An unexpected box of goodies delivery.

						We went to Hereford yesterday to do some shopping and when we got home I found a surprise large parcel on the doorstep, all wrapped up in brown paper and addressed to me at The Compost Bin Intrigued, (I was not expecting any more parcels after my wool order arrived this morning) I brought the parcel upstairs to the Study and opened it up. Removing the brown paper showed me this:- A  Summer Veg Starter pack  from Seed Pantry, for me to evaluate :-) Info taken from their website - Seed Pantry is a family business set up with a small team whose skills help us provide a great value, customer driven service that focuses on an informative sustainable way to shop and enjoy food growing at home. Established in 2009 Seed Pantry wants everyone to enjoy the rewards of nature and to learn about growing your own veg to eat wherever you live. We specialise in providing the expertise, veg seeds, plants and equipment for growing your own food at home and the work place, from inner city spaces to back garden veg patches.  Seed Pantry provides quality locally sourced and sustainable products with a great value service for our customers. We want to have a minimal impact on the environment, so everything is either organic, bio-degradable, recycled (including the packaging), recyclable, or should be re-used for many years - like your favourite trowel! I was immediately impressed with the brown paper wrapping and the stylish and sturdy cardboard box. My inner origami geek loves that it all fits together with tabs into slots ;-) Opening the lid ( love those tabs and slots!) there is a comprehensive set of easy to understand growing instructions as well as a full list of everything which should be in the box. I really felt like I was opening up the gardening equivalent of a fabulous box of chocolates by this stage :-) The Seed Pantry website says of the Summer Veg Starter pack Perfect for balconies, small spaces or a garden veg patch. This great kit shows you how to grow: peppers, mangetout, carrots and courgettes with all the equipment needed to start growing the seeds, including: a mini propagator, bio-degradable pots, dibblet, mini compost disks & wooden labels. When I took them all out of the box there were all these lovely things 50 wooden marker labels for remembering what you have planted & where 1 Coir seed tray 1 FSC oak dibber for making holes to plant seeds 6 coir compost starting disks  for starting seeds like peppers just add water & watch them rise! 6 mini coir posts for starting seedlings like little gem lettuce 3 x 8cm coir pots for seeds that like a bit more room like courgettes 4 x 9cm rice husk pots for seeds that need a bit of depth like mangetout 2 x 1 litre rice husk pots for potting seedlings on like peppers and a 6 cell mini propagator for seeds that like a nice and warm start like peppers(re-use before recycling)   And Summer Carrot Early Nantes, Mangetout Dwarf Sugar, Courgette F1 Clarion and Sweet Spanish Pepper seeds - enough to grow a lot of veg. And • Growing advice booklet for getting your seeds started • A season of on line tips and advice • Expert advice available at the Seed Pantry forum • Seed Pantry pencil for making notes I first came across Seed Pantry when giving away some small Autumn Salad seed boxes they had done for Garden Organic, to promote the "One Pot Pledge", and I was very impressed with the idea and the product then - recyclable, biodegradable, organic kits promoting veg growing in the smallest of spaces - what's not to like! For 2013 Seed Pantry has also launched a new Children’s Seeds Starter Kit, a Chilli Seeds Starter Pack for growing your own fresh chillies at home and a Three Seasons Kit, delivered in three boxes during the year. The Summer Veg Starter box I was sent, retails at £26 and would make a lovely gift for someone starting to garden or for someone more experienced- it is beautifully packaged and presented; contains a lot of seed and all the products are a bit different and compostable or recyclable after their lives have come to an end.     I can't wait to try out actually growing some of the seeds :-) With thanks to Seed Pantry for sending me a free Summer Veg Starter Pack.