FAQs
At the moment you're unable to choose your own seeds, but we hope to make this an option in the future. We select seeds to give you a wide variety of produce suited to each season.
This is a long answer as environmental responsibility is really important to us! In fact we've built our entire company with sustainability at its core. We’ve done all we can to minimise our environmental impact without compromising your ability to grow great produce.
You can see a full overview of the sustainability credentials for our kit components here.
Our packaging is single-use plastic-free and we have gone to great lengths to source the most eco-friendly plant pots. Our small and medium brown pots are made of rice husk and our green pots are made of sustainable bamboo fibre, rice starch and resin made from naturally occurring organic compounds. Both of these types of pot can be re-used for 2-5 years and can ultimately be broken up and either put in a garden waste bin or a compost heap if you have one. Composting may take 6-12 months.
In our kits, the largest pots are fabric, meaning they can be folded to reduce size for shipping and minimise our carbon footprint, and they’re made from waste plastic. If you’d prefer to grow in pots but have plenty at home, you can opt for our “Seeds Only” kit, or switch to this at a later date in your account.
Our plant markers are birch wood and are home compostable and our compost rejuvenator (fertiliser) is organic. We print our instruction booklets on FSC certified paper and use a printing company that is part of a carbon capture scheme (for every tonne of paper they buy, they pay a fee to re-plant native woodland to offset the carbon produced by the paper making proces).
Finally, we’ve chosen to work with Royal Mail for our deliveries as they have the lowest reported carbon emissions per parcel of any major UK delivery company. If you have any recommendations for anything you feel we could do to further reduce our impact please do drop us a line, we'd love to hear from you!
Black plastic plant pots are often made from non-recyclable plastics, such as polyethylene, which can take hundreds of years to decompose. Black plastic is difficult to recycle, and most recycling facilities don't accept it so these pots end up in landfills and the environment, where they can release harmful chemicals and microplastics into the soil and water.
From a plant growing point of view they aren't great either! Black also absorbs heat, which can increase soil temperature and negatively impact plant growth. Additionally, black plastic can hinder root growth, as it blocks light and oxygen from penetrating the soil. Better options are coir, rice husk, bamboo pots and fabric pots (which despite containing plastic are better as they are made from waste plastic).
You need a little outdoor space, but a balcony is fine. In the spring and summer you will use this outdoor space but over the winter months some of our kits feature plants that are best suited to growing indoors.We’ve crafted our kits carefully to ensure a wide variety of home-grown produce all year round.
The small and medium sized pots that we provide in all our "Send me Everything" boxes are made of rice husk and are home compostable (so you can break them down and put them in your garden waste bin or on a compost heap). The green pots are similarly compostable, but are made of bamboo fibres. They should all last 2-5 years.
The largest pots (called Root Pouches) are fabric and are made from waste plastic. If you’d prefer to grow in pots but have plenty at home, you can select our“Seeds Only” kit.
Root Pouches are made from recycled plastic water bottles. These water bottles were destined to end up in landfills. This not only prevents the water bottles from ending up in oceans and the environment but also eliminates the need to make additional pots or bags that are petroleum-based using natural resources.
The main reason fabric pots are used is not to create a stronger pot, but to create a better pot, that provides a breathable healthy growing environment. Fabric pots, unlike traditional black plastic pots, allow water and air to flow through its structure nourishing the root of the plant. It also does not allow the plants' roots to circle once they meet the resistance of the wall of the pot. Instead, through a couple of different means, the fabric causes the plant to send out new fibrous roots rather than circle and harm the plant.
In our "Send me Everything" kits, we provide you with 3 coir blocks (a fibrous by-product of harvested coconut husks) and a bag of compost rejuvenator. All you need to do is rehydrate the coir with water and mix it together. In this nutrient-rich medium you can successfully grow a wide range of plants in the ground or in pots. Supplying "DIY compost" in this way means you don't need to lug home large bags from the garden centre, and we can keep our kits nice and small.
Carbon Gold Compost Rejuvenator, a compost activator is a Soil Association approved product. Full of natural biology, fertiliser and biochar it is the perfect organic additive to either your coir blocks or alternatively to you existing spent compost. As coir blocks combined with Compost Rejuvenator are lighter than ready-to-use compost, transporting these products releases fewer emissions in the atmosphere. By using Carbon Gold Compost Rejuvenator you are actually sequestering (putting back into the soil) carbon and improving your carbon footprint at the same time!
In your subscription box you will find a booklet with step-by-step simple instrictions. If you need more help, please just message us on Facebook Messenger!
We dispatch our quarterly boxes within the 7 days following the 11th of March, 11th of June, 11th of September, and 11th of December. Your kits will be shipped free of charge via Royal Mail 2nd class, and no signature is required upon delivery. In case you're not around, please ensure that the parcel can be safely delivered to a dry location.
If you opt for our "Send me Everything" kits then nothing! These kits contain everything you need to get started. We provide compressed coir-based compost that you’ll rehydrate at home so there’s no need to buy big bags and lug them home from the garden centre. If you have pots at home and are happy to source your own compost then you might prefer our "Seeds Only" kits.
Yes, the Root Pouch pots are washable – we recommend washing them with an earth-friendly detergent, and letting them air dry.
Absolutely, we have loads of options to help you manage your subscription. We provide you with the following options through your Green Springboard account:
- Skip a month if you’re on holiday
- Change your shipment date
- Switch from "Send me Everything" to "Seeds Only" or vice versa
- Change your delivery address to send your boxes to friends or family.
Definitely, we understand things can change. Please make sure you remember to cancel your subscription before we ship your next box. To cancel, simply log in to your account and cancel there. If you haven't set an account up, create one with your email address and it'll automatically sync with your subscription. Or you can e-mail us on info@greenspringboard.com and we can cancel from our side.
Yes! We encourage our customers to switch from our "Send me Everything" kits to our "Seeds Only" kits once you have enough plant pots. Remeber you can buy more coir and compost rejuvenator and pots from our shop. Simply visit your account to change your subscription type.