Busy unpacking and moving and digging

STILL TIME TO ENTER THE HAMPTON COURT DRAW! ->



Well the unpacking was the latest Rocket Gardens delivery - no sooner had I got delivery #2 and 3 in the ground than #4 turned up!

You all know the drill by now I guess - a box turns up here by courier, full of organically grown plug plants, packed in layers of lovely damp hay, which I then unpack and plant on

Lots of lovely layers of lovely plants :)

which I then moved into the polytunnel, while I find somewhere to plant them out.

It must be summer - the fan is back as a fixture in the polytunnel. It is activated when the temperature reaches a set ( by me) level inside. it really helps to keep things cooler during the day. Without it temperatures can soar to far too hot.

I will do a post about the Hot Bin and Hungry Bin separately, suffice to say I have been digging them out and am very pleased with what I have taken out :)

Rocket Gardens Constant Garden - update on the plants and harvesting!

The weather here over the weekend was mostly ok, sunny and rainy on Saturday, Sunday was dull but dry so I spent a lot of the weekend planting up raised beds, re- potting plants into larger pots and generally doing lots of garden related jobs outside. When it rained I ducked inside the polytunnel to pot on plants - have I said how much I love my polytunnel? I think I have, a few times. 

A lot of the veg plants I planted out, or potted on, were the remains of my second and third delivery from my Rocket Gardens Constant Gardens selection of veg plants - I put them as small plug plants into pots where they have grown well but it is now time to put them outside in their final places in the ground. Today into the raised bed I planted out various brassicas, some celery, leeks, onions, chard and spinach, some french beans, beetroot and more salads. Several weeks ago I planted out onions and leeks (in another raised bed) and last week I put in the runner bean, pea, pumpkins and courgette plants.

All these plants are growing strongly and for several weeks now we have been eating salad and spinach or chard from the plants which were already in the garden or in the polytunnel (on my salad bar). I picked the first peas last night :-)/

As I said in my last post, I had to come up with some way to protect the raised bed I am planting them in and I am still very pleased with the results :-) It is easy to unpeg one side to plant more plants or to harvest some.

After all this activity I still had quite a few salad plants left over, so I came up with a way of using some "alternative" containers for planting them in. I know lots of people don't have the space to plant veg in the ground that we do here, so I thought it would be good to show how well plants grow in all sorts of containers, and not just plant pots!

I have a friend who gives me lots of these plastic mushroom trays which get used here for all sorts of things. They are quite shallow so I decided to grow some salad plants in them, which don't need a huge depth of soil.

 I lined the tray with newspaper, so the growing medium stays inside the tray.

I added the growing medium (a mix of Fertile Fibre coir based  and Moorland Gold reclaimed peat certified organic, but any good peat free potting or general purpose mix would do)

Looking down from above to show how I spaced the salads plants out. I was aiming for a "pleasing to the eye" pattern, which also gave all the plants space to grow.

As always I had feathery company around me. Sweetie the Speckledy jumped up to see what I was up to

 Naughty Sweetie! She tried to eat the herb plants I had just potted on! Gerroff!

Finished planter :-)

Lots of lovely cut and come again salad leaves, to add to the salad bar in the polytunnel..

I planted  up an unwanted wicker basket three weeks ago with celery plug plants from my Rocket Gardens delivery #3. I lined the basket with an old compost bag and punched some holes in it for drainage.

 

The celery is doing well and putting on lots of growth, and tastes delicious ( I sneaked a stem yesterday)

The Strawberries which came with the Small Fruit Garden are so wonderful! Juicy and plump and huge :-)

The fruit bushes from my Small Fruit Garden are all growing well, still in big pots as I have not yet decided where to site my new fruit garden. Need to think about that, so as to protect it from the chickens.

I am so impressed with the plants I have recieved from Rocket Gardens, they are all growing well and are tasty varieties which we enjoy eating :-) I am also very impressed with their customer service, as when I told them about a couple of plants which were a bit sad in delivery #3  I was sent replacements by next post and they thanked me for telling them, so they could do something about it :-) Which was nice :-)

I am expecting delivery # 4 of my Constant Garden in the next week or so, so I had better get back out into the garden and plant out the rest of the last one, and think where I want to plant out the next lot ;-)

I am enjoying being a Rocketeer!

Saturday - in the house, in the garden, in the wet, in the dry, in the polytunnel, out shopping and getting lucky.

First of all, welcome to my new followers, Joshua Heaton, Jille and Rose :-) Hope you are enjoying yourselves.

Today we had very very changeable weather but I managed to dry some washing and do some planting out in the veg patch while it was sunny.

I am planting up one of the raised beds with my Rocket Gardens Constant Gardens selection of veg plants - they have grown well in their pots and it is now time to put them outside in their final places. But because of the naughty hens and cats, as well as the ever present wild life, I need to protect the bed. 

I am rather proud of what we (mainly Compostman)  came up with.

Some blue water pipe ( free, from the Scrapstore) and some bits of metal pipe ( free - have been hanging around in the Barn waiting for a use by Compostman)  But I then found that my horticultural fleece and mesh fabric lengths were all too long but not wide enough - so to cover the bed I had to use two sheets and have a lot of spare fabric at one end AND work out a way to fix the sheets together. Hmm will have to think about this!

After working outside on the raised bed, the heavens opened, the rain fell and I got soaked, so retreated to the shelter of the polytunnel. Still at least the raised bed plants got a good watering!

Compostman very kindly tied the tomato plant canes to the roof for me, so they stay upright :-)

 Growing well :-)

I did a lot of potting on of my veg plants, and re arranged the peppers into their final position.

I do wonder why, when I plant out plants, I still seem to have more on the bench?

This is my version of a Salad bar :-) I can go out with my basket and cut some salad and it grows some more :-)

Later on this afternoon we are going into Hereford. I am a member of the B and Q club and this weekend I have a 15% off voucher and as we need to think about paints for the bedroom decoration ( yes it is now at the "what colour paint shall we have" stage!) we are going to have a look at what they have to offer.

Update later this evening. 

We went into Hereford to B and Q and bought all sorts of stuff we needed, including solid wooden flooring for the bedroom (gulp). The 15% off voucher saved us a lot of money on the floor and paint for the bedroom. Hopefully we will be moving back in soon and I can't wait!

We also popped into Sainsbury and got items on the shopping list and then I spotted some garden netting  which was the perfect size to cover the supports we had put up this morning for the raised bed.  On offer and reduced to £3.50! I bought four packs, one for each raised bed, for a total cost at full price of one pack :-) 

And so when we got home, before it got dark and in the pouring rain, I did this

Exactly what I needed to cover the raised bed we had been working on and I used tri pegs ( bought many years ago and used for all sorts of jobs since) to fix it all down. This had been worrying me and now it is sorted

and has made the bed secure from cats, hens, etc . getting in there and digging up or eating the plants. Should stop the Cabbage White butterflies laying eggs on the brassicas as well.

Later, later still, well actually at silly o'clock when we should have gone up to bed, Compostman and I watched the first two episodes of The Black Adder from the Blackadder Complete DVD set, which I found in a charity shop ridiculously reduced in price :-)

 It is 30 years since we first watched it, and time has not dimmed the laughs for us and we can still sing the theme tune! And we raised a glass in honour of Sir Baldrick and Blackadder, CBE

So all in all, a good day, if a long one but my bed is calling me, now.

Rocket gardens delivery # 3

In other news apart from struggling with Google, I have been unpacking and planting up my third Constant Garden delivery   from Rocket Gardens. Again, the box was delivered the next morning after I was emailed to tell me it was on the way, again the plants were mostly in beautiful condition and carefully packaged, as I described in my last post about delivery # 2

A couple of tomato plants were a bit sad looking though, as were a couple of the bean plants. I am a great believer in letting people know if there is an issue with stuff - after all how will they know there is a problem if they are not told about it? And how can they fix a problem they are never told about it? So I emailed Rocket Gardens to tell them about the problem and they immediately said they would send me some replacements and thanked me for letting them know. 

Considering the sheer number of plants in the delivery I am amazed and delighted at the good quality and range of the plants I have been sent so far. We are already eating from delivery #2 (salads, spinach and chard) and the other plants are growing well.

I have the staging in the polytunnel absolutely full of lovely plants from Rocket Gardens, both from the last delivery and this latest one :-) I really must get them planted out :-)

But first I need to make up a display board for the Low Carbon Ledbury stall I am doing at the Ledbury Community Fair on Sat :-) I need to get laminating and sort out the display :-)

Rocket Gardens delivery # 2

 The second delivery of my Constant Garden arrived from Rocket Gardens this week.

I was sent an email at 7 pm on the evening of 30 April letting me know my garden would arrive in the next 24 - 72 hours - in fact it arrived at 9.30 the next morning so less than 24 hours after dispatch!

As I effectively still had 48 hours spare before the latest delivery time, I decided to leave unpacking it until today so I left the box in a cool, dark place - away from prying hens!

Rocket allow for delivery times of up to 72 hours from dispatch , and indeed you can leave the plants for up to 24 hours after delivery, before they need planting. So in theory the plants could last up to 4 days from dispatch to planting. I am not sure I would want to risk leaving that long, though!

I unpacked the box - lovely hay packing as usual

 First layer of plants -

 All the plants were very healthy and strong looking, and still with moist root balls.

 Four layers of plants and straw later I had excavated them all and got planting!

 I am still preparing the raised beds where these plants will end up growing so for now I have put them all in multicelled trays to grow a little larger.

And of course the packaging is fully compostable :-)

In the second delivery of my small Constant Garden I received  the following growing baby plants:

Mixed Lettuce x 15

Red cabbage x 5

White cabbage x 5

Savoy cabbage x 5

Beetroot x 10

Perpetual spinach x 10

Leeks x 10

Wild rocket x 10

Rainbow chard x 10

Onions x 20

Peas x 1

Chives x 1

Carrots x 20 Sage x 1 Thyme x 1 Rosemary x 1

The Carrots plants were not sent as they have had issues with transplanting them so I received a packet of seed instead, also the Sage, Thyme and Rosemary plants are delayed until the next delivery due to the poor weather we have had recently.

I am very impressed with these plants - they are a good size and look beautifully healthy. I can't wait to start eating them !

Monday in the polytunnel, with Rocket Garden fruit bushes to plant up and more tomatoes and peppers

I have spent a lovely day in the garden and polytunnel, it has been warm and sunny and I wandered around in t shirt and jeans, no fleece, no coat, no gloves!

I have been pricking out more tomato and pepper plants - I have done several hundred now and I have them in the cold frames in the polytunnel or on the window sill in the porch. I have no more space left!

The first batch I did are growing away really quickly and are nearly ready to be potted on again!


As I mentioned  I have become a Rocketeer and I received my first  Constant Garden delivery from them last week.

I should have received  a selection of organic seed potatoes ready to be chitted and planted - these would have been

Early potatoes x 10 tubers. Variety Colleen or similar, Second early seed potatoes x 10 tubers . Variety Maris Peer (or similar) Maincrop seed potatoes x 10 tubers . Variety Isle of Jura (or similar) Salad potatoes x 10 tubers. Variety Charlotte (or similar) Also included a 10 litre sack of wormcast

But as I have already planted out my potatoes (same choice of organic varieties - great minds think alike) , the lovely people at Rocket Gardens very kindly agreed to send  me a Small Fruit Garden, instead. They also sent me the bag of wormcast fertiliser.

So I was very excited to get my box delivered on Wednesday last week.

 Lovely straw packing keeps the bare rooted plants safe and damp

And paper bags to hold the Rhubarb crown and Strawberry runners

A comprehensive set of full instructions on planting the bushes is provided. All the plants are beautiful, lovely, healthy looking plants. The Strawberry runners needed to be soaked in water straight away for a few hours to rehydrate.

The rest of the plants were fine to be left for a few days as they are bare rooted, so I actually planted them up into pots on Friday, along with the now re hydrated Strawberry runners.

 Four bare rooted Autumn fruiting Raspberry canes

I planted up the Gooseberry bush

And the Blackcurrant and Raspberry canes as they were on Friday evening.

I took these photos today when I was working inside the polytunnel. This is the Blackcurrant bush after just 3 days in a pot in the polytunnel Amazing what some soil, water and warmth will do to a good healthy plant :-)

 And these are the Strawberry runners after being in the soil for three days - see how fast they have grown already!

I have yet to plant out the Rhubarb - have to find a larger pot to put it in.

All of the bare rooted plants were in excellent condition and beautifully packaged up and of course I have composted all of the packaging ;-)

Can't wait to get my next delivery in a week or so - this time it will be plants :-) Lots of plants ;-)

In other news, I managed to sow some beans and peas in pots and also the parsnips into cardboard tubes - if you want to know more see the "How to" page at the top of this site for more info.

On being offered reviews and becoming a Rocketeer.

I am lucky enough to be offered all sorts of stuff to review here on The Compost Bin. Some are really right up my street, others are ..well lets just say completely not me (am being really charitable, here!) To be honest, sometimes I despair at what a company is thinking about when they contact me, given my ethics and the content of my blog - I mean, cheap chicken dinners? Really? Not on my blog. Ever. In case you were wondering, I will only EVER accept stuff to write about that meets my ethics and hopefully will interest you, my reader. I am glad to say I am getting asked to review some interesting items  - recently including wind up radios, interesting plants, organic veg seed sets, gardening books, exotic seeds, garden furniture, bee friendly seedballs. All things which I really like and want to review and then share  my views with you all. I hope you all agree! As some of you might have noticed,  I have today added a new badge on my sidebar. I have become an ambassador for organic plant supplier Rocket Gardens ,  which apparently makes me a Rocketeer :-) ( I love it!) In case you do not know, a Rocket Garden is a box brimming full of baby organic vegetable, fruit, flower or herb plants packed in golden straw and delivered direct to your door. Rocket Gardens say they take out the risk and hard work that comes with growing organic plants from seed and look after the plants when they are young and vulnerable, only letting you have them when they are the perfect size, ready to be transplanted straight into your garden.  All you have to do is pop your baby plants into their new home to begin growing. Sounds great to me! Last year, after a lot of my plants were smashed to bits by heavy rain for the umpteenth time and I finally ran out of spares,  I ordered a herb garden and some extra veg plants from Rocket Gardens - you may remember I wrote about it here I was very impressed with the plants which came, they provided me with some lovely crops and were really great looking and cropping and I loved the Rocket Gardens ethos. So, when they asked me last week if I would let them send me a  Constant Garden to review throughout 2013, I jumped at the chance :-)    Rocket Gardens say on their website Our new range of Constant Gardens are the best and easiest way to ensure you have an amazing and continuous supply of fresh produce bursting from your garden throughout the entire year. Your Small Constant Garden will comprise of a series of 5 gardens delivered throughout 2013. As with all Rocket Gardens we’ve done all the tricky stuff for you, so all you have to do is unpack your plants on arrival, pop them into the ground and watch them grow. A detailed growing guide will be provided with each garden delivery. You will need 10-15 m2 of space to grow this garden. Larger plants which take up more space such as courgettes, pumpkins,potatoes,and tomatoes can easily be grown in containers. The plants get delivered and all I have to do is unpack my plants on arrival, pop them into the ground/final container (or into holding pots until space is available in the ground) and watch them grow. I get sent a detailed growing guide with each garden delivery. So today, I received by courier the first of the five mail outs as part of my Small Constant Garden.  I will post about the contents later this week but for now, here are some reasons why I have agreed to work with Rocket Gardens and review their products and become a Rocketeer ( still loving being called that!) All of their seeds are sourced from Soil Association approved organic seed suppliers. The compost they use to grow the seedlings in is approved for use in Organic systems by the Soil Association. Their  plants are grown naturally under a fully organic regime. The water they use on the plants is rainwater that they collect from their polytunnel roofs and recycle in their own reservoir. Plants are either grown in their own individual biodegradable pots or bare rooted depending upon variety. Unlike most nurseries and garden centres Rocket Gardens don’t use thousands of plastic pots or packaging to grow the plants. All of their packaging systems have been chosen in order that they are as ecologically friendly as possible. Recycled cardboard is used wherever practicable and this in turn can be used again or put onto the compost heap to be broken down. Where non cardboard packaging is required if possible they try to source recycled products. They are a UK business based in Cornwall. They have a really helpful and informative website and really seem to want to get everyone growing organic plants at home - something I totally approve of. They run an excellent scheme for schools and at the moment are giving away a  Spring Garden a day, though out April.

Schools Garden Competiton As part of our 'Dig for the Future' Schools Project we've got 30 Schools Spring Gardens to give away. One each day for the whole of April. Click here to enter your school today. And the final reason? Free organic plants for me and the families I mentor! New veg plants, some which are varieties I have not yet tried, so I can grow even more food. I am still going to carry on growing my own plants from seed but I can try new varieties and also know I have some spare plants, as back up, just in case we have another dreadful summer. And I will have even more spare plants to sell to fund raise for Garden Organic, to share around with friends and to give to the families I mentor as part of the Master Gardener scheme. Really, what's not to like?  Oh, and ...I LOVE being called a Rocketeer ! ( I said that before, I guess...)