Tag: gardening

Devonia Plant Fertilizer Sticks

Birthday Gifts, Children, Father's Day, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Gifts for teachers, Home, Home & Garden, Spring, Summer

Disclaimer – We have received this item for free or on a loan basis for the purpose of this review/feature but all words and opinions are our own.

This is a gardening hack for all gardeners, whether you’ve been gardening for years or if you’re a beginner! Devonia’s fertilizer spikes and sticks are nutrient dense sticks which feed plants at the roots over time, releasing food and providing magnesium and iron too.  Easy to use, the sticks are just popped into the ground or pot next to the plant.

The nutrients are pre-measured so using the directions on the back of the packs, work out how many sticks are needed for the size of pot. There are a variety of sticks to choose from too, including the tomatoes & vegetables, Boarders & bedding plants and even for individual plants like olive trees, lavender and orchids. You have to push them below soil level and on the opposite side of the pot to the plant but after that, just water them and see the plant thrive. They last all season long from spring to autumn but I would recommend changing them out for the next spring to get the full benefit of them.

These are great gifts for gardeners too, or anyone who is growing plants indoors. I’ve used them for my indoor plants and a few seedlings which are just starting to grow now. 

Available online from £6.49: https://devonialondon.co.uk/product/flower-bed-border-bedding-plant-food-sticks/

Plant With Willow Starter Pack

Birthday Gifts, Children, Family Life, Home & Garden, Spring, Summer, Tech

Disclaimer – We have received this item for free or on a loan basis for the purpose of this review/feature but all words and opinions are our own.

Put some technology into your plant care with the Plant With Willow Starter Pack.  Using the Plant With Willow probe, hub and an app on your phone, you can be alerted whenever your plant is in need of care.  We tested out the technology, which was totally new to me and I’m a gardener, to see if it worked!

The instructions are relatively easy and once the app is set up it looks after itself.  There is a QR code on the front of the box which you scan with your phone and the app downloads. The app walks you through all the steps for setup, including identifying the plant which the probe is going to monitor. If you don’t know what the plant is, there’s provision to take photos of the leaves and flowers and the app will look it up for you. I have a peach tree that needs a lot of water so I was keen to use Plant With Willow to help look after it.

The app can also help with sick plants, teach you how to look after each identified plant, set up schedules including watering and fertilizing and monitor milestones.  The setup screen go on to help you pair the probe with the hub and to use the wifi in your house, then sends you notifications on your phone to tell you when the plant needs watering, more light or moisture.

For when you are on holiday or not at home like being back in the office every day, this is really useful. It has a huge depth of information to draw on as well to tell you how to care for your plants. I think this is especially good for new plant owners or if you have a new plant which you don’t know how to identify or don’t know how to care for and could do with the prompts. I think it would be especially good for children so that they learn how to care for something that rewards them, such as a fruit tree or plants such as strawberries, and has a very low risk factor too. It’s also great fun watching your plants thrive!

Available from £34.99 at: https://plantwithwillow.co.uk

She Grows Veg Valentines Gifts

Birthday Gifts, Children, eco friendly, Family Life, Gifts for children, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Gifts for teachers, Home, Spring, Valentine's Day Gifts, Vegan, Vegetarian

Disclaimer – We received this item free for the purpose of this review/feature but all words and opinions are our own.

Probably not your first thought for the typical Valentines present, but let me explain She Grows Veg to you and it will start to make sense!

She Grows Veg is an online seed company with a very modern, yet traditional twist. They sell seeds online, but they are heirloom seeds. That means the seeds are cultivated from rare varieties of vegetables, fruits, flowers and trees and are typically not found in your usual garden centres. This means that the varieties often have different looks, taste different and grow differently to what you might be used to. It’s an expanding industry where so many people are now getting into gardening especially growing their own food since lockdown. 

She Grows Veg sell singular packets of seeds, but they also sell gift bags, like the two that were sent to us; Chilli Trio and Tomato Lover’s Bundle (£22.50). If you or your other half are gardeners, you’ll know that this is an excellent selection of seeds for someone who loves growing, especially growing and eating!

The Chilli Trio contains 3 different chilli seeds; Biquinho Red, Chocolate Habanero and Machu Pichu. On the back of each pack are the growing instructions and key facts, along with a QR code to find out more on a You Tube video. You can see from the photos on the packets what you’re getting, and helpfully, the instructions on the back tell you what kind of flavour each chilli is and how to use it. The Biquinho Red chillis are from Brazil and take a little longer to geminate but are worth it.  I’ve never grown chillis before but the instructions say to start sowing in January or February indoors, so these are perfect as Valentines gifts.

The Tomato Lover’s Bundle contain 5 packets of tomatoes, none of which I’ve ever seen before. There are three hanging varieties; Crazy Cherry (a sweet green tomato), Red Currant (small, early ripening and very sweet) and Hanging Prince (plum shaped and unusually last for months if stored correctly). The other two tomatoes are Black Beauty and Green Doctors, but of which are favourites of Lucy and Kate at She Grows Veg. Each of the gift bundles comes with a gift bag to keep your seeds safe but can also be used to store larger seeds later in the year. 

These are lovely gifts for Valentines and if you harvest the fruit right, they produce can go on for weeks in the summer. The fact that these seeds are heirloom and not easy to find anywhere else if at all, makes them all the more special as a gift.

Chilli Trio (£13): https://shegrowsveg.com/product/chilli-trio-with-gift-bag/Tomato Lover’s Bundle (£22.50): https://shegrowsveg.com/product/tomato-lovers-bundle/

Qwick Hose Starter Set

Birthday Gifts, Father's Day, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Home & Garden

Disclaimer: We received this product free of charge for the purpose of this review and all thoughts and opinions are our own

Summer is most definitely here and like a lot of people I’m spending much more time in the garden, both gardening and relaxing with my friends and family. Like it or not, the hotter weather does mean plants need more watering and with a large garden, a hose pipe is the simplest way to do this.

A few weeks ago, I discovered that my hose was not in the best of shape, leaving it out in all weathers certainly doesn’t do it any good, so with lots of plants to water I decided it was time to invest in a new one. After purchasing a new coil of hose, I was intending to use my existing fittings but then the starter set from Qwikhose arrived so the timing couldn’t have been better! QwickHose are a new style of fitting made from extra-robust, UV stabilised, premium-grade plastics that are designed to last longer than typical models and won’t keep popping off when the water is on full pressure.

The starter set costs £39.99 and contains a Wing-Lock Connector, Nozzle Spray End, Tap Connector, No-Flow Wing-Lock Connector along with a handy wall mount to keep everything together.  The hose connector itself is fully compatible with other fittings but the QwickHose is so much easier to fit to the actual hose than traditional fittings and gives a more reliable fit. So what is different about the QwickHose fittings – well instead of a ring of short, fiddly teeth, which are prone to coming apart or leaking, the QwickHose fitting opens up wide to reveal a long inner tube over which the hose is inserted. You then simply clamp down the outer wings and secure the wings with the nut and you are ready to go. With a double row of teeth and 50mm of hose inside the clamp, these fittings feel very secure and are very easy to fit.  

At £40 for the set, they are more expensive than other hose fittings but they work incredibly well and the proof is when I water the garden, ordinarily the hose pops of at least twice but since I started using these fittings it hasn’t happened at all.   

I am very impressed with the quality of the fittings and it’s good to know that they are made in the UK and run by a Hampshire based family business. They were the winners of the 2022 GIMA Innovators Seed Corn Fund (GISCF) at Glee Birmingham and it is easy to see why.

With Father’s Day coming up the starter set would make the perfect gift for garden lovers – my Father in Law is a keen gardener so one of these will be perfect for him!

The starter set is available from QwickHose here

Johnsons Lawn Seed Celebration Wildflower Tins

Children, eco friendly, Family Life, Gifts for children, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Gifts for teachers, Home, Home & Garden, Spring, Summer, Vegan, Vegetarian

Disclaimer – We received this item free for the purpose of this review/feature but all words and opinions are our own.

I love gardening, especially this time of year when all the plants start to really take off, it’s a joy to be outside and the wildlife is taking over our gardens.  I plant a lot of seeds, take cuttings and every year promise myself to do something different to encourage nature in the garden.

Johnsons Lawn Seed are helping with that goal.  They don’t just sell grass seed for lawns, but seed mixes too. We were sent some Celebration Wildflower tins to try for this summer, which incidentally coincides with #NoMowMay; the month where we are encouraged to not mow the lawn and let the wildflowers, weeds and therefore nature take over. It increases diversity and encourages the ecosystem to flourish.

Johnsons Lawn Seed Celebration Wildflower tins are 100% wildflowers which cover up to 15 square metres, which is about the size of a large room. The prepare the area to be sown, a bed of soil needs to be weed free (to decrease competition) and raked finely to give a medium-fine seedbed.  Seeds should be sown from April to the end of June, then rake over them slightly and water in to ensure the birds don’t get them! Wildflowers don’t need to be deep in the ground to be able to grow well.  The wildflowers should start to bloom from mid-June onwards until the first frosts of the autumn (mid October) as long as you keep them watered, especially at the germination phase.  

The tins, which are the same type of pull-cans as supermarket beans, contain 17 different seed types including California Poppy, Cornflower, Cosmos, Painted Daisy and Pot Marigold.  Each of the different wildflowers grow to different heights and at different times so over the course of a summer you get a tumbling array of different flowers, scents and foliage. With each tin, the 15 square metres of soil space will probably provide a few wildflower bouquets over time as well, but the variety of different seeds will attract all sorts of butterflies, bees and even moths to the garden over the course of the season.  Children will love to help plant these as well as watch them grow as they are quick to geminate and wildflowers by their nature are able to grow in all sorts of soil and spaces. If you don’t have a soil bed anywhere, a pot or window sill will also accommodate the blossoms if you keep them well watered.

The Celebration Wildflower seeds we planted this week haven’t germinated yet and it will be a few more months before they do, and we are looking forward to seeing what comes up, and what wildlife is attracted into the garden.

Available from £7.99 at most garden centres. See details at Johnsons seeds here:  johnsonslawnseed.com 

Kikkerland Seed Sprouters

Birthday Gifts, Children, Family Life, Father's Day, Gifts for children, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Home & Garden, Spring

Disclaimer: We received this product free of charge for the purpose of this review and all thoughts and opinions are our own

Now Spring has arrived I have been spending more time in the garden. I have been planning some new flower beds and I also want to try growing some vegetables so the Terracotta Seed Sprouter from Kikkerland is going to be very useful this spring as it is just what I need to help seeds to germinate before I plant them in the garden.  

Consisting of three terracotta seed sprout plates they are really easy to use, you simply fill a glass with water and then sit the plate on top so the bottom of the plate is partly submerged in the water. You can then put your seed or seeds on the top of the plate and leave it to germinate.

The roots grow in the water and when they are ready you simply transfer the seedlings into soil.

The small hole sporter has multiple 2mm holes which is perfect for sprouting small seeds like vegetable seeds. I’ve been growing radish seeds which germinate in around 10 days, and I’m looking forward to some tasty salads in the next few weeks.

The medium hole sprouter has 11mm holes for larger seeds like hazelnuts, acorns, beans and citrus seeds and the large one can be used for succulents, avocado, cacti, sweet potato, tulip, hyacinth  and mango.

Watching the seeds sprout and seeing the roots and green shoots appear is also a fun and educational experience for children. Growing seeds teaches them all about nature and it is fascinating seeing the seeds grow day by day.

RRP £21 from Kikkerland