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edibleculture

Naturally Inspired. Simply different.

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Covid questions

15th October 2020 by edibleculture

We sometimes get questions from journalists about what we do at Edibleculture and its interesting to show my (David) responses set against what they choose to say. Horticulture Week is pretty good as it seems balanced.. these questions are from them. Its been a interesting last 6 months and we are more determined to push through our ideas against the tide of profit over planet.

  • Has demand suffered since March/the beginning of the pandemic? If so, why? Like a lot of nurseries and garden centres that offered delivery/pickup from site we had a massive increase in sales via phone and internet. This became evident after about a week where (just) before we had furloughed staff and thought ‘is this the end of our business’? Peat free compost sales were very large (50% up on last year) with new people picking up on our bag for life idea and coming back for lots of refills to create raised beds. Because we had a very up to date list of our plant stock gardeners went for a lot of specialist seed grown stock and wildflower/bee friendly stock.. wildlife gardening is going to be big for us in the coming year and with the relaunch of POSIpot we are going to re-invest and build on the experiences of the last few months.. now is the time to take risks and follow what feels right.
  • If not, do you think any of that is due to the influence of increased coverage from nature and environment programmes? eg Blue Planet 2? I would say that 50% of customers had an awareness of our approach to the environment and our campaigning stance against plastic misuse/greenwash in horticulture.. they obviously have an awareness of just how precarious the earth future looks by watching programmes like Blue Planet. With the remaining 50% we gained a lot of new loyal custom, when we delivered plants in our POSIpots, weighed seed/feed and turned up with bag for life peat free compost.. many had no idea a company was doing this. The best argument is not just talking but doing.. As David Attenborough said.. Covid will be a footnote in human history, climate change will change everything. Gardening became very important to people during lockdown, I spent a lot of time just sitting, relaxing and watching nature.. the concept that a ‘perfect’ outdoor room seems redundant.. we advocate always wildlife friendly.
  • What do you see in the future for Edibleculture? We have had a small grant from our local authority, and we have invested this in a wildlife gardening shop made from a rather beaten up shipping container. I see shipping containers as great selling spaces and have really enjoyed restoring and setting up the space. Wildlife gardening will be big this year as people reflect more on the outdoor spaces they oversee. During lockdown we noticed wildlife thriving and air quality improving.. A lot of people are questioning their actions and how they live at the moment, what do we really need to be happy? I personally took real joy at a very scary time in seeing wildlife closer and more confident..
  • How do you ensure there is no long-term detrimental consequences of your products damaging the environment? Running a business will generate waste/carbon, it can’t be helped. Offsetting will mitigate and luckily by selling and often giving away trees and plants we believe we are carbon positive. Now we have completed the plastic circle within the business we have a handle on any bulk plastics that need specialist recycling. Broken pots, compost bale wrappings and general packaging that comes into us is sorted, graded and sent to specialist companies for recycling. The real problem for the environment from horticulture is..
  1. The re-branding of plastic pots as ‘green’ because they are not black anymore (Taupe) – This is the worst kind of greenwash because it excuses growers (and buyers) to think they are doing something positive.. but in reality, keeping a polluting and destructive product going. Even the miniscule percentage that is recycled wastes a huge amount of energy.
  2. Peat and peat-based compost, destroying a fragile eco system and the best carbon store we have?
  3. Plastic packaging of compost and sundries. Single use and unrecyclable.
  4. Imported cheap plants from countries who have a competitive advantage because their governments support what they do. The UK nursery industry is in sharp decline, it needs to be supported to be greener, experimental and seen as a living wage career.

The nub of this is who sees the true cost of plastic misuse or peat mining? Not the producers or disseminators of these products, whilst a bag of peat compost is cheap from a supermarket what is its true cost??

  • Has there been any concerns from customers regarding the logistical side of implementing your products? We choose not to sell our plants online as we hate the packaging waste and general reliability of the courier system. We receive goods from companies and even after asking for no plastic we get reams of the stuff. We delivered ourselves throughout lockdown in our electric van and I know that sounds really smug but for us it feels the right thing to do, we are lucky living in a relatively affluent area, people like to come to us as we give a lot of advice. Our shop is the big surprise, when we started, we thought we would be tree planting to generate revenue.. it’s the face to face (with a mask on) which is our big earner… we are really open about what we do, and we are not perfect but always try to explain our processes to customers.. I know we could make good money from web sales but it’s not our thing.
  • How does Baaslug anti-slug mulch work? Baaslug is our new product for the spring working with Romney marsh wool company. It’s a wool and bark mulch which we have testing over the summer.. we are really excited about it as it allows us to use on site packaging like our compost bag for life and lined paper bags. With the banning of chemical based slug pellets, we think we have a great product, locally sourced and reasonably priced.

If there’s anything else you think I haven’t covered with these that’s important please feel free to tell me about it too. I may return with some follow-up questions. That’s no problem.. I love having a rant on my days off!

All the best

David

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POSIpot is a winner!

7th September 2019 by edibleculture

POSIpot won best new Product at the Horticulture Week Four Oaks show and went down a storm with both growers and garden centre owners.

It was a great sharing our experience of treating plastics differently, major exhibitors this year were the plastic pot manufacturers pushing basically the same unrecyclable pots but in a vast array of different colours.

Our first trade show was a positive and we will be back next year with more disruptive products to challenge the horticulture industry.

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Green Gardening and Chilli Fair

5th August 2019 by edibleculture

17th and 18th of August at the Abbey School ME13 8RZ

Donation entry

Not long to go until our Green Gardening and Chilli Fair 2019 here at the Abbey School. We will have great things going on with performances from Faversham Fringe, food and drink from Mightyfinethings, Corinne’s Creative Kitchen and great producers such as Carrington Foods, ChilliMama, and great community groups such as Plastic Free Faversham and Swale Friends of the Earth. This is a small event, packed full of enthusiasm, passion and a desire to change the way we garden. Donation entry for local charities and school environmental projects. Spread the word!

We advise walking or cycling over driving… and please bring your own cup!

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RHS Edible Britain

26th April 2019 by edibleculture

a week of edible bliss…

Over the week of national garden week we will focused on supporting people to grow herbs, veg, fruit trees and hedgerow crops. We will have special display stations and sample beds to show you how to get the best from your edible haven!

We will be showing how to successfully prune trees with our very own tree whisperer Chris. Come in with problems and questions and we can help you.

Our big focus is plastics and growing sustainably, we can give tips on how you can reduce, reuse and if need be… recycle. We will be swapping seeds and even swapping plants.

Free Parking, Charity tea stall, toilets and undercover activities if it rains.

We will be open from 9 to 5 everyday.. why not come along.

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Plastic free selling update

21st April 2019 by edibleculture

This is the first time since we started our year zero approach I have been able to sit down and bosh out my reflection on our plastic free selling journey so far. We have just had Gardeners World come in and do some filming of our processes and for the first time actually run through our motives and methods with people we didn’t know! I feel galvanised for some reaction when its broadcast.

POSIpot

The guys doing the filming were brilliant and massively patient, Chris and I both felt very nervous about defining motive, it is obvious that worry plays a huge part in why we doing this, a worry about the impact horticulture has on the environment… and being honest people accusing us of greenwash.

Things that are working include the POSIpot sleeves which feel brilliant to pass on, the public reaction is so good and the process of decanting the plant in to the pot takes a fraction longer than when we use to sell plants with plastic pots. We have a healthy stack of pots for washing and reusing.

The compost bag for life scheme is working, bags are coming back to us for refilling, again its got a huge thumbs up from all that use it.

The scoop and save element are going well, people are getting cheaper feeds and seeds and we are making money to.. it all feels the right thing to do.

Things we need to sort are plant labeling within the nursery, we use to print around 7000 plastic labels a year but now we are having to group plant varieties together and when we sell a plant write up a wooden label. We are thinking of a customer self writing process by putting IKEA style pencils and wooden labels for customers to label plants up themselves.

Transferring our larger plants is proving tricky, we have hessian wrapping for soft fruit and fruit trees once they have rooted (should be with the next few weeks) but at the moment the potted on bare root stock we sell cant be de-potted.

We will find solutions and find benefits within the solution, decanting our plants allow us to examine root health before we sell.

Our waste sorting has really come on, we are separating plastics for ‘in house’ processing. I am really enjoying this element as our land fill waste is nearly zero. Cardboard is sorted and recycled and we are really pushing our suppliers not to pointlessly over pack elements we need.

A really big joy is our new electric van, its a Kangoo and the best driving experience I have ever had. Brilliant for playing music in!

In conclusion it has been a challenging process changing our practices, it seems to be working as our the customer feedback is really good and our we are growing the biggest range of plants we have ever attempted. We have a great new staff member as well and this is really helping us.

The cutting of waste and carbon is going to be the only way businesses are going to keep going.. make those changes sooner rather than later.

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