Sprout Pencil – the 100% sustainable pencil that you grow after use

Posted on August 17, 2022 by Fiona Martin

Sprout have developed a 100% sustainable pencil right to the very end of it’s life – as when you’ve almost used it up, you just turn it upside down and pop the end in some soil. Et voila! – the seeds at the end of the pencil will grow and you will have a plant growing in 1 to 4 weeks! It could be some wonderful herbs, flowers or vegetables. The stub also acts as a marker with the name of your seeds labelled on it so you won’t forget what plant is growing in each pot.

Each set of pencils has a different theme, I went with the ‘Mindful Thoughts’ edition which has a lovely quote along the length of each one. At the end of each pencil in an enclosed capsule, there are seeds such as Sage, Daisy, Basil, Chia and Thyme.

The pencils themselves are lovely to write with, perfect for my shopping lists and the children have been using them for drawing etc. They look smart and feel like they are good quality. I can’t wait to get near to the end of one to turn it it into a beautiful plant that I can use – in fact I can just imagine the whole set of pencils in a row of pots along my kitchen windowsill. Then watching them turn into a beautiful array of fresh herbs to use in my cooking – how wonderful would that be!

I think the Sprout Pencil ‘Plant Your Pencil’ concept is a lovely idea and very eco friendly. They would also make a lovely gift for someone and sure to put a smile on someones face seeing the double use for the pencil and something a bit different from usual. Make sure you check them out!

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions. We are not paid for reviews. Although we do receive the product to try out and enable us to write the review.

Home Grown Lettuce with the Kids

Posted on August 4, 2015 by Fiona Martin

My children both love helping with the chores around the house (as long as it doesn’t involve tidying up their own mess!!), and one thing they are always keen to do is help out in the garden. They love growing things, watering and eating something that they have watched appear from a seed and then picked with their own hands.

Tiger Shed’s kindly sent us some seeds for salad leaves and challenged us to grow these over the last 4 weeks and show them our results.

Once I’d picked the children up from school, they couldn’t wait to start gardening with the day’s delivery, although Mister B did get a little distracted with the sack our goodies were delivered in, and before I knew it he was sack racing around the patio!

Miss M got stuck in with filling our wooden trug with soil, and sowing the seeds. They then both had a turn at watering!

We were pleased to see our first little seedlings after just a few days, which is good when gardening with children as it keeps up their enthusiasm and it became a daily task of who’s turn it was to water them.

Our final week of growing was last week, although we were off on our family holiday to Cornwall, so as much as I was hoping for a hot, sunny week, I also didn’t want the little salad leaves to dry out, but fortunately we came home to a trug full of luscious green leaves just waiting to be picked.

So we took a few cuttings, and had them for dinner! Thank you to Tiger Sheds – the children have had lots of fun and we have lots of salad leaves for the coming weeks!

Thanks to Tiger Sheds for providing the goods for our little gardening adventure.

Gardening with Home Bargains

Posted on May 10, 2015 by Fiona Martin

When the sun starts shining and the warmer weather appears, it’s great to get out in the garden and spruce it up after the winter months. I only have a small courtyard garden but like to make the most of it, after all, it gets the sun and the kids love eating out there in the summer months. Home Bargains have a vast range of bits and pieces for the garden from decorative items, things to grow and more useful, practical items.

We received a selection to try out and coudn’t wait for a dry day to get outside. The green, stacking chair cover (£1.99) was perfect for me. We have a stack of four chairs that live permanently outside and look a little more weathered each year. I also get fed up of having to wipe them down everytime we go outside. This cover fitted perfectly over them and keeps them nice and protected from the elements in this strong cover.

My children love helping me to plant seeds so the Seed Starter Kit in Orange & Peach was set up straight away and within a few days we had little seedlings. We also had a basket liner (99p) which we will use when our seeds get a little bigger to hopefully create some hanging basket displays. We are looking forward to a lovely display of Marigold and Nasturtium flowers over the summer.

The children decided to put the Frog ornament (49p) in their tray of sunflower seeds that they are growing. They also couldn’t wait to have a dig with the yellow fork (89p) and even wore the green gloves (49p) to help plant some seeds from the 6 in 1 seed pack (79p) in seed trays. Fingers crossed we may get a crop of vegetables later in the year and the garden netting will prove useful in protecting them from nasty pests (99p). The thermometer (69p) is great to hang on a wall outside, or in a greenhouse so you no how hot (or not) it is.

For a bit of outdoor decor, this green solar lantern (£1.99) can easily be hung up anywhere, and the pretty green leaf fairy lights (£1.59) look great draped across a tree in the early evening. Also this gold coloured butterfly (79p) makes a pretty addition hanging down from a small tree that we have and twirls around in the breeze.

Our garden has certainly been brightened up and tidied up with these useful gardening bits from Home Bargains and at some amazing prices!! Why not check out Home Bargains and see how you can improve your garden?

All reviews are my own opinions and I received the products in order to write the review.