Sandgate Community Garden

More interesting weather this week with it being so cold and wet that it was challenging to find the enthusiasm to get to Enbrook Park for our usual Wednesday and Saturday morning sessions, so not many of the jobs on the list got done at all!  The seedlings are coming along fast now at nearly four weeks, and some will be ready next week to be planted.  Just the peas for pea shoots made it into the ground to be followed by beetroot, cabbage, broccoli, spring onions and possibly some lettuces if the weather improves. 

This time last year we were picking up our four hop roots from the Hythe Hops Scheme to plant along the wall.  Not wanting the garden at Fremantle to miss out on the whole hop growing,  beer making and tasting experience, we ordered three more hop plants which were planted at the end of the plot beside the fruit trees and bushes.  The plants are known as ‘Prima Donna’, a dwarf hop, and we are looking forward to being able to combine all the hops from the total of seven plants we now have.  The Enbrook hops are now in their second year and so it will be interesting to compare how prolific they are compared to last year, and also with the new batch at Fremantle.

This year we are sowing and growing much more in the way of flowering annuals as our contribution to Kent’s Plan Bee.  In view of the fact we have various pockets of land around Sandgate as well as planters to fill up and look after, growing from seed is all important.  We are excited about a new area of the Enbrook garden being prepared for butterfly and moth attracting flowers which are bound to appeal to the bees and hoverflies too.  

This week the green outside the chip shop in the High Street was weeded and cleared then given a mulch of compost ready for some flowering annuals as soon as they can go outside.  We hope you will be able to notice our contribution in the way of herbs, vegetables and flowers popping up all over Sandgate in the summer months.

What’s next?

• All the jobs listed last week still need doing.

• Plant veg seedlings and cover with fleece

• Prick out the lettuce seedlings and flowering annuals

• 

• 

• 

More trays of seeds got sown in the warmth of the Saturday sunshine in the garden, so we now have hundreds of seeds and seedlings on the go.  However, all of them are pretty hardy and early varieties that can cope with some cold.  First thing in the morning the trays of seedlings get put out into cold frames and mini greenhouses, and are taken indoors at night time when the temperature drops.  That way, the plants make some good steady growth and when they are around four weeks old, should be able to be planted out in the garden, covered with fleece, as long as the temperatures in the local weather forecast are not too low. 

We have some plants ready and waiting to go out now, but this weekend says the nights are too cold and they will have to wait a little longer.  It is all about being patient, keeping an eye on the weather, as well as making judgements about how strong the plants are.  Patience being the operative word!  So many citizens of Sandgate have been telling us about how well they are doing with getting all the seeds in the ground, outside, with no protection, expecting them to oblige by growing.

Sometimes you get lucky, but we can still get heavy frosts and even snow as late as Easter, and plants can catch up and overtake earlier sowings because their growth has not been checked by the cold.  We have also had tales of annuals romping away in the greenhouse, growing well, but when we are asked when the plants can safely go outside (probably not until at least May), there is then the realisation that these plants will have to be kept under glass, watered, and moved on into much larger pots to be able to survive in good condition until then, by which time they resemble triffids.  Patience!

The temperature this winter has made a difference to the garden.  Last year we had annuals such as nasturtiums and nicotiana coming into flower – all have been lost as well as the autumn peas, even the broad beans have taken a battering.  However many gardens have lost their broad beans altogether so we count ourselves lucky there.  The temperatures were low, but not as low as in other parts of the country or even county.  There were concerns about the goji berries to see if they survived but you can see from one of the pictures below that they are sending out good strong shoots.  There is also a picture showing the new shoots of the autumn raspberries coming through.  We will have to be careful not to hoe them off!  Autumn raspberries are different to summer in that they fruit on the new stems which grow fresh in the spring, and may not need support, whereas summer raspberries fruit on the stems which grew in the previous summer and usually need to be tied into a frame.

Not enough rain to fill the pond so we cannot report back on if the repair has worked yet!  Happily all the jobs on the list for this week did get done, to include the turning of the compost bins, the planting of more fruit trees at Fremantle Park, and the application of a good amount of fresh compost at Golden Valley shops and more weeding.  There was even time to help out with a big tidy and litter pick behind the shops, as well as revamp the Meadowbrook and Chichester Road alleyway with a generous dollop of compost and some new plantings of some soft fruit bushes.  Phew!

What’s next?

• Keep checking on the pond for a repair status

• More sowings of herbs, lettuce, spinach and spring onions

• Keep looking for pesky infestations of sycamore seedlings!

• Water the new planting at the alleyway – label

• Finish the wiring of the posts along the wall

• Find slates/stones for making new signs

• Keep all plant pots watered if dry

• Divide hostas if they are growing

• Start work on one of the greens in the High Street.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

What a spectacular week as regards the beautiful sunny weather.  It has been lovely to be able to spend some time in the garden and not be wet, or blasted from one end to the other!  The pond will have to wait to be filled from rainwater and to see if the repair has worked. 

Warm enough to sit down and sow seeds, we have started off more pea shoots, as well as spinach, spring onions, parsley, dill and fennel.  We planted out two plots with radishes that were only sown on 19^th February, and at 8 days old were bursting out of the modules.  They have a cover of fleece to help them along, but last year we did not plant enough of them and they got enthusiastically eaten in no time at all. So many trays of seedlings coming along, it is quite a juggling act to get them out in the sunshine during the day, and back in the warm at night time.  Still too early for many seeds that are tender and cannot be planted out until at least mid-May, such as tomatoes.  We have had many enquiries about availability of tomato plants this year, and they will not be available until at least mid-April which is still early.  It is so difficult to be patient and to wait to get plants going, but that is exactly why the shops get them out there too soon as they often end up being murdered because of a cold snap, and then more plants get bought to replace them!

It has been a week of gifts too – thank you to Freddie for buying us a grabbing device for the pond to get out any debris.  Who knew such things existed and that our lives would not be complete until we had one?  We were also contacted by Peter and Isobel with the kind gifts of some packets of flower seeds which will be put to good use, and some amazing clay pots which certainly will look good in the summer, filled with the flowers grown from the donated seeds – perfect!

Fremantle Park and the Golden Valley shops

We now have enough volunteers at Fremantle to start a WhatsApp group to enable us to list the jobs that need doing, and keep up the communication.  This week the fruit trees and soft fruit shrubs got planted, and with any luck, three more trees should get planted next week.  The five vegetable plots are being allocated to local families to be looked after by them; but the herb planters and the new garden to be created at the other end of the park by the slope to the alleyway, are to be planted up with all kinds of things that anybody will be able to help themselves to in ‘Incredible Edible’ fashion.

After some cajoling and pleading, the Folkestone and Hythe parks department very kindly took out four Phormiums from the brick planters at the Golden Valley shops.  They are great plants for filling a huge amount of space and able to look after themselves, but this summer we are hoping to make this area a riot of colour with flowering perennials and annuals.  We have been weeding both inside and outside the planters, and will be adding a layer of compost to improve the soil and fill in the Phormium craters!  We met the new landlords of the Pub, The Golden Arrow, who are keen to work with us to help make the shopping area look something this year.  They are busy making great improvements to both the inside and outside of the pub with a view to making it a family orientated hub of the Enbrook Valley community in Sandgate.  We welcome them and wish them well with their plans as soon as restrictions are lifted.

What’s next?

• Any rain on the horizon and get the pond back together again?

• Get the large clay pots on site at Enbrook Park, and filled ready for planting

• More seed sowings of peas, radishes, spring onions

• Prick out the lettuces

• Continue to turn the compost bins

• Finish weeding at the shops and put down the new compost

• Plant three more fruit trees at Fremantle.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We had quite a setback this week.  It should have been an omen to read that it is not always necessary to break the ice on a frozen pond, when it was discovered that some over enthusiastic ice breaking had resulted in eleven puncture holes in the pond liner and the water had leaked out.  Always best to get to grips with the situation quickly and get it sorted, so we excavated the liner around the edges to find those punctures and fix them with a pond liner repair kit.  We will not know if we have managed to find all the holes, or if the repair is a success until we get some rain and with any luck the pond fills up.  We will keep you updated.

We spent some time checking up on the plants to see how they had fared after the snow.  The Cardoon in a photo last week has perked up, as have the cabbages, which even had some caterpillars hiding in their leaves on closer inspection – unbelievable!  The autumn peas and broad beans look decidedly sad under the fleece covers, but they have established root systems and with any luck they should recover in time.  The goji berries only survive up to minus five, but they seem to be sending out some new leaves so we are optimistic they will be fine too.

The warmer weather and longer daylight hours have meant that it is time to make the first sowings of the year.  Just in time, our new plant trays from Charles Dowding, the no dig guru, arrived, and they are perfect for us.  They are longer than an A4 size piece of paper, there are sixty planting cells for seedlings, and so when multi sowing beetroot for example, at four seeds per cell, you have a potential two hundred and forty plants in a small space.  They will transform the seedling growing process this year. 

We had a bonus in the form of some lost parsnips.  It was thought that the entire crop had been harvested, the plot they had been growing in looked very empty until there were some tell-tale signs of new growth from parsnip tops, poking through the soil.  They are quite happy to be left in the soil for a few weeks yet, but they will not be lasting that long!

Fremantle Park: At last the soil is starting to dry, good enough to be able to walk on.  More paths have been put down in the form of trusty wood chips, and after a topping of some fine bagged compost, they will be ready to be planted into.  We have some fruit trees, fruit bushes and more herbs ready and waiting to be planted, so if the weather stays dry they might get planted.

What’s next?

• If there is any rain this week, check on the pond water level

• Continue to weed plots covered in fleece and nets

• Make more sowings on Wednesday, of the vegetables mentioned last week

• Make a start on emptying compost bin number three

• Remove old plant growth from hops – careful not to cut strings

• Weed outside wall and clear debris

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

It has gone from being wet to just snow, bitterly cold and more snow.  Nothing got done at the garden this week, but it has been visited often to break the ice on the pond.   It has always been said that you should break the ice on a frozen pond to release any gases from dead leaves and silt at the bottom, but now experts are telling us that it may not be necessary to do so unless you have fish.  Always a contradiction to be found on many a subject!  However Wildlife rely on the water being available too.

The plants are now looking very sad as you can see in the pictures below, and it will be interesting to see if they perk up once the temperatures rise.  Our plastic cold frames were the only coverings to keep the snow away from the plants.  It was possible to track all the garden visitors from human footprints to dog or fox paw prints and birds feet leaving long trails.

Being stuck indoors gives the ideal opportunity to catch up with orders such as new plants and seeds.  Last year we had to make do with donated seeds and plants or buy at out of season sales or attend seed swaps.  This year, and as a result of our plant sales last year, we are in the delightful situation of being able to order the seeds and varieties we want, such a luxury.  We have a large selection of seeds from at least seven different companies, and they can come in quantities of just half a dozen, to thousands.  If you know what you are doing, it is possible to grow and collect your own seeds; however we do not have the space to be able to do this successfully.  We are hoping to be able to sow and grow even more than we did last year.  We will be advertising when the tomato or squash plants are available so keep a look out for that – the plan is also to have other plants available too. 

Now that the daylight hours are longer, the first seed sowings of spring onions, lettuce, spinach, coriander, early cabbage, broccoli, broad beans, peas for shoots and parsley can be made.  It is far too cold outside for the seeds to germinate successfully, so they will have to be kept indoors, and as soon as they germinate, put outside with protection in a greenhouse or cold frame.  If you have the luxury of a greenhouse or polytunnel , now is the time to be sowing aubergines, peppers and chillies.   Later on in the week we will be sowing radishes and beetroot. 

The subject of seeds is absolutely vast believe it or not – there are so many considerations if you really get into the subject.  One of the biggest issues was that seed companies never had to tell you when the seeds were harvested, just the year in which they were packed for selling, and so it was impossible to know how old seeds were.  One bonus of Brexit and Covid has been that seed companies sold out of seed in 2020, something unheard of, so it is likely that seeds this year will be fresh.  It has certainly been a learning curve for many horticultural companies with an unprecedented leap in the amount of households now growing much more at home, or growing for the first time ever.

Always glad to give any advice on sowing, growing and looking after your plants at home, get in touch if you have any questions, or chat to us over the fence at Enbrook Park on Wednesday or Saturday mornings – unless of course it is lashing with rain or snow, or freezing cold!

What’s next?

• Sow the seeds as mentioned above

• Check on any mushy plants needing removing at Enbrook

• Check on Fremantle Park plot and if wood chip paths can be added.

• If not slushy or freezing, there is still wood chips and compost to be collected and moved!

• Pot up two fruit trees

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The weather continues to impact on progress this week, but not that surprising for early February.  It was too wet to work at the garden on Wednesday as it was last Saturday, but happily there was a break in the clouds for this Saturday morning and a scramble to book an hour session. 

The figures for January rainfall were 152.1mm, which is rather a lot and certainly explains why the grass at Fremantle and Enbrook is so saturated and slippery. 

In spite of the fact the snowdrops are out in full flower and now the wild primroses at Enbrook, we are in for a tough week to come with snow and the freezing cold out to test the vegetables we have been nurturing and covering in the past few months – it will be a difficult time for them.  Many of these winter hardy plants have their own inbuilt anti-freeze, and are not therefore reduced to a mush when a hard frost happens, however, they do have their limits.

No sooner had our newsletter gone out last week mentioning the need to order some wild flower seeds for a bare earth patch, one of our gardeners, and font of knowledge about such things, had been on the case and got the seeds already.  We are to look forward to a wildflower mix of 16 flower species, known as a ‘moths and butterflies’ garden mix – sounds fabulous.  These days there are a multitude of wild flower mixes available for every garden situation you can imagine, the choice is mind boggling.

The seed potatoes are now available to buy.  Too early to plant out as they suffer from the frost, so they are being ‘chitted’, the process of allowing them to put out a few shoots whilst sitting on an indoor window ledge, just waiting for that time in early April when they will be planted.  We have just one variety called ‘Charlotte’, and we may get others, but space is tight and they take up rather a lot, so you have to be selective.

A few weeks ago I mentioned a kind local who instead of getting rid of, or composting spare plants from the garden, had put them out on their drive for anybody passing to take.  We had another opportunity to acquire more flowering perennials being removed from a garden, and so planted some in Enbrook garden, as well as potted up many more to be planted in any of our other sites.  Day lilies, geraniums, crocosmias, and irises, will all make a lovely display to benefit us, and of course the visiting insects.  It looks as if there will be lots of things to look forward to in the garden this year.  A picture of a vase of sweet peas has been added to the photos below to remind you of what is around the corner.

What’s next?

• If the frosts are severe it would be best to just keep checking all the covers and nets are in place

• Make sure the pond is not frozen solid – make a hole in the ice

• First seed sowings will be in mid – February, so check out plant trays and compost in preparation.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

This newsletter is all about saying thank you to the people who are helping us to get things done, there are times when it can seem the task is too great, or will cost too much, but more often than not we manage to find ways to progress.

Two things needed sorting out at Enbrook – Our tool box has been broken for some time now, and we have to raise seedlings or keep plants at various houses.  Fortunately Councillor Rory Love of Kent County Council has awarded us a grant through the Combined Member Grant Scheme to enable us to replace that tool box and keep seedlings cosy in some cold frames until ready to be planted out.  We realise how fortunate we are when such help comes along and it makes a big difference to how we function.

This week some of us have been concentrating on work at Fremantle Park, Sandgate.  The Parish Council are kindly allowing us to take on some growing space there, and we reported last year on three large wooden containers that were set up and planted with vegetables and herbs which have been watered and looked after by locals living nearby.   The plan is to turn some of the grass into a growing area for vegetables and fruit, plus some bee attracting flowers. 

The ‘no dig’ methods we follow meant covering the area in a double layer of cardboard topped with a good thick layer of compost.  The card smothers the grass and gradually gets broken down and drawn into the soil, the compost gives the fruit and veg a great start and can be planted into straight away.  The only problem is that compost of any type is incredibly expensive, especially in such large quantities; however the horticultural department of the Folkestone and Hythe District Council came to the rescue bringing us two large trailers full of their own compost created in their yard from their work all around the area.  Unfortunately the ground within the park has been saturated by all the recent rain making it impossible to tip the compost straight onto the plot so it had to be dumped on the verge and we took turns to work on barrowing the whole lot to where it was required.  It will take some days to dry out and to make it workable enough to rake into all the right places, but at least a start has been made and we can begin planting soon.

Whilst working there, so many people have walked by, or popped out from their houses to say how great it is to see things going on and how much they appreciate the park in the first place.  The space we are working is very visible to many of the residents as houses and flats overlook the entire park, so we hope to be able to make an interesting and colourful display.

At Enbrook Park our gardeners took turns to check on the plants and cover some of the brassicas being attacked by pigeons, cut back and tidy plants around the pond and spread more compost on one of the asparagus beds where the roots keep being exposed, probably by digging squirrels!  The Saturday session was called off as it has continued to rain, however in spite of the wet, Chris, one of our bee keepers noticed her bees have been busy bringing lots of off-white pollen back to the hive which is thought to have come from hazel catkins.  Flowers in the midst of winter are proving their worth to the colony.

What’s next?

• If it is drier, begin to put down more wood chip pathways at Fremantle Park

• Do not mention the barrowing of chips and/or compost up to the Enbrook garden!

• There are still some seedlings to pot up

• Check on pruning required to trees and shrubs.

• Order seeds for small wild flower area.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Another week has flown by, whilst the wood chip pile at the lower wall continues to gradually diminish, and the wood chip piles within the Community Garden grow ever larger.  We are still wheelbarrowing!   It has been colder this week, and an hour of work is enough before the fingers and toes start to complain – we continue to take it in turns to be there, and appreciate that we have become quite a close knit community, shopping for one of our gardeners with Covid, and passing on information about a multitude of questions on our WhatsApp group. 

There have been some frosts, enough to have to break the ice on the pond a couple of times, and yet another storm flew through so that covers needed retrieving and putting back over plants, and one of our plastic compost bins needing fishing out of the pond.   In spite of all this, the rhubarb is pushing its way above the compost mulch obviously un-phased by challenging weather.

It is now a year that our pond has been in place, this is the best time to establish a new pond or to sort out an old one as the plants will be dormant and the wildlife hunkering down in the mud in the deepest part.  One of our gardeners has an established pond right in the High Street, and has been re-lining it as there was a leak.  Below is a picture of one of the frogs helped to temporarily relocate until the work is done.  A pond is the best thing you can have to attract wildlife to a garden, and how simply fantastic to have such wildlife right by the sea and on a busy High Street – it just goes to show how wildlife can flourish in pockets of space if the right conditions are there.  The Kent Wildlife Trust recorded the earliest sightings of frogspawn in mid-January, so it would just be perfect to see any in our pond this year.

With most of the winter work nearly complete, the beds have a mulch of compost, the paths have a covering of wood chips, and the compost bins all turned, the three main workers of organic matter can get to business.  We follow ‘no dig’ principles which mean that the worms, fungi and bacteria work for us to break down organic materials be they fresh in the compost bins or on the paths.  This year we have seen a delightful range of mushrooms and soil mycelia which some of the gardeners find disconcerting, until reassured that these forms are beneficial for the garden and to be welcomed.  The world is only just beginning to understand the relationship between fungi and plants but it is known that they live to benefit each other to access nutrients, water and carbohydrates.  No dig enables the plant roots to find mycorrhizal fungi in the soil which wrap around the roots to begin the exchange, and to continue this relationship without any soil disturbance which will break the cycle.  Below are a few of the fungi forms both great and small seen recently in the garden, of course we always respect the fact that unless you really know your edible fungi, they should never be eaten.

What’s Next?

• Continue the wood chip migration

• Net the kale as the birds are making a meal of them

• Search for any more seedlings worth potting up

• One asparagus bed needs extra mulch

• Rake up escaping compost

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

It has been more like weather for frogs and ducks rather than community gardeners this week, but some of us made it to the garden at some point suitably dressed for the occasion in all over wet weather gear and some determination to get a few jobs done.  Last year the wet weather left pools of water on the surface of the soil, and we came away with muddy boots, but this year there is none of that so we can already see that the compost and wood chip paths are helping the structure of the soil.

The Oca got cleared, more beds mulched with compost, wood chips bagged up, sedge grass and brambles removed then composted, and the perimeter hedge trimmed.  On pulling up a parsnip, one of our gardeners was surprised to find that the entire body of the root had been invaded, hollowed out and made into a red ant nest teeming with ants, larvae and eggs.  He managed to grab a few photographs before the inhabitants scurried off with the nest contents to pastures new.  That was an unexpected encounter for both parties.

There are always things to be found in the garden to surprise and interest.  Below is a picture of one of our Romanesco broccoli heads which are now nearly ready to be picked.  It is rich in vitamin C, vitamin K, dietary fibre and carotenoids.  More interesting is the fact that it has the most fabulous pattern, and is apparently a natural fractal vegetable representing the Fibonacci or golden logarithmic spiral.  The head is made up of smaller heads which exactly mimic the shape of the larger head, and repeats itself ad infinitum until too small to be seen; it is quite mesmerising, and tastes pretty good too.

Although plant growth at this time of year is slow or even dormant in some cases, the plants we have will be making some good root establishment below the soil, and preparing themselves for the warmer, longer days which will eventually come.  The broad beans can be seen pushing up against the fleece, but need the protection from the icy blasts of the wind.   They also need protecting from the pigeons that have already taken liberties with a few of the purple sprouting leaves sticking out of the netting.  You can tell it is bird beak damage as opposed to slugs or snails as the birds will tear at the softer parts of the leaf around the main stem and ‘veins’ , leaving a skeletal structure – slugs and snails generally just eat the lot!

We share what we have grown as it is harvested and although there is not enough to store over the winter months, some of us have stored a squash or two from our own gardens which if kept cool and dry should keep well into the spring.  Below one of our gardeners has shared a photo of her ‘Prince’ squash picked some three months ago, cut open to show the lovely deep orange flesh which then ended up in a delicious soup.  There is nothing finer on a cold and wet wintery day.

What’s Next?

• Just check that the parsnips are all harvested

• If parsnips all gone then mulch with compost

• Remove all old and tatty leaves from leafy veg

• Check on all the net and fleece coverings

• Start to turn compost bin 2 into bin 3

• Start to turn compost bin 1 into bin 2.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

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

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

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

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

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

What’s Next?

Much of the same as per last week:

• Clear the Oca and parsnips

• Mulch the uncovered beds

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

• Start to trim back the perimeter hedge.

• Still got wood chips and compost to sort out

• 

• 

• 

• 

•