Sandgate Community Garden

We had a delivery of compost which was able to be tipped straight into the garden, so there will not be any complaints about having to barrow it up the hill, what a result!   We have also made some compost storage areas so that compost we make can be stored until the winter, as well as any we might be able to get our hands on over the next few months.  Concerned about aminopyralid arriving in horse manure which has been added to the compost heap, we have created a trial bed and will grow some tomato plants in it over the summer to see if this nasty weed killer is present.    Aminopyralid is sprayed onto grass to kill broad leaved weeds, the grass is made into hay, horses eat the hay, and when the manure is collected, the weed killer is still active and can kill or seriously affect whatever is grown in it.  The problem is that horse owners buy in much of their hay and will have no idea if it has been sprayed.  We will let you know if our trial bed is clear of it!

Compost is probably the most important feature of a ‘no dig’ garden, it is what makes the health and vigour of all that is grown there, and it will take at least another year of adding lashings of the stuff until we can say we have decent enough soil.  Our five compost bins were all full and were turned into the first wooden container this week; always interesting what you might find inside!  This time it was a silver spoon.  We are always losing secateurs, pairs of scissors and pen knives in the garden, so we are constantly on the lookout, but the spoon must have come with some kitchen waste.  Happy to say, something we do not find any more in the compost is tea bags.  It has taken a long time for it to sink in that they are made with plastic, and would be forever present amongst the vegetables, unable to break down into the soil – now we know!

Talking about soil health, we won a prize from the Permaculture magazine – a 20kg bag of volcanic rock dust!  A remineraliser, It will not go very far, but is another organic way to add that extra bit of vitality.

The other half of the asparagus crowns arrived this week, and they were quickly planted.  We now have another three years to wait until we can harvest just a few spears.  It certainly is a waiting game, but definitely worth it.  We were given some primo raspberry plants, thank you Anna and Eddie, as well as a few more strawberry plants.  Celery and celeriac got planted, Hamburg parsley (it has a root like a parsnip, with leaves that are similar to parsley) was sown, and the galloping potato plants got another covering of compost which they have already burst through.

We have enough cardboard to have covered most of the garden it seems, so many thanks for those of you that have kindly been bringing piles of it to us.  We might just about have enough now but will be making the odd patch or two if any weeds manage to work their way through.

All the cucumbers, courgettes, cucamelons, summer and winter squashes have been potted up, and spare plants will be at the garden on Saturday 16^th between 10am and 12 noon.  So if you are looking for any of these, fancy trying something different, or……. murdered your own plants – come along and pick something up (but not coronavirus, so remember about the distancing and keeping safe!)

What’s next?

• No rain in sight, so keep watering certain areas

• Keep picking

• Find some grass cuttings to mulch the potatoes one last time

• Get together any compost currently outside the garden and move it to the holding area

• Mulch the rest of the hedge with the old compost

• Pinch out any flowers appearing on the onions and garlic

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Next release of spare plants will be Saturday 16^th May, from 10am until 12 noon at the garden.  We have several outdoor cucumber plants, as well as some courgettes and a few squashes, maybe even a few cucamelon plants if they get a rift on!

We would like to say a big thank you to the Sandgate Society, for giving us another £100, which has already been put towards a lorry load of soil conditioner and improver.   There is only one part of the garden which has not been covered so far, and that is where the garlic and onions are growing.  Once they have been harvested, we will get to work and prepare the bed for planting up straight away with sweet corn, courgettes and squashes.  Thanks also to Tina for the pond weed and a couple of bee friendly plants for around the pond – much appreciated. 

We have had a little flurry of enquiries from a few people wishing to join us in looking after the garden.  Currently we are managing to work via our WhatsApp group by posting pictures and videos, and so it is difficult to integrate new members, but we hope they will bear with us until restrictions get lifted. 

This week we have been putting down even more paths with wood chips, and potting up lots of seedlings.  The potatoes have started to show themselves above ground and so we have covered them up with soil, or earthed them up, to give them extra growing depth.   Frustrated at the two month delay in the asparagus crowns delivery, and in spite of complaining that it was too late, half of the asparagus turned up in the post on Saturday morning and had to be transplanted to the prepared plot.  It will need some tender loving care for sure and we will certainly not be ordering from that supplier again.  Goodness knows when the other half of the order will appear!   One of the pictures below shows what a one year old asparagus crown looks like.  They are very large and these were more than 60cm in diameter.

Bee news

What a busy week in the bee section of the garden.  Ray has brought another colony of bees, kindly donated by his father Tony, with another queen and hive!  The bees are known as Buckfast bees, lighter and yellow in colour compared to the other dark bees already in situ.  So very exciting to have this new addition and it is interesting to see bees and work out if they are the honey bees, and if so from which hive, or if they are wild bees.  Ray and Chris will be spending some time making sure the new queen has settled with her colony and is starting to lay eggs inside the new hive.  From their last report, there were encouraging signs of this already happening.

What’s next?

• Might be able to remove all the fleece coverings if the weather is settled

• Might be planting the other half of the asparagus

• More weeding and path making if we have enough cardboard to put down first

• Check for any flowering onions and garlic, remove flower heads

• Compost bins are full again and will need turning.

• Bit more potato leaf covering required

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Considering our current situation it has been a busy week.  Many thanks to those of you that came along to the garden to get some tomato plants and apologies for those that made the trip in vain, as the plants got snapped up as if they were hot cakes.  We were donated an astonishing £72.20 which will go towards our immediate wish list of extra fine mesh to keep insects at bay, more compost or soil improver, and of course seeds.  The next spare plants will be cucumbers, courgettes and autumn/winter squashes, but not for at least two weeks.

We have been busy weeding, and planting more lettuces, a tray of Florence fennel and oca (the South American tuber, or New Zealand yam).  We also had a packet of butterfly, bee and bird attracting flower seeds to throw about, so we did just that! 

Our pond is currently looking a little sad, the plan was to get plenty of oxygenating pond weed and pond plants from a garden centre to help encourage the wildlife into moving to their des res.  Well, we have various pigeons and magpies dropping in for a bath, and a big fat water beetle has been seen in the murky depths, but that is about it.  If you have a thriving pond and can spare us some water weed or non-invasive pond plants, please get in touch as we would love to be able to get the pond to a healthy state.

Bee news

Ray and Chris have been checking on the bees and it has been really interesting to get updates and information about hive life.  Below is a pollen colour chart for the month of April, and a photo of one of the bees with some pollen in its ‘pollen basket’ on one of its legs.  There is also a picture showing the components of a bee hive.  We are learning something new about bees all the time!

What’s next?

• Grrrrrr…… The asparagus ordered in the winter has still not turned up and is now very late!

• More picking,

• More watering

• More weeding!

• More potting on of seedlings.

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We have over fifty tomato plants needing homes, so if you have not got yours yet, come up to the garden on Wednesday 22^nd or Saturday 25^th from 10 am until noon to collect some.  A small donation would be most appreciated, and help towards our running costs.

Thank goodness for some rain, it will make a world of difference; Sandgate often seems to miss any promised rain compared to other parts of Kent, so it was most welcome.  Temperatures have not dropped too far and some fleece covers have stayed off, and because of lack of greenhouse space, many plants now have to cope outside to make space for the courgettes, squashes and cucumbers!

This week, there were more sowings of carrots and parsnips between other established plants so that they will be ready to take pride of place once the first crop has gone. Some cauliflower plants got planted, but weeds got a good tackling too in the fight to keep space and soil goodness just for the fruit and veg being grown.  The posts did get wired, until we ran out of parts and the drill broke!

The first strawberry flowers have appeared, and so the strawberry bed has been mulched with straw to keep the anticipated fruit clean.  They will have to be netted to keep pests at bay. Talking of flowers, the wild/flower area around the banana tree is looking particularly good, and a picture has been included below.  Last autumn a lovely lady came up to the garden armed with a few anemones which she planted.  This lady works in Nepal for much of the year, and comes back to Sandgate every now and then, so we hope she sees the picture of how her flowers are now looking – absolutely beautiful.

Bee news

Bee keepers Ray and Chris are pleased with bee progress at the garden so far and the site has been registered officially on the government database for notifications of any diseases identified locally.  Astonishingly there are 115 registered apiaries within a 10km radius of our site!  Wow!

What’s next?

• Annoyingly late, the asparagus plants may turn up this week and need planting

• Salad to plant and sow

• Might have a first picking of salad and salad spinach leaves

• Pot on sown squashes, courgettes and cucumbers.

• Keep watering and weeding.

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These warm sunny days have started to bring the plants on at full speed and we are juggling with greenhouse/window ledge space.  All the plants that can cope with the cooler spring weather have been sown or planted, and we are now looking to starting to sow the warm loving plants such as courgettes, squashes, cucumbers and sweet corn.  There have also been new sowings of leeks and sunflowers, and planting of sweet peas, parsley, wild rocket, peas for pea shoots, and potatoes.  The first radishes planted March 1^st were picked this week as well as a few pea shoots – the taste of spring!

Rain promised in the weather reports failed to materialise, and so we had to start the laborious but now necessary job of hand watering with watering cans.  The trick is to water thoroughly but not that frequently, rather than a sprinkle every day…..  Water what needs it because of fast growth at a particular time, or is trying to get established, instead of watering everything at the same rate.  No rain in sight this week either, when there was so much of it not that long ago.

If you fancy growing some tomatoes this year and have not been able to get some seeds or have managed to murder your own already – we will have plenty of spare plants suitable for outside growing in pots or in the garden available in a couple of weeks.  We have cherry, beef, and yellow plum varieties, and a picture below shows just how strong and healthy they are looking.  More information next week on how and when you can get yours. 

Bee news

There are some pictures below of the bees inside the hive taken by Ray on his first inspection of the year.  It seems all is as it is to be expected at this point of the year which is reassuring, and the queen is in residence; she is the bee with the yellow spot painted on her.  Ray has observed, eggs, larvae and pollen stores within the hive, and in order to give the brood a good chance to grow into the season, has reconfigured the colony into a nucleus box which is sitting next to the hive.  He then set to work on some new super frames in anticipation of an expansion……

What’s next?

• Keep an eye on the weather as we have removed some of the fleece covers and they may have to go back on again if it gets too cool.

• Watering and weeding

• Sow carrots and parsnips direct

• Grrrrrrrr!  Still need to wire the posts for the plants to climb up, ran out of time this week again!

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So far so good at the Community Garden, managing our time and work amongst ourselves, using technology to communicate and get things done.  It can take longer, and more energy, but we have an enthusiastic and hardworking team, keen to make it work.

We are making sure we are following the guidelines given by the Government and the Council during this challenging time, and continue to refer to the Councils website about Allotments and their use:

‘We recognise that Allotments provide both mental and physical benefits to its gardeners and wherever possible that should continue.’

This week, the pond got more plants around the perimeter, and the wall is fully planted up with permanent trees and vines, to include this week, four Kiwi vines and a Tayberry.  We shall see how the Kiwis cope with our seaside climate!  All these vines, shrubs and trees will take up to six years or so to come to maturity, and so for a while we can interplant with a few seasonal  vegetables and herbs so as not to waste the space.

The broad beans are in full flower so it will not be long until the first pods appear.  Turnips, beetroot and coriander got planted, more sowings of celeriac, plus first sowings of welsh onions, lemon grass, basil, marigolds, nasturtiums, cosmos, chives, sorrel, and even woad!

Just a few more days to wait until the first sowings of cucumber, squashes and courgettes can be made.  It is tempting to sow them early, but a little patience often gives better results, and anyway, the greenhouse is full up!

Bee news

Ray seems confident that the bees are settling in to their new seaside address.  He has deliberately avoided opening the Langstroth hive so as to avoid the brood getting chilled, however this warmer weather will allow Ray to make his first of the year inspection, and to see just what is going on inside.  He will be looking to see if the old queen is still there, or if she has been usurped, and assessing the health and vitality of the colony.

What’s next

• Rain due Monday, but might have to water if not enough rain arrives.

• More seedlings to go out

• Sow leeks and some leaf beet

• Make more of an effort to get the posts wired!!

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When it was announced by the government that there were to be no gatherings of more than two people it seemed that the virus was going to stop the Community Garden from making any more progress for a while…. However we have a great communication system, and with the use of photos, videos and WhatsApp, we take it in turn to go to the garden as part of our exercise regime.  Calabrese, cabbages, and kale for salad leaves got planted; carrots and parsnips got their first sowing of the year.  Dill, parsley and coriander seedlings got potted on, ready to be planted out in a few more weeks.  Time seems to be racing on already, and it seems hard to believe it will be April next week, and the clocks have just gone forward.  With April will come the first sowings of the warmer loving plants like the courgettes, beans, cucumbers and basil, so much to do.

It seems that being confined to home, everyone is having a bit of a sort out either in the garden or the home, and we were left some plants, seeds, and a wheelbarrow.  Thank you Maggie, thank you Peter!

Just as the restrictions came into force, Ray, our chief bee keeper made the swift move to get one of his hives on site, and so we are pleased and proud to say that the bees are here at last.  Apparently the bees are still in their winter mode for now as Ray has some alterations to make to the hive sometime soon, and he will be giving us updates as to what the bees are up to.  It must have been a great shock for them to be in one place, and to suddenly find themselves somewhere completely different.  Below is a picture to show the foraging area that they will be exploring as they can fly a distance of three miles or more each time they go out.  So, if you have a garden with bee attracting plants in the locality it is heart-warming to think that any honey bees you see could be from the garden, just perfect.

What’s next?

• More plants to go around the pond area

• Lift up the fleece from the covered areas and check on the seedlings

• Might be able to get the posts wired for the climbing plants

• Sowing nasturtiums and marigolds

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All of a sudden we seem to have been propelled into another world because of the virus, and nothing seems certain anymore.  Perhaps the only certainty is that there are seeds to sow and plants that still require planting, and although many activities have been shut down, we can still go up to the garden to do things, and it seems that now we have more time to do so!  Saturday was beautiful out in the sunshine; we have room to keep social distancing, and plenty of jobs to be getting on with.  Many of us have our own tools and will make sure we use only them. 

We have sown turnips, celery and celeriac, more peas for shoots, and mange tout.  The tomato seedlings have been pricked out, pea plants, beetroot and spinach planted, hop poles and strings erected, and even some of the plants for around the pond got planted too.

It seems that being confined to the home for some time as led people to consider growing more fruit and veg this year, and we have had requests for tomato plants, and other veg plants too when they are available.  We were also given some seeds to sow, which were gratefully received.

We will continue to plant and sow, and by all accounts the weather is set to improve next week which will be a bonus, helping to bring on the plants in the greenhouses to be then transferred to the plot under a blanket of fleece for a few more weeks.  In the pictures below you can see some of the flowers out at the moment, and the old plum trees are also in full blossom – just fabulous.

What’s next?

• Sow and plant

• Water and weed

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This week we have planted some brassicas (varieties of the cauliflower family that are all different shapes, sizes and even colours!), more broad beans, and some sweet peas, a dwarf variety that should make small bushy plants.  The great thing about all these early plantings is that they do not mind the cold and wet weather so much, and are happy to grow in cooler temperatures.  They will also mature in early summer when the ground can then be cleared and another crop planted.  Unfortunately, along with the new shoots come the slugs and snails looking for some tender pickings, and we have lost some seedlings that never made it out of the greenhouse!  Never mind, new sowings have been made, and they will soon catch up with the earlier sown plants. 

On Saturday we made a trip over to Hythe to collect our hop plants from the Hythe Hops Scheme along with other eager growers.  As well as collecting the dormant plants, there was a seed and plant swap.  Such a great way of swapping any seeds/plants you might not need.  We were on the lookout for seeds and plants that would provide a treat for the bees.  On Wednesday we had noticed that some bumble bees were out and about in the weak sunshine and were busy foraging, luckily we have a few flowering plants such as borage and violas in full bloom.  Early flowering plants are so important for the bee population on days when they emerge and are so low on energy.  There will be plenty of flowers for them to feast on later, but there is not so much to choose from right now.

We are sowing and growing as many things as we have room for and more, for the Incredible Edible project, and the nursery children.  If you are a grower and have some spare plants or seeds, please consider us – we may even be able to do some plant bartering.  We hope at some stage to be able to have a selection of plants that can help us to raise funds through donations….. So, if you will be looking for tomato plants, or maybe a few spinach or bean plants, keep an eye on our Instagram page or newsletter for what is available.  We will also be putting up some notices at the garden to let you know what we may have, what is in season, and about any spare veg plants.

What’s next?

• Sowing seeds

• Planting plants

• If there is time, make a start on planting up around the edge of the pond.

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Such is the generosity and kindness of our community that the call for greenhouse space was answered, and we now have temporary homes for our seedlings to get going.  Lee came up trumps with a small portable greenhouse for us to borrow, not even out of the box; and Kath has room in a greenhouse on top of her shed, just perfect, and we are very grateful.

This week we succeeded in sowing more seeds, planting out the radishes, and lots of hoeing and weeding as the site was starting to develop a green tinge of tiny weedy seedlings, and it is important to run a hoe or rake over the ground now before they have the chance to grow any bigger and therefore make the job of getting rid of them that much harder.

We are excited to announce that we are to be joining the Incredible Edible movement, combining forces with Cheriton and Broadmead in various projects around the area.  If you have never heard of Incredible Edible before, here is the address to the inspirational TED talk by Pam Warhurst, a founder member of the movement which has now gone worldwide. 

https://www.incredibleedible.org.uk/our-story/

The idea is to plant up any available space with fruit and vegetables or trees for anybody to help themselves to.  It is free food, encouraging people to eat fresh, local and seasonal, and to cook from scratch.  If you get the chance to check out the TED talk you will be amazed how such a simple idea made an impact that was life changing for many of the people involved, and helped to create a strong community. 

There have been talks with the station manager and the railway Community Officer at Folkestone West this week, with a view to planting up the station platforms with edibles for commuters to admire and pick, with encouragement to water anything that looks like it could do with a drink.   Sandgate will start with its own Incredible Edible planter in the High Street, and more areas will get the same treatment as time goes on.  Sandgate Community Garden is featured in the March edition of Go Folkestone, and some of us will be helping to plant in Radnor Park on the weekend of 21^st and 22^nd March.  Everybody is welcome to come along and help too, but contact info@gofolkestone.org.uk so that you can be kept informed of any changes to plans.

You may recall that we had joined the Hythe Hops scheme, and have bought four hops and membership for a year.  We got the information that the plants are ready for collection next Saturday, and so we will take time out from our Saturday morning gardening session to collect them, and bring them back for planting along the wall where we hope they will be happy.

What’s next?

• Planting out any veg plants that are mature enough to cope outside

• Sow even more seeds

• Keep hoeing

• Collect and plant hops

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