Sandgate Community Garden

Every session these days there is something to pick, this week was salad leaves, the first of the dwarf beans, beetroot, courgettes and summer squashes, along with the last of the spring onions.  The sweet peas are producing more and more flowers, as are the zinnias, and now a few dahlias.  We are always pleased to see any visitors on our Wednesday and Saturday morning sessions keen to take produce home with them, and have had reports of how flavoursome the vegetables are.   

The kale and purple sprouting got planted, two varieties of each, and immediately they were covered with a fine mesh to prevent the cabbage white butterflies from laying their eggs.  It is also important to make sure the plants are clean of eggs before they go under cover.  Any outside the mesh will have to be checked and cleaned every week as a caterpillar infestation can finish them off.  Cabbage whites can be seen dancing around the brassicas desperate to get at them.

Since reporting on the amount of blackfly last week, happily this week there is evidence of more and more predators such as ladybirds.  It makes sense for them to appear in numbers after infestations, to give them plenty of food to eat, and they certainly have some catching up to do.

With extra weed, the pond is starting to look more pond like!  It still leaves a lot to be desired, but if you take time to really peer into the water it is teeming with all kinds of creatures, including a spaniel that decided to squeeze under the fence and jump in one hot day…… we need to put some mesh along those gaps!

Bee news

Our bees in the garden are always looking very busy, and we are assured by Ray and Chris that all is well.  Ray has been busy collecting honey from another hive he has, and Chris has her own new hive close by.  Her bees are collecting pollen that is black in colour, and it will be interesting to find out what that may have come from on the pollen chart for July.

Incredible Edible news

The Incredible Edible team have been measuring up and planting large planters in Cheriton High Street.  Several shop keepers are keen to have their own edible displays.  The lettuces in the Sandgate High Street planter have been harvested and hopefully eaten.  They have been replaced with Palla Rossa Chicory and some edible viola flowers ….. they look great mixed in with a leaf salad.  We hope to have some news about things taking shape in the Golden Valley area of Sandgate soon.

What’s next?

• Keep picking, weeding and watering.

• Get some mesh in the fence gaps

• Check the Pink Fur Apple potatoes to see if they are ready…. If so, harvest and replace with more kale.

• Sow more chard, and maybe some Chinese cabbage

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An executive decision was made in the week to meet up and work on the garden on Tuesday  instead of Wednesday when it was super soggy.  We might be a great working team but we do not enjoy being wet, and so please bear that in mind if you were making a trip up to the garden on either our Wednesday or Saturday morning session, that we do not work in serious rain!  Saturday in particular was a very sociable morning with lots of people dropping in, and it was a real community garden with lots of banter and all round good fun in the sunshine!

We are busy trying to find room for the winter brassicas, the purple sprouting and kale.  The cabbage white butterflies are very evident this week flitting about looking for somewhere to lay their eggs but we hope to have put them off by immediately covering the new plantings with a close woven mesh, making sure there are no gaps for the butterflies to get in.  The pesky blighters can spot a fault in the netting with no problem and will be in there in no time at all laying the eggs of their brassica munching caterpillars.  We still have to raise some of the mesh cloches where plants are starting to push against the netting; a job for next week.

Another week of kindness as we had more weed and oxygenating plants brought up for the pond, and two donations from Sandgate neighbours happy to see the Incredible Edible plantings in the Sandgate alley way as written about last week.  The £15 given will go towards more compost and seeds to help towards keeping the project going, there are lots of ideas and more possible projects in the pipeline, and we will keep you posted as to further developments, it is all very exciting.

Blackfly is the issue this week… there certainly seem to be plenty of them and they are pestering our poor runner beans stressed already by the wind in the week, which of course attracts the blackfly.  However Theresa was on the case, and spent time brushing and washing them off with a dilute mix of washing up liquid.  With any luck, a couple of such treatments might do the trick and stop them from overwhelming the plants.  The first dwarf beans are looking perky and a few bean pods might even be ready to pick next week.

Below is a picture of the sunflowers outside the fence and along the wall.  The first two plants were snapped by the wind, the rest are incredibly still standing, and the first flower is starting to show colour.  With any luck they will grow taller than the wall and make a real show.

What’s next?

• Raise the cloches for the brassicas

• Keep cutting, picking and weeding

• Plant out the purple sprouting

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The Wednesday morning session was spent propping up leaning plants and cutting off wind burnt and shredded leaves, the condition of the garden was surprisingly better than was thought, although it seems we have more windy days to follow.  Saturday morning was a washout, rain is great and we really should not grumble but the timing was not good! 

This week we have weeded inside the cloches, planted beetroot, a random tomato plant, and the last few dwarf beans for this year.  The flowers got another cutting, and the wild flower area tidied; some of the potatoes got harvested, along with broad beans, spring onions, beetroot, salad, and courgettes.  The first salad sown in early March is nearly finished, and being overtaken by the second sowing of the year in early June; a third sowing will be made next week plus endives, both frizzy and escarole varieties.  This month there will be sowings of chard, kohlrabi, Florence fennel, more kale, and at the end of the month, some Chinese cabbage, lots to look forward to!

We are keeping a close eye on our hop plants, and have sent our photos of them to the Hythe Environmental group to deliver a verdict on how they are looking as first year plants.  It seems from their feedback that they are looking good and strong.  The next milestone is the appearance of the first ‘cones’ from the insignificant looking burrs or flowers…. Then we will be in business for picking the cones in September to be made into local beer.  Not long now.

The second incredible edible project was finished in Sandgate and planted up with runner beans, dwarf beans, chillies, strawberry plants, tomato plants, squashes and all manner of herbs.  The neighbours seemed pleased with the new look, and have volunteered to make some additions.  We are now turning our attention towards the possibility of yet another Edible space in Sandgate, more details to follow as and when there is progress.

What’s next?

• Raise the cloches as the brassicas inside get taller.

• Cut off the strawberry runners not required this year

• Keep cutting and picking

• Sowings of seeds as mentioned

• Cut back lower third of hop side shoots

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A week of far too much weather seems to have been the theme, going from one extreme to the other; however the rain was most welcome and saved us having to water at the end of the week, hooray!

A busy Wednesday morning, with many visitors to the garden, either having a look around, or coming to pick up some vegetables or flowers.  The sweet peas are starting to come quite fast now, and it is important to pick every one of them at each of our gardening sessions to encourage them to keep flowering and not to go to seed.  The zinnias also have started to bloom, as well as one or two dahlias. 

The Florence fennel has now finished, and the way made for beetroot, which will probably be planted next week.  We picked more broad beans, beetroot, salad leaves, a few potatoes, some courgettes, and a handful of blackcurrants, last of the mange tout, spring onions, and some baby parsnips thinned out from the parsnip bed to allow the others to grow bigger.  We can only expect a little fruit from the fruit bushes until they have matured a couple more years down the line, when we could be picking buckets!

The carrots sown just last week have already started to show, and we have had to cover them with mesh as the wildlife has started to kick the dirt around looking for something other than carrot seedlings.  We planted more lettuces, more dwarf French beans, more basil, and a couple more plants around the pond.  The compost bins got watered as they were becoming too dry, the tomatoes have had their side shoots removed, the cucumbers and climbing squashes tied in to their posts, and the hops have had their lower leaves removed to keep the plants clean.  Unbelievably, the second lot of asparagus planted ridiculously late at the beginning of June are now starting to show the tinniest bit of life thank goodness. 

We have an amazing group of volunteers at the garden, they are all enthusiastic and hardworking, happy to weed or water or tackle something in the garden they may never have done before.  Some of our gardeners had never sown seeds, and are now feeling confident enough to try sowing and growing even more in their own gardens.  Most people may be growing a few tomatoes and beans, but even if that is the only space you have available, there are things that can be grown before and after they have been dominant.  Below we have a picture of Chris’s enviable lemon tree (with lemons!), she has loads of tomatoes on the go too.  Rosie is growing all sorts of things to include, lots of herbs, chard, courgettes, squashes and cucumbers.  She is looking into where she can squeeze in even more – fantastic.

Lots of positive comments about the Incredible Edible planter in the High Street and it seems we now have volunteers to keep it watered and looked after – thank you so much.  Yet another Incredible Edible space is being developed in Sandgate.  It is currently being cleared and will be planted up with vegetables and perhaps a few companion flowers.  The site is somewhere in the back streets of Sandgate, so you will have to look quite hard to find it, however there will be some pictures when it is completed.  Already local passers-by have commented they are delighted to see the space being tidied and are interested in getting involved in looking after it …. Excellent, this is what Incredible Edible is all about.  It is hoped there will be more news about growing spaces in the area, and please get in touch if you would like to get involved as we would love to hear from you.

What’s next?

• Collect some of the potatoes

• Sow collected chive seeds in pots

• Still not weeded the salad cloche

• Still not thinned out all the carrots

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You will not be surprised to hear that we have run out of space in the garden again for everything we are trying to grow!  When the onions came out last week we planted up the ground with runner and dwarf beans, soy beans, lettuces, cucumbers and leeks.  We have no idea where the rest of the lettuces, kale, beetroot, purple sprouting and chicory will go as yet.  With any luck we can squeeze some into a couple of spaces, and will have to wait for the rest of the broad beans and beetroot to mature, but even so, space is precious!

The compost heaps got turned, and the mint finally got potted on, along with the horseradish; carrots have been sown where the pea shoots were, and most of the leeks sown in April have finally been put where the mange tout came out!  We put up a sign at the gate to say that we may have fresh vegetables available on the Wednesday and Saturday mornings, and we let some visitors have our first bunch of sweet peas, and our first globe courgette.  This week we have onions, spring onions, salad leaves, beetroot, Florence fennel, a few broad beans, and perhaps a few courgettes and sweet peas, so come and ask us when we are there, or text me (Leonie) on 078 401 38308 if you are partial to something we may be growing – we know some of you are asking about marrows, they will be a while yet.

As part of the Incredible Edible project, we planted up a container in the High Street just outside The Ship.  We hope you will enjoy helping yourself to the herbs and vegetables; we will be replanting and watering it from now on.  We are looking for more Incredible Edible spaces so if you live or work in the High Street, have the room, and would like us to create an Incredible Edible space for you, please get in touch to talk to us about it.

With all this sowing and growing, with a view to getting more of you into seasonal, fresh fruit and veg, we are in desperate need still for greenhouse space, and although we had a great response in the spring, by the late spring, a greenhouse we were using was being filled again by the owner, and so we are still looking for anywhere that preferably is not currently used, with easy access.  It could be the start of a beautiful relationship!

We hope that most of you have by now seen the lovely drone video of the garden taken by the Saga head gardener, Paul, and sent out by the Sandgate Society.  How fantastic to have another perspective, and for those of you unable to get up to the garden, a chance to see it.  Paul was up at silly o’clock to take that video, and catch the blackbirds having a dip in the pond.  Part of it is now on our Instagram page, but get in touch and it can be forwarded to you if you have not had the opportunity to see it.

This week we have another two pictures from two of our volunteer’s gardens, to show what they are growing this year.  Julie is growing all kinds of herbs and vegetables, as is Ann who has upgraded her veg plot to really go for it this year!  Great stuff!

Bee News

The excitement for this week is that Chris, one of our bee keepers, has just bought her own bee hive, and is looking forward to getting a new queen and a few bees to start it up.

What’s next?

• Weed the salad cloche

• Check on the early potatoes

• Thin the carrots and parsnips

• Check if the compost heaps need watering as they are quite dry.

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The onions have toppled over, a sign that they are ready to be lifted and dried, and once done, the ground was covered with the last of the saved compost and planted up with more beans and cucumbers.  We have put extra windbreaks along some of the beanpoles to give the beans as much chance as possible. 

We planted a few basil plants, kale, and Brussel sprouts, all kindly donated by the new mayor of Folkestone, Michelle Dorrell.  Michelle is a keen allotment holder it seems, and has joined the Incredible Edible movement which some of us are involved with locally.  She is yet to visit the community garden, and hope she can find the time to do so this summer.

Everything is starting to grow fast, the courgettes and the sweetpeas are almost in flower, and so it will not be long before we can expect to be picking more.  Most of the time we have enough for the volunteers to have a taste, and occasionally a visitor to the garden will ask if anything is available, and go away with something too.  With the onset of the summer glut, we hope to be able to get the vegetables to even more people – not forgetting we are also sharing with the wildlife (most of us have not seen a strawberry as yet!).  Before the virus overtook, we would take produce to the library or perhaps the Sandgate Society at the Fire Station; and so now we are thinking we could make it known that we may have some seasonal veg available at the gate, on Wednesday and Saturday mornings from 10am until midday.   

Thank you so much to all the kind and friendly visitors we have that come up to the garden to lean over the fence and take a look at the changes, compare notes, or ask questions.  We really do appreciate all the positive comments we have had, and hope that more of you may find the time to do the same.  We are interested in promoting the growing of seasonal fruit and vegetables locally, as well as supporting wildlife.  Many of our volunteers are growing at home too, even if they only have space for a few pots, and below are a couple of photos from two of their gardens.  There was a request for the photographs to be listed for easier identification, so hopefully they should now make more sense!

What’s next?

• The mint has still not been potted up!

• Sow more beetroot and chicory

• Remove some of the finished pea shoots to make way for more lettuce plants

• Remove spinach as it is bolting.

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No more procrastinating this week, and glad to report that jobs like repairing the flat wheelbarrow tyre and finishing the post wiring is under way and getting done, always satisfying to complete tasks that nag at you to get them finished.

At last the weather has broken and the much welcome rain will do wonders to loosen up the soil and bring long awaited relief to plants that we choose not to water, in preference to those that really do need it.

The new signs seem to be working well for us, and Saga has added their own just by the first gate, and very smart it is too.

Our experiment to find out if any of the horse manure added to the compost bins is affected by Aminopyralid (a herbicide which remains active) seems to be going well, and happily nothing seems to have happened to the tomato plants or cucumber planted into it.  If Aminopyralid was present, the leaves of the plants would curl up, and they would fail to thrive – so far so good.

Just to add to the mix of wildlife evident on site, a mole has decided to come over and rummage around too.  The best dining place for our friend seems to be the compost bins where there are always juicy worms, and mole hills have appeared all around the composting area.  Our constant companion never afraid to show themselves is a very friendly robin.  Always there singing loudly just as soon as we start any work, they dive into the cloches as soon as they are opened and quickly pick up anything they can find to eat.  We had a blackbird caught in the strawberry netting which was most upsetting.  Luckily we are on site every day and the bird was quickly released and was happily uninjured.  With the strawberries proving irresistible to all the wildlife, maybe we should just consider removing the netting and leaving them to it, or filling the entire plot with strawberries in the hope of getting a few to eat ourselves!

The warmer weather and rapid new plant growth has brought the arrival of aphids, the predators that feed on them are slower to appear, and so we have had to use a mild soap solution to deter the pests until, we hope, the cavalry arrives to help us out.  Luckily we are just starting to see a few ladybirds and their larvae around.

Most striking this week has to be the fragrance that wafts around the garden from all the flowers currently on show, just delightful.  Sheer pleasure is to take some time out, sit on the bench, and take it all in…….sea view, flowers, wildlife; a little piece of heaven right here in Sandgate.

Bee news – Ray and Chris have reported that the new Buckfast bees have really been busy and now have a ‘super’ added to their hive for them to move into.  They are probably enjoying the flowers just as much as we are.

What’s next?

• If more of the onions have started to topple over, they are ready to be lifted and dried.

• Check to see if any of the first early potatoes are swelling

• Tie in plants as they grow

• Pinch out tomato plant side shoots

• Re-pot mint

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This hot and dry weather has brought things on really fast, and it is a race to get as much as possible into the ground and keep up with the watering.  It is very interesting the differences between the planting zones we have in the garden.  We have the very fine silty, sandy soil up against the wall, where the water rolls off the surface and runs away; we have some zones that have not had any compost added, or very little, and when dry is as hard as concrete; and then there are a  few improved areas which are easy to plant into, soaks up and retains the moisture but unfortunately attracts the badgers and probably foxes as they are great areas to find some good fat juicy worms, and so we replant after every wildlife foraging session!  The badger has just turned its attention to the strawberry patch, and frustrated by the netting, formulated the plan of sticking its nose as far into the mesh as possible and straining the ripe strawberries through the strands of net.  How very resourceful.  It will probably be a fact that we can kiss goodbye to the sweet corn too when that ripens.  We just have to appreciate that we are creating a restaurant for the wildlife, and will be sharing certain things.

We have now started putting up some signs around the garden so that there is more information about what is being grown, and when a gardener is definitely going to be there, (although somebody is around at some point during the day).

The broad beans and garlic did mature this week, and have made way for more summer plantings of squashes, beans and tomatoes.  The courgettes and cucumbers did get planted, and there were more sowings of salad leaves and beans.  The leeks sown in April have been potted up and are on standby for when the potatoes finish maturing which will be in June or July depending on the variety.

Can you believe there is actually a frog in our wildlife pond/puddle?  That is one brave frog considering the current low water situation and lack of pond plants!  Even though we know the pond still needs working on, there are always birds in there having a bath, as well as queues of honey bees having a drink, and we have this week been seeing dragon flies having a look too.  It is great to think that it has attracted some wildlife already, and no doubt the badger has been in there too!

What’s next?

• More signs to be put up to give more information on the garden.

• Plant out very last of squashes and cucumbers etc.

• Water, water, water…. But in a smart way

• Prepare the ground where the garlic was, for planting

• Stop putting off getting the wheelbarrow wheel fixed and the last of the fence post wires being put in!

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We swapped the cold windy weather this week for warmer windy weather.  We bit the bullet and started the changeover from spring, to summer plantings of courgettes, beans, squashes and sweet corn.  The Zinnias and cosmos are in their bed, and the dahlias next to them.  We have put in runner beans again this year, but the way the poles were being rocked about in the wind this weekend, we have to be realistic that they might find the plot too harsh to thrive, and stick to dwarf beans instead.  The courgettes and squashes have had covers put over them for a while until they establish a few roots and will not be ripped out by the wind; however the fencing is definitely helping.

We have been overwhelmed by community kindness this week.  Upon reading about our unknown nocturnal visitor in our last newsletter, Chris (one of our beekeepers), set up a camera in the garden to see if we could capture on film just what was going on.  We got film clips of one of our gardeners doing some late evening watering (well done Theresa), a few cats, birds, a fox, and then amazing footage of a badger strolling around and generally having a great time.  He was there the next night too and confirmed just what we had thought. There is a picture of the badger attached, and a short film has been uploaded to our Instagram and Facebook pages.  Chris has since kindly donated the camera to the garden and so we will be able to keep an eye on local wildlife when we are generally not around.

A local gentleman brought some spare wire fencing, up to the garden for us to use, and five people all came along at various intervals loaded with their spare tomato plants, having heard the plight of ours that were lost to the cold last week – thank you Erica, Sheila, Gill, Andrea and Rosie, how amazing and wonderful you are!  Thank you. 

We had a few of our own spare plants that went to new homes on Wednesday, and we were donated a total of £30.65 to buy more seeds/plants.  As well as having many people drifting by to pick up new stock, we have had plenty wandering past just to have a look at what is growing and to have a chat about all things fruit and veg.  We have had so many compliments, which is a great tribute to our gardeners and the hard work they put in, planting, weeding, watering and staking.

What’s next?

• We appreciate that there is not enough information on display in the garden, and so one of our gardeners has been busy making chalk board notices which we will start to display around the garden.  There is also a new sign kindly being supplied by Saga which will eventually be situated outside the fence.

• Keep an eye on the broad beans and onions/garlic for signs of going over.

• More plantings of courgettes and maybe cucumbers if the long term weather is settled

• Keep checking the watering situation

• Sowings of more beans plus lettuces for summer

• Still need a wheel kit for the wheelbarrow and fencing fixings

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The very first newsletter documenting the beginnings of the garden was dated 17^th May 2019, and so we are now one whole year old!  Seems incredible as so much seems to have happened in that time, and so the story continues to develop!

It has been a fight with nature this week.  It started with a turn in the weather from warm sunny days to an arctic blast of wind and cold that ripped the fleece from our tomato plants, shredded and froze them.  Some of them will survive but it goes to show you can never be complacent and take things for granted.  It would be interesting to be able to set up a camera in the garden to log it’s visitors as it seems we have a fox or possibly a badger that enjoys getting into the net cloches and running amuck, digging holes and throwing plants about, possibly looking for worms to eat.  We often have to replant, although they do not seem to care much for the turnip patch.  Nature has a great way of reminding that we are not the masters of all things, just to keep you on your toes.

Happily we still managed to move onwards, and have planted some sunflowers.  Last year we had three plants close to the wall, and they towered over the garden.  We have planted over a dozen outside the garden and up against the wall and hope they will put on a fabulous show this year.  We also planted some zinnias, for cut flowers, a few more turnips and celeriac plus some sweet corn, with the view that we might have turned the corner in the weather now.

We brought our spare plants along on Saturday, and had a steady trickle of people looking for an addition or two for vegetable plots.  However we still have a variety of squashes, summer and winter, plus a few cucumbers and bell pepper plants available this Wednesday from 10am to midday.  So avoid the huge queue at the garden centre, and come to the garden instead.

Bee news

Ray and Chris are happy that the bees are settling into the job of increasing the colonies and collecting plenty of pollen.  They make regular inspections, but never if it is too cool as this would be detrimental to the temperature inside the hive.  The bees can often be seen drinking from the pond, and if not very careful, swimming in it too!  Luckily there are various places they can escape.

The pictures attached are of massacred tomato plants and a reminder of last year’s sunflowers.

What’s next?

• Watering new plantings and seedlings as no rain is in sight yet again

• Plant cosmos and dahlias

• Might be able to plant bush and runner beans this week, and a few courgettes

• Check onions and garlic for flowers

• Finish mulching the hedge

• Get some more fixings for the wired posts, and a new wheel for a wheelbarrow!

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