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 :-)

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...)

Plant order from Rocket Gardens

As you all know we have had some very wet weather here. A lot of plants have been smashed to bits by the torrential rain, or just didn't even germinate at all this year.

I had little success with my courgette plants - the two in the polytunnel are doing ok, but the four I planted outside got smashed in the last downpour which also flooded the garden and polytunnel.

I have also had a complete failure of dwarf french beans and the latest set of pea plants. I have planted loads more seeds in the polytunnel, I tried looking on Freecycle, I have asked around friends and I have looked in my local garden centres for organic plants but with no joy - I guess growers are suffering the same way and what few plants are in the shops are snapped up quite quickly!

So I decided to buy in some plants online and thought I would see what Rocket Gardens plants were like. I have heard good things about them from various friends and from reviews in the media  Rocket Gardens, say on their website

All of our seeds are sourced from Soil Association approved organic seed suppliers.
The compost we use to grow the seedlings in is approved for use in Organic systems by the Soil Association.
Our plants are grown naturally under a fully organic regime.

 
So, I decided to order some courgette plants, some peas and dwarf french beans as well as some more spinach as I have been having trouble with growing seedlings and I wanted a back up in case of any more losses! I also ordered some late strawberry plants and some herb plants. When I ordered there was 25 % off all orders so I did buy a few more plants than I originally intended (cough!)


The cardboard box came promptly and the plants were packed in layers of hay ( organic, I later found out on checking :-) )

The herbs were very good plants, I have brought the Lemongrass plants inside ( after listening to what Jekka McVicar had to say!)

The mint was to replace a variety which died in the very cold weather last year.

I also planted up a herb planter with some of the other herbs I bought. All were a good size and very healthy looking.

The strawberry plants were quite the best looking ones I have ever bought and I will be planting up a strawberry tower with them in the next day or so.

I shall pot on the beans, peas, spinach and  and courgette plants into individual containers and let them get a little larger before planting them out, but they were a good size also. I just want to make sure they do not get drowned or bashed to bits outside (especially as it is raining here AGAIN!)

Also had a very nice chat to a lady on the other end of the phone, when I called them about the hay, so all in all am impressed with their service and their plants. The prices are pretty good, also ( especially with a further 25 % off...)

Will keep you all updated :-)

A sunny, busy, morning in the garden

Well we actually had a SUNNY day today ! at least until 5 pm, when it started to rain .

I did a fair bit of work in the veg garden. A few of the shallots are still growing

But most needed lifting and sadly a lot had rotted away.

The parsnips are doing well -

You can still see the loo roll tube I grew them in :-) Must add this shot to the "How to" guide!

And when I carefully excavated the soil - look! A parsnip!

We stopped for a tea break and, as usual, were joined by cats and hens. This is Babs, she wanted a drink of Compostman's tea.

This ought to be a carrot bed. No carrots grew.

The broad beans have all failed - covered in chocolate spot:-( so I pulled them all up and harvested the few beans on them.

The very pretty Purple Flowered Broad beans got it as well.

This is one of the beds containing early potatoes - I have had to lift them all, even though the harvest is rubbish, because I need the space for Kales AND the haulms were showing signs of Early Blight - not surprising really, considering the wet, humid weather we have had. I am on constant alert for Blight in the Early main crop beds.

This was the result of digging up 5 roots of Orla . Not good!

I had a delivery of plants from Rocket Gardens, today - they come packed in hay :-) What a very good idea!

 

 I am hoping the courgette plants I purchased will produce something as all my outdoor courgette plants were smashed to bits by heavy rain.

 So, not a great yield of produce    from the garden, but at least we have something to eat - I was beginning to worry we would only have tomatoes and lettuces!