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.