Low Maintenance Gardens
Growing plants in
timber raised vegetable beds makes a lot of sense for all vegetable gardeners but especially for urban growers where space is limited. Using deep raised beds has a number of advantages but the main one is you can produce a lot of produce in a limited space.
Raised beds are a sensible choice for a
low maintenance garden as your efforts are concentrated on a small area meaning you can work, water, weed and fertilize in a more accurate fashion.
Coping with weeds is the number one reason why people abandon a vegetable growing project. Intensive raised bed gardening means the vegetable crops are closely planted so crowd out weeds keeping maintenance to a minimum. Any weeding which is needed is done at a comfortable height meaning it never becomes a chore.
Low maintenance garden design is a must for people with busy lives as vegetable garden maintenance has to be fitted around a busy day. We want to you to enjoy the experience of growing your own food which is why proper planning is crucial when starting a kitchen garden. We recommend keeping your first garden relatively small to avoid becoming overwhelmed, you can easily add extra beds as your interest grows and your experience and confidence increases.
Vegetable Gardening For Beginners - Quickcrop are the experts!
As vegetable gardeners ourselves we understand what is required to build a productive garden. We are also the experts at gardening for beginners and provide all the equipment and help you need to make sure you're successful first time around.
We have been gardening for over 20 years with particular experience in urban gardens using timber raised beds. We have been manufacturing our own raised bed kits for over 6 years now and can advise on size, construction and planting to suit your particular garden and advise which crops suit your site best. Our website also contains a huge amount of FREE information in the form of fact sheets, professionally shot videos and our unique 'Growmatic' growers software to make sure you grow a successful vegetable garden first time round.
Here's a recent mail from one of our customers:
Dear Niall and Andrew
I wanted to drop you a quick note to tell you that after a number of attempts at starting a vegetable garden this is the first year I have managed to produce crops I am really happy with. This is all thanks to your excellent videos and helpful advice you gave me over the phone. Your company is second to none in terms of the service you provide and I am now looking at my garden with a new confidence.
Audrey Watson
Vegetable Garden Design
We understand that many people will be using their back garden to grow their vegetables with the beds in full view of the house. If you are looking out at your vegetable beds then you need them to look good, right?
We love design at Quickcrop and are happy to help you with planning your first vegetable garden. We also have a number of
vegetable garden plans for beginners which look great when planted up and will ensure your new garden is a cut above your neighbours! We know we can provide you with the garden inspiration you need to create a vegetable plot which is both beautiful and practical and will give you the delicious harvests you are expecting.
You can buy standard sized timber raised beds from us but we also like to play with different shapes with 2 tier beds and stepped corner units adding more interest to your garden layout.
Remember we also supply bulk bags of vegetable soil mix, 4 week old vegetable plants, seeds, organic fetilizers, tools, in fact everything you need t0 start a vegetable garden.
You can view our full range of plans on our website under '
Vegetable garden Plans' or call us in the office on 01788 298 795 to talk to a vegetable garden planner. We're based in Rugby but deliver all our products including tonne bags of soil nationwide across the UK.
Vegetable Garden Planning For Beginners - Square Foot Gardening
Planning your first vegetable garden can be tricky and a little daunting for the first time vegetable grower because different plants need different spacings to grow properly. For example carrots are spaced 4/5 cm apart while a single courgette plant needs a full metre of space to produce a decent crop. We understand you need a simple vegetable planting guide which is why we recommend our modified version of the 'Square Foot Gardening' technique.
Square Foot Vegetable Gardening makes starting a vegetable garden easy as it divides your beds into equal square foot or 30cm sections. Each square foot fits a certain amount of each crop which are all clearly laid out in the table we provide. For example 1 square foot will fit 1 small cabbage, 4 lettuces or 16 carrots. The system creates an easy vegetable garden for beginners as you deal with one square at a time making it easy to plan your garden and gauge how much space you need to grow the crops you want.
Square Foot Gardening is a term coined by American engineer Mel Bartholemew in the 1908's when he published his book of the same name. The book is an excellent read for someone starting off but I'd have to say I don't agree with his plant spacings (many plants are too close together) or the depth of soil (far too shallow) required for the beds. After year or two of trials in real gardens we have come up with a more realistic set of guidelines which we know from our experience will yield impressive harvests.
You can access all the information you need to build a high yield Quickcrop Square Foot Garden in our Square Foot Garden including planting tables, sample planting plans, seed and plant selections.
Vegetable Gardening Tips for Beginners
Unlike many 'Grow Your Own' websites we are always here to help with plenty of free advice when you need it. You can sign up for our monthly newsletter which features timely seasonal articles and what is likely to be growing in your garden at a given time of year.
You can also sign up for our FR
EE 'Growmatic' software tool where you can create a personal dashboard with the crops growing in your garden. The system will follow you through the growing year offering automatic help and advice at the correct time in each plants life cycle.
'Growmatic' also features a Vegetable Planting Calender to ensure you don't miss the correct sowing or planting times. The full system is FREE to use for all Quickcrop customers and is like having your own personal vegetable gardener with you every step of the way. It's a vegetable growing guide that only deals with the plants you're growing so makes growing n your first vegetable garden simple and easy to manage.