How To Grow
Growing info - A
Read more
… Read more
1225 results
-
-
Why Grow Your Own Food?
Why grow your own food? It's a fair question to ask. 'Fruits and vegetables aren't that expensive in the first place', you might say. 'It's time-consuming', you might also ponder, while wondering abou … Read more -
Choosing the Right Polytunnel for Your Garden
A polytunnel is a game-changer for the home grower, and if you can afford the initial investment it will pay off in spades. However, trying to choose between the range of options (and ensuring you ge … Read more -
Making your own 'Black Gold' with the new Subpod Wormery
We talked a couple of weeks ago about how adding well rotted organic matter to your garden soil is the number one way to grow the best vegetables. One of the key ingredients is your own home produced … Read more -
How to make your own Olla Pots for Eco-Friendly Garden Irrigation
It’s always fun to learn about and experiment with a new gardening technique. Olla pots (and the unique way that they work) aren’t exactly new though, far from it. The use of olla (pronounced 'oh-ya' … Read more -
Can I Save My Own Vegetable Seeds?
Saving your own vegetable seeds in order to plant them again the following year (or even later) is a very worthwhile and rewarding activity - make no mistake. It’s something that has been practiced b … Read more -
How to Grow Chilli Peppers
Unlike other countries in the world, we just don't get the weather to grow chilli peppers successfully outdoors. It is possible but the results and cropping levels aren't as good. From my own persona … Read more -
Getting the season under way
It is still early days for sowing but there are a few plants that you can start off now, especially if you are lucky enough to have a greenhouse or polytunnel. Sowing times will differ depending on yo … Read more -
Polytunnel Succession Planting Plan 2021
Regular readers will know that I included my outdoor garden succession planting plan in one of our January emails. I also said I would follow with my polytunnel plan if anyone was interested, and ind … Read more -
How Frost Affects Your Plants
As winter approaches in the second half of the year it's important to consider protecting your plants from cold weather - and the damage that can be caused by frost. In a lot of ways though, it's spr … Read more -
Vegetable Seedling Care Guide
The end of March and early April is approaching prime seed sowing time if we are starting indoors in seed trays or pots (for planting outside in May). I think we covered timing already but, as a rule … Read more -
How To Grow Lettuce (Mix)
How to grow Lettuce guide. The Quickcrop all lettuce mix contains a broad range of easy to grow lettuce, ideal for cut and come again use. It's great to enjoy your own lettuce over the summer but i … Read more -
How To Grow Lettuce
Lettuce is a favorite in the garden because it is relatively easy to grow, is one of the first crops that can be planted, and is one of the first crops to yield in the spring. It doesn’t take a lot o … Read more -
How To Grow Leeks
Lovely long slender stems, this variety makes a lovely, tasty baby leek for harvesting from mid summer onward. The flavour is no less impressive when eaten full size in the autumn. The leek is a … Read more -
How to Grow Chard
Chard is basically a beet without the bottom. It's a biennial that is grown as an annual for its big crinkly leaves. The stalks are red or white with large, dark green leaves that can be used as sa … Read more -
Order Tracking
You can track your order using our Order Tracker above. Just enter your order number and email address. We will send you a tracking number once your order has been dispatched, you can also use... … Read more -
How to Water Your Garden by Hand
When it comes to watering the vegetable garden, convenience and automation has a lot going for it, but it’s not the be all and end all. Being a gardening ‘luddite’ whose weapon of choice is a waterin … Read more -
How To Grow Oriental Salads
Soil and Site Any moderately fertile moisture retentive soil is good. A sheltered semi shade position is ideal. Rotation Oriental salads are part of the brassica rotation Sowing Orientals … Read more -
How To Grow Garlic
Growing garlic is both easy and satisfying: it's well-suited to both the first time gardener and the more experienced. A haul of freshly harvested garlic is a beautiful thing, especially when the out … Read more -
Creating a Microclimate in your Garden
What is a Microclimate? A microclimate is a small localised area that differs somewhat from the surrounding weather conditions, for example being warmer, more humid, windier etc. A ‘localised area’ d … Read more -
The Vegetable Garden in March
March can be a deceptive month. The season is clearly starting to turn with warmer days, grass beginning to grow and buds opening on fruit bushes, yet it is still too early to sow most outdoor crops. … Read more -
How To Grow Cabbage (Summer)
Cabbage is a demanding plant both is the amount of nutrients it needs and the space it takes up in the garden. It really is easy to grow if you feed your soil properly to begin with and take precau … Read more -
How to Grow Beetroot
Beetroot is one of my best friends in the garden as we get so much out of it: using it for juicing, grating it for salads, roasting, baking and - my favourite of all - pickling. This crop has recentl … Read more -
How To Clean and Maintain Your Polytunnel
Cleaning: not the best fun in the world, but it has to be done. Fortunately a polytunnel doesn’t have to be cleaned too often. Once a year is generally sufficient, and the best time of year to do so … Read more -
How To Grow Broad Beans
Broad beans are the simplest thing to grow. They are hardy and produce a large crop of delicious beans. I prefer to pick them young for a sweeter bean which are lovely tossed into a salad. You can ea … Read more -
Essential Greenhouse Accessories
It's one thing to have your greenhouse all set up, installed and ready to go for the new season. However an empty greenhouse is a bit like an empty house; you're best off getting some furnishings for … Read more -
How to Grow Cabbage (Winter)
Cabbage is a demanding plant from the amount of nutrients it needs and the space it takes up in the garden. It really is easy to grow if you feed your soil properly to begin with and take precautions … Read more -
How To Grow Sprouting Broccoli
Know Your Broccoli! In Italian the word broccoli means 'little sprouts'. It is part of the Brassica family of vegetables, which also includes cauliflower, cabbages, Brussels sprouts, turnips and many … Read more -
How To Grow Celery
The trick with growing celery is to take a lot of care sowing your transplants, making sure the plants never get stressed or pot bound. When planted out remember celery is originally a wetla … Read more -
April in the Vegetable Garden - What to Sow
For a bit of colour to start, below is the beautiful magenta bulbs of onion 'long red Florence': a crop I harvested in 2021, but a variety I sow every year. A new batch of onion seedling plants (sown … Read more -
How to Grow Endive
How to grow endive, a popular salad vegetable on the Continent there are two types: curly endive (chicorée frisée), which is more heat-resistant, and Batavian or broad leaved (escarole); there are … Read more -
How to Make Cider from Your Apple Harvest
Previously on the blog we've talked about the Vigo Fruit Press, and how you can make your own scrumptious, nutritious homemade juice from your fruit harvests. However, in the case of large apple harv … Read more -
How to Rewild Your Garden
The rewilding movement has picked up pace and momentum in recent years. In short, the idea behind rewilding is that we humans take a step back and allow nature to reclaim large or small areas of land … Read more -
How To Grow Kale (Italian)
'Cavolo Nero' or 'Nero Di Toscana' is the only kale grown in Italy, simply because it is by far the best tasting kale. Its large strap like leaves are fantastic in a stir fry with excellent taste a … Read more -
How To Grow Kohl Rabi
Kohlrabi sports a rosette of blueish-green leaves above a swollen stem. This almost globe-like stem makes it appear like a turnip growing on a cabbage root, in fact In German, Kohl means cabbage an … Read more -
How To Extend The Growing Season with a Polytunnel - Part 1: Spring
As was briefly mentioned in my mail of a couple of weeks ago, changing weather patterns can challenge our habits and our 'collective wisdom' about the traditional growing season. In recent years spri … Read more -
The Vegetable Garden in May
Brace yourselves folks, we are now entering the busiest time of year in the vegetable garden. The soil has warmed sufficiently for sowing and planting out, but has also warmed enough for wee … Read more -
How To Attract Beneficial Insects To Your Garden
Garden pests are the scourge of many a gardener - it can feel like they’re taunting you and all your careful work as they infest, burrow into and devour crops or plants. In these kinds of scenarios i … Read more -
Create Privacy in Your Garden with Durapost Garden Fencing
If you're familiar with the Quickcrop garden diary, you may have noticed the low timber fence around my vegetable plot, which is supposed to keep things looking neat and tidy but has got very rotten … Read more -
How to Grow Broccoli (Calabrese)
When most people hear the word 'broccoli' this is the crop that they will see in their mind's eye. The large green heads, made up of tightly packed florets, are popular with beginner gardeners and ve … Read more -
How To Grow Cauliflower
The cauliflower is not the easiest of the brassica family to grow but a large white cauliflower with tight white curds is a thing of beauty and producing one a source of much satisfaction. Variety is … Read more -
What Do I Need To Start an Unheated Greenhouse?
A greenhouse can open up possibilities for you and extend your growing season. It mainly does this by providing enhanced levels of heat and light: an effect brought about by the inherent design of th … Read more -
Starting seeds early in the season
As we are probably all itching to begin the growing season, I thought it might be helpful to talk about starting seeds off early and how to give the best chance of success. As we need extra warmth to … Read more -
Cabbage Spring
Recommended Varieties: Hispi F1 Where to grow: Cabbage needs a fertile moisture retentive soil with good drainage. The cabbages will remain in the ground through the Winter so in wet areas r … Read more -
How to Grow Brussels Sprouts
'Brigitte F1' has to be the best and most reliable brussels sprout variety with fantastic results every time. We recommend using an F1 hybrid sprout like Brigitte because the sprouts stay closed lo … Read more -
Is It Too Late To Start A Vegetable Garden in August?
If you’re just thinking about starting your first vegetable garden, you might feel like you’ve missed the boat or that it’s the wrong time of year. Fair enough: many gardeners see August as a time fo … Read more -
How to Grow Mizuna
Mizuna is one of those strange oriental vegetables which arrived in the West in the last 20 years or so. The name for this leafy green comes from the Japanese mizu, for “water,” and nu, for “mustard … Read more -
The Best Crops to Grow in a Polytunnel
A polytunnel can really open up a world of growing possibilities, extending the growing season, providing extra shelter and increasing your chances of success with warm climate crops. However, depen … Read more -
How to Feed Birds in Winter (and All Year Round)
If you were alive 144 million years ago, you wouldn't need to worry about providing winter food for wild birds, because you would have been on the menu yourself. It might be hard to believe when you … Read more -
Should you open your greenhouse every day?
Greenhouses are designed to draw in and capture heat. This is for the benefit of your plants, but it’s a blessing that can soon turn into a curse if you allow temperatures to get out of control. Shoul … Read more -
Sowing & growing tomatoes
In case you are new to vegetable growing, I feel I should point out that tomatoes need heat throughout their lifecycle, both to germinate and grow healthy seedlings and to produce ripe fruit. Growers … Read more -
How To Grow Spring Onions
Spring onions tend to be treated as an afterthought by most gardening books yet they are a popular crop and very useful, possibly because they are really easy to grow. Salad onions, also properly c … Read more