Other Freight costs for Plastic Forest Products

[Marianne St Clair]

Hi Mark, I just tried to place an order with Plastic Forests. We would like to support them and wanted to try out their products before purchasing more - as we have done for Birdies. My order was about $360, but the freight was over $250! I tried a Brisbane address and the freight was about $25. We in the NT get overcharged for all sorts of thing! I have contacted Plastic Forests by phone and email and hopefully they will respond. We live about 35 kms south of Darwin and would be happy to pick up from a depot or have the product posted to our Post Office Box. Hopefully the situation can be resolved. Keep up the great work! My husband has even taken an interest in gardening! We ordered some Birdies beds in June, and just put another order in - this time for 14 beds! Cheers from a soggy Top End, Marianne St Clair, Simbani Research. PS This is my first post, I'm not good at social media....

 

[Mark]

G'day Marianne, I'm sorry to hear about the freight costs—that's a lot! Hopefully, Plastic Forests can work something out for you.

Congratulations on your Birdies beds. Raised garden beds will certainly help with drainage, especially during the wet season.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Oh my, those prices are shocking! I'm sure Plastic Forests will look into this and provide you with some answers.

That sounds lovely! Do you have a certain layout in mind for the new beds, or mix and match as you go along?

Your post is just fine, don't worry

 

[Marianne St Clair]

G'day Marianne, I'm sorry to hear about the freight costs—that's a lot! Hopefully, Plastic Forests can work something out for you.

Congratulations on your Birdies beds. Raised garden beds will certainly help with drainage, especially during the wet season.

Thanks Mark. I worked out how to do a reply! Dave could only get it down to about 2/3 of the cost of the product, so that's a no go. Its a pity, because I really wanted to support them - its so important to invest and support recycling our own waste! We started using raised garden beds about 30 years ago. I have a bad back and my husband built them for me out of recycled flooring. They were great - until we moved to a rural property. We've had some good success with no dig gardens as well, so this year I'm trying combining the Birdies raised beds and no dig gardens. There's a nice layer of wood etc on the bottom, then a layer of soil, some biscuits of hay and then i put some soil in where I'm planting. We'll see. how it goes. We work with very remote Aboriginal people on an island and we're trying to work out an easy solution for them to grow some of their own veggies. They got hammered by Cyclone Megan last week, so hopefully on my next trip we can get a few things in the ground. Cheers and many thanks for your encouragement, Marianne

 

[Marianne St Clair]

Oh my, those prices are shocking! I'm sure Plastic Forests will look into this and provide you with some answers.

That sounds lovely! Do you have a certain layout in mind for the new beds, or mix and match as you go along?

Your post is just fine, don't worry

Thanks Mandy, I'm doing my second reply, I think I've sort of worked it out. Its a no go for plastic forest - Dave did try...but the cheapest freight was about 2/3 the cost of the product and one quote was twice the cost of the product! We really do get hammered up here! We think we're going to put the beds in front of our house yard fence - its a 6ft fence that goes around the house yard - about 2 acres maybe. The rest of the 5 acre block is mostly bush (or water this time of the year) except for where we've put our offices. If I'm really brave I might try posting a photo. Thanks for the encouragement, this is a bit new to me... Cheers and have a great evening, Marianne

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

I'm happy to hear that they did try to work with you! Too bad it's still not a feasable amount sadly. But I feel like it does show they do the best they can.

That sounds great! Do bear in mind that the fence might cast shade at certain times of the year, so bear that in mind when planning where to put your beds.
Do the 5 acres flood during the wet season? Are they mostly just marsh-y?

I'd love to see updates and photos! If you need any help on how to upload them, don't feel afraid to ask me. I'm most happy to help

 

[Marianne St Clair]

I'm happy to hear that they did try to work with you! Too bad it's still not a feasable amount sadly. But I feel like it does show they do the best they can.

That sounds great! Do bear in mind that the fence might cast shade at certain times of the year, so bear that in mind when planning where to put your beds.
Do the 5 acres flood during the wet season? Are they mostly just marsh-y?

I'd love to see updates and photos! If you need any help on how to upload them, don't feel afraid to ask me. I'm most happy to help

Thanks Mandy, Good point about the shade. Thanks for the offer of help, I may need it. I will try and upload a few photos at some time soon. We're on a hill so the office at the front of the block is quite dry but the lawn can get very squelchy. Middle Earth, the big shed in the middle (and my husband's office) is a little down hill, but again mostly dry although water is coming in a little bit through a spot on the floor as water has been up to the level of the door. In the middle of the block is the fenced house yard with the house some gum and wattle trees, lot of fruit trees. There's a lovely lawn and trees out the front....but the house is currently surrounded by a moat. Wellies are the best thing to walk around in. There can be 1 - 2 inches of water over the lawn - no way you could mow, the mower or tractor would get bogged. The water flows from the top of the block down to the back so there is current when i ts wet. In a downpour the driveways run like creeks. Most of the block is bushland with some gardens around my office (bamboos, paw paws, various fruit trees, a grape vine (for the leaves) passionfruit and lots and lots of pineapples. We're now developing the gardens around Middle Earth. The back of the block is paperbark forest in the dry and a lake in the wet...and yes, we can get crocs in there... Loads and loads of birds and other critters. We have a python living in our kitchen...she's been there since she was a baby...think she may have moved into the palm tree now though...as she's got bigger...

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Anytime, I'm happy to help

Do you reckon digging a drain/ditch around the shed might help the flow of water? Mark recently-ish worked on his' as well as water kept flowing inside. I can look up which video had it if you'd like.

I love the name Middle-Earth as it always makes me think of Lord of the Rings. I recently bought my partner a small musicbox that plays Bilbo's themesong, saying something along the lines of that there'd been nothing like embarking on this adventure with him.

Do you have any current plans for the backyard? I think raised beds could really suit that area, as you can control the drainage a bit better. One thing to bear in mind is how placing raised beds would affect the waterflow. You don't want to guide it into a shed or the house.

Sounds like you've got a fair variety of wildlife surrounding the property. Very nice to see - until they get into places they shouldn't, haha. That python would likely scare the living daylights out of me. But I reckon that in your case she's more like a pet. Did you name her?