeds and pants for next year.  We will be doing our utmost to help you part with some of your cash should you venture our way on the day!

What’s next?

• Not looking like rain is on the near horizon so back to some watering

• Pot up more plants for the stall

• Keep an eye out for any signs of blight

• Check busy areas for some weeds hiding

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Big change over of plants at the moment, lots of new sowings and trying to find room to plant kale and yet more lettuces which need a few weeks to grow before they can take over from the lettuces we are currently picking so as not to disrupt the supply. 

We have a bed near the top gate to the garden which has been something of a dilemma to us as whatever we plant there will grow for a few weeks then starts to turn yellow, is stunted and fails to thrive.  We are not sure if the compost we added there is contaminated with something, or if the original soil underneath is the problem. So that we can still use the precious space we have put raised beds there filled with more soil in the hope that depth of growing matter will sort the issue. 

Raised beds cause their own problems, attracting snails and slugs with plenty of hiding places, and can dry out around the edges fast, but we will give it a chance and see what happens, and it has to be better than trying to grow in a contaminated space. 

Always be aware that if your plants fail to come up to your expectations it might not be your fault as regards how much care you put in; it could be a problem with the environment, the soil (even if it was compost bought in bags) or the seeds you started with.  Unfortunately it can make beginners think they are doing something wrong when in fact they stood little chance of success in the first place as the failure had been caused by something else out of their control.   The main thing is to start again and just get growing as there is always something to learn along the way and the rewards are great when it does go well.

The autumn and winter radishes got sown and by Saturday were already poking out above the ground, they are so fast to get going.  The Nero kale got pricked out, and a few plants in the garden beds lost to slugs got replaced with spares.  Three trays of spinach have been sown for the autumn, and we will have to consider starting to sow the winter mustards and hardy lettuces which could take us through the winter months. 

Although most of the brassicas are covered in Enviromesh so that they cannot be reached by butterflies wanting to lay their eggs, the swedes did get forgotten to be included in the brassica family (a common problem).  With no mesh covering or spray they consequently had been chewed to bits and smothered in caterpillars until given a dose of our organic bacterial spray and are now starting to recover.  The swedes will be a true test as to how our experiment with the spray will fare.  We love caterpillars and butterflies but have given them alternatives to take so that we can grow viable brassicas as an important food source over the colder months.  Meanwhile the Incredible Edible team in Cheriton decided on a policy not to spray and to allow the brassicas to be eaten by caterpillars which of course they are.  

The Cheriton Incredible Edible team have been clearing some of the planters where the plants had reached maturity, and replenished with new stock for both humans and insects.  Below is a picture of the herb planter outside the butchers shop.  The butcher always takes time to water and care for his planter and he has been rewarded with a lovely display of herbs with plenty of visiting bees and hoverflies.  It has to be said that this year there are many homes, shops, pubs and restaurants along Sandgate High Street growing some amazing floral displays; it really makes a difference and brightens the street for all to enjoy.

The Sandgate Sea & Food Festival is rapidly on its way and we hope to have some plants on our stall to raise some funds.  If you have any spare house or garden plants please get in touch via email, text/call on 07840 138308, or pop in to the garden Wednesday or Saturday mornings.  We are really looking forward to seeing you there, and hope you will stop at our stall and say hello.

What’s next?

• Sow the mustards

• Prick out the overcrowded Chervil, coriander and dill seedlings

• Check the wall plantings for random cucumbers and tomato plants needing attention.

• Check the celery for side shoots and remove

• Check the celeriac for old leaves that need removing

• Check under nets for weeds and remove old leaves trailing on the ground.

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