sure we've done her before but this must be even worse
"These plants will fill a 1mx1m plot or 5m row with 20cm spacing between plants" actually she gives you 60 seedlings by the way Price: £54.90
http://www.sarahraven.com/product_categories/48/products/908-summer-and-winter-salad-seedlings-collection (http://www.sarahraven.com/product_categories/48/products/908-summer-and-winter-salad-seedlings-collection)
thats got to be the biggest rip off ive seen the best offer ive seen is this one for flowers but they all are small plants that need growing on but still good value http://www.jparkers.co.uk/Index.cfm?fuseaction=product.standard&continueaction=category.standard&category_id=478&producttype_id=49210
FOR SALAD!!!??? :o :o :o
That is outrageous. The seeds would cost a couple of quid and unless she is personally looking after them 24/7 then there is no excuse for charging that much money.
No one at our plant sale... (sadly) ;D
to be fair, she gives you £5 off if you buy the Summer and Winter salads at the same time (£104.80 ;D ;D ;D) oh I never checked if there was postage on top ;D
Have these yet appeared on an MP's expenses claim? ;) Must nearly give as much street cred as having your moat cleaned.
Odd. ...
I reviewed her wonderfull product, giving my honest opinion, and it doesn't appear under the 'reviews' section.
Anybody know why that could be ?
Perhaps she will only accept favourable reviews. ;D
Haha... what did your review say, pw?
I've reviewed it too... gave it 1*, the review was: "I think you've out the decimal point in the wrong place.".
Strangely it has yet to appear!
"Thank you for adding your review for Summer and Winter Salad Seedlings Collection. Your review will display after it has been approved"My review won't be approved I just said " You must be joking" ::)
ooh, didn't see that! Time for some fun
Go for ot thrasher ;D
I left a review but there didn't seem to be any reviews to read. It works out to 91.5 pence per seedling.
Good grief plot! :o
Can't do it, gardenqueen - poor lass has got to earn an honest living like the rest of us.
I'd probably click on the wrong button anyway, and end up buying a Sarah Raven Duck Island or something
;D ;D ;D ;D
and they are drop shipped from her supplier, so they arent even grown by her people
let alone her!!
lbb
If you don't want to quite stretch to £50+ quid how about a cheaper option...
http://www.sarahraven.com/product_categories/48/products/895-courgette-pumpkin-squash-seedlings-collection
Oh actually scrub that - not cheaper as they are £3.74 PER SEEDLING!!!
Quote from: Rhubarb Thrasher on June 03, 2009, 16:54:23
Can't do it, gardenqueen - poor lass has got to earn an honest living like the rest of us.
d end up buying a Sarah Raven Duck Island
You know you want to ...you'd be quakers not to :)
that was meant to be QUACKERs...apols to any Quakers :)
I just looked at her site again and she wants £175 for a days course of Flower Arranging for Beginners. Includes one bunch of hand tied flowers you prepare yourself! Oh boy how exciting-not!
I am definitely in the wrong job!
Thanks for the laugh. Where there's muck there's brass, eh? ;D
ordered mine today :P ;D ;D
Quote from: staris on June 03, 2009, 19:20:12
ordered mine today :P ;D ;D
More money than sense ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;)
Blimey! She also does 2, yes that's 2, small terra cotta flower pots for a knock down £56 to have then delivered, or just £36 if you pick them up....so that's...yes...£20 delivery charge. Now where is my credit card?? :o :o
Wow! You can by a lettuce for £0.35 in lidl, Who is it that pays this kind of money for some seedlings?
It is fashionable to HOME-GROW and there are lots of people out there who are just bursting to show their dinner party guests that they have a garden with the ability to supply all the organic vegetables for their meal.
Like when they had the latest Video recorder CD DVD and so on.
Technology seems to have peaked. Now the fad is growing your own.
Lets face it the price for an instant garden is far less than the latest plasma screen TV or a mobile phone that does everything bar sexual release.
They used to call them yuppies, suppose they have a different name today but they are out there and will spend anything to display their superiority at the new gardening phenomenon.
We have been doing it for a long time and well, what more can I say?
I got 20 cabbage plants anyone want them they are only £90.00 - well if sarah can find someone daft enough to get ripped off, I`ll have a go too.
I get a catalogue every year from here which I shred and us fot mulch
Quote from: zigzig on June 03, 2009, 20:59:31or a mobile phone that does everything bar sexual release.
You've obviously not seen my mobile phone...
My local paper had a free offer - 5 types of salad leaf mixtures, and 8 packs of Basil types, all I paid was £1.99 postage. They were supplied by Cottage Garden Seeds at Woodbridge and are doing well.
Not the "designer" choice, but then who needs designer food anyway.
Quote from: Rhubarb Thrasher on June 03, 2009, 16:54:23poor lass has got to earn an honest living like the rest of us.
One packet Lollo Rosso, £1.99, average contents 250 seeds. Cost per seed, 0.79 pence.
One packet All year Round £1.49, average contents 2000 seeds. Cost per seed, 0.07 pence.
That's one hell of a living she's making even when you add compost and pots to the equation.
oh Plot 69, I don't think she'll be offering All Year Round or Lollo Rosso. Too common by half. She'll have MERVEILLE DE QUATTRE SAISONS for instance - 6400 seeds, £1.69 Seeds Of Italy (0.026p per seed) :D
and on top of the compost and pots, she'll have to pay Minimum Wage to lots of Eastern European people, and give them each their own Dibber........I'm surprised she makes ends meet
People have obviously been paying crazy prices for a while, but I wonder whether they still are, or whether ripoffs like this and the sort of nursery where you buy mature plants at grossly inflated prices for an instant garden are going to disappear.
I am afraid the high prices have spread to Garden Organic at Ryton - they want £4 for six cabbage seedlings, not heritage or anything just labelled "mixed". I thought about setting up a stall outside their gates and sell my surplus seedlings at £3. What do you think - will they cancel my membership?? ???
Even Lidl a few weeks ago were selling tomato plants for almost £4. :o
I agree with zigzig. It's a fashion thing - it's very "in" these days to grow one's own. Regardless of expense, one must keep up with the in crowd. ::) I feel like somewhat of an inverted snob, but really once Huge Furry-Knitting-Balls made it infra-dig (pardon the pun), the rest were bound to follow, weren't they? ;D
I can feed 5 of us for nearly a week for that.
I cant believe that people are so lazy. Where s the fun in that?
My Granddad used his lotte to feed his wife and 5 kids during the 30s as well as a bit of poaching.
He would laugh his head off at this nonsense.
Come the revolution I'll make growing your own stuff from seed compulsory.
Mind you will I will introduce that everyone gets an extra bank holiday a year, you will always get your own birthday off.
:)
MERVEILLE DE QUATTRE SAISONS
I'll do you a tray of 24 young plants for a quid, but you have to collect on Sunday!! ;D
Is something special happening on Sunday, I think I may have forgotten, can you please remind me!!!!!!
;D you are winding me up.... ::)
Yes, I was. Saw forget me nots for sale in B and Q for £4.95 (a bargain, I don't think). Also seen spider plants for about £3. (I DON'T BELIEVE IT). Hope you have a good day on Sunday, wish I could be there but too far to travel. Remind us again what are you doing????
QuoteI thought about setting up a stall outside their gates and sell my surplus seedlings at £3. What do you think - will they cancel my membership??
Do you care? Hydra and co are obsolete now we have Realseeds and Baker Creek.
I recently saw single plants of Mangtout peas in pots for sale at £1.05 PER PLANT. You need several for a row ?
I also receive the Sarah Raven catalogue, but use it as a source of hilarity at the prices but also to nick ideas for late summer flower planting. I like her colour combinations and variety suggestions, but then buy the seeds elsewhere.....cheaper! ;)
As the national trust put her rent up by any chance. ::)
she's only doing what garden centres do. I bet we've all bought plants for a fiver because we don't have the patience to take a cutting from somewhere and wait for next year. She's just applying the same principle to veg, for people who haven't got the patience to wait 4 weeks :D
Quote from: gardenqueen on June 03, 2009, 17:26:57
I just looked at her site again and she wants £175 for a days course of Flower Arranging for Beginners. Includes one bunch of hand tied flowers you prepare yourself! Oh boy how exciting-not!
I wonder how much ACE would charge for some educating :-X
Quote from: Pesky Wabbit on June 04, 2009, 10:18:38
Quote from: gardenqueen on June 03, 2009, 17:26:57
I just looked at her site again and she wants £175 for a days course of Flower Arranging for Beginners. Includes one bunch of hand tied flowers you prepare yourself! Oh boy how exciting-not!
I wonder how much ACE would charge for some educating :-X
Got a feeling it ends in off ;D
Saran Raven,Jekka ??-one of their husbands described the punters as `cheques on wheels`.
I`m not envious-much.
But somewhere between all those high profile rip off merchants and the good for nothing market traders who sell rubbish there are some of us who only sell to to fund next year`s costs and if lucky make a few shillings extra
Quote from: cleo on June 04, 2009, 17:17:16
Saran Raven,Jekka ??-one of their husbands described the punters as `cheques on wheels`.
I`m not envious-much.
But somewhere between all those high profile rip off merchants and the good for nothing market traders who sell rubbish there are some of us who only sell to to fund next year`s costs and if lucky make a few shillings extra
#
Well - whoever said it ain't gonna get any of my dosh!!!
At these prices - can you imagine how much it would cost to fill up an average plot? It would make M & S food prices look cheap and cheerful!
Louise
I don't know about Raven, more like a Magpie (Rossini)
Quote from: Larkshall on June 04, 2009, 20:12:07
I don't know about Raven, more like a Magpie (Rossini)
Also Marillion (La Gazza Ladra)
I can't get that Harry Enfield sketch out of my head - 'I saw you coming' - this is obviously the vegetable version...
I was talking to a lady at the allotment that bought two foxgloves for £3 and was pleased. I told her that she would not have to buy anymore as they seed themselves, especially in places where you don't want them. Well if anyone wants to buy foxgloves, forget me nots, or mares tail, or even horse radish, or a bit of rosemary I can sell you some. Good idea for the Apprentice, apparently Alan Sugar is going to be in the House of Lords.
Quote from: Borlotti on June 05, 2009, 18:11:12
apparently Alan Sugar is going to be in the House of Lords.
What's the idea, is he going to sack them all?
Quote from: Robert_Brenchley on June 05, 2009, 18:59:47
Quote from: Borlotti on June 05, 2009, 18:11:12
apparently Alan Sugar is going to be in the House of Lords.
What's the idea, is he going to sack them all?
They seem able to sack themselves of their own accord ::) ::) ::) ::) ::)
To answer the thread title question - I've sussed who pays this sort of money - this woman:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/jun/07/sheherazade-goldsmith
you couldn't make it up! ;D ;D ;D
HOW CAN SOMEONE WITH 300 ACRES TAKE 10 YEARS TO BE 70% SELF-SUFFICIENT????
WHAT ON EARTH DO SHEHERAZADE, ZAC, UMA, THYRA AND erm JAMES EAT???
Quote from: Rhubarb Thrasher on June 09, 2009, 15:17:06
HOW CAN SOMEONE WITH 300 ACRES TAKE 10 YEARS TO BE 70% SELF-SUFFICIENT????
WHAT ON EARTH DO SHEHERAZADE, ZAC, UMA, THYRA AND erm JAMES EAT???
cous cous and gogi berries???
I like how she gets her organic food sent from dartmoor to london - she gets paid to write this nonsense????
must buy her book -"How To Scrape By With 300 Acres Of Dartmoor, and A Place In Richmond, and Oodles of Granddad's Cash"
she must be into saving the planet- saving the best bits for herself. Jealous, moi? :D
why does she say -Waitrose (of course)???
I went to the Pound shop and bought some seeds, Liddl had no seeds (don't care cause have enough, but after a bargain, what a horrible shop, the one in Enfield smells), I love Waitrose but only go there occasionally. I would be extremely happy with a garden like that (green envy, how the rich live), or well just off to the Co-op and won't met her there, and must remember my divi card.
The article in the paper was slightly longer and casually mentioned that she does naturally have a gardener who does all the actual growing of stuff for her.
I spent a large part of Sunday ranting about the sheer smugness and dilletanteism of this person. Have calmed down a bit now.
I shudder to think what this would cost at her rates? and these are only my bedding plants. (approx 1000)
I had a similar amount of vegetable plants as well.
At a rough check they cost me around £200
(http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd27/tgalmanac/June%202009/P1090894.jpg)
Personally I think this is very extreme, but most of the mainstream gardening press I see is like this. There seems to be a rich mafia doing the articles. I guess in mainstream gardening (flowers, plants etc.) we don't mind reading about the unusual and exotic which, lets face it is what we can't all have or afford!
I think that's why we all enjoy forums like this - they are much more about real gardening and sharing things!
I'd like to read an article by her gardener much more .... bet he has some interesting tales to tell! ;) ;D
I guess on the positive side she is providing employment for someone anyway.
Be fair to the lady: "we" moved the topsoil; "we" terraced the patch....
Just picture Shez & Zac out there in all weathers, getting stuck in....
(Or mayhap the same royal "we" who did all the work is the same 'umble servant who sends one a weekly hamper when one has to be in Town?)
Why don't they get a real gardener (perhaps the guy who works for her) to write instead? It would be far more interesting than that crap.
Quote from: electric landlady on June 09, 2009, 16:13:45
I spent a large part of Sunday ranting about the sheer smugness and dilletanteism of this person. Have calmed down a bit now.
that's it exactly. What kind of world does she live in, that she doesn't realise that EVERY SINGLE WORD she said would have any normal person either laughing their head off, or screaming with rage??
I do wonder about these newspapers, and just what demographic they convince their advertisers they are selling to. ::)
Like the supplement in The Times a couple of months ago about 'frugal' weddings. One of the weddings featured 'only' cost about £10,000. Now that's what I call money-saving. :o ;D
Just be glad you don't have to mix with the sort of people who think that kind of article about self-sufficiency reflects any kind of real life. ;) Wonder if she also sews her own designer evening wear.
Quote from: electric landlady on June 09, 2009, 15:08:52
To answer the thread title question - I've sussed who pays this sort of money - this woman:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/jun/07/sheherazade-goldsmith
you couldn't make it up! ;D ;D ;D
The Tory MP for Richmond Park - one of the top Tory strong holds. Not just any old nob off the street gets a job like that.
The whole thing was probably done on expenses over the years. And I bet that hamper is transported on expenses (how many organic miles from Dartmore to Richmond ?)
And no the Tory elite dont have a clue about how commoners live, why would they ?
That's exactly it Denbee ! I find I look at these newspapers and laugh at what their latest idea of a "Budget Holiday Destination" is for a start... It's usually not North Wales in a field with a Tent and a tap .....
Whats more I do find it interesting when they have "How to grow ..." articles. I read one earlier this year on Asparagus and it seemed to include how to buy the plants and how to pick and eat the stuff - did someone miss out what happens in the middle ??? :o.
The gardening press (and most of the rest of the press) is pure commercialisation most of the time!
Growing veggies is very fashionable at the moment. And the chattering classes do love a bandwagon. Didn't take Cath Kidston long to market a designer tent now, did it? Speaking of camping - have you heard of glamping? It's glamorous camping. Not done as you and I do it, Pippy. For example, they have glass-domed tents. Can you adam-n-eve it? ;D Quote from the Torygraph "Research shows that old-fashioned camping is dying – but a more luxurious form, with glamorous accessories and spacious tents, is flourishing" Wonder who does their research?
All us sensible types can do is sit it out and wait for them to find something else to patronise, leaving us plebs to get on with it proper-like. ;)
;D ;D ;D ;D :o :o
Must admit, it's nice to go to places the "Chattering classes"don't!
-Mummy?
-Yes, James?
-Why don't I have a funny name like Sheherazade, Zac, Uma or Thyra?
-That's because you're really the gardener's. And when he's too old to work, and we have him put down, you're taking over...........
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D Like it, RT ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Quotewe don't mind reading about the unusual and exotic which, lets face it is what we can't all have or afford!
Nah. I doubt that there is any veg that any good lottie person cannot afford and as for exotic, I reckon that I regularly eat exotic vegetables that the majority of rich folk have never even heard of.
The problem with the newpapers and magazines etc is that they have to sell stuff, and so called sponsers are happy to pay for the articles plus practically everyone featured in an article has something to sell - a new book / film / product etc. Makes reading these papers either very dull or as others have said rant inducing! Its one of the reasons I gave up buying gardening magazines a few years ago, cos the jmajority just churn out the same old stuff, then their feature gardens are always by someone who has got something to sell. So I gave the mags to a local charity and went online. ;D
Thanks everyone, spent the last 10 minutes laughing through this thread.