Growing Vegetables places more strain on a piece of land than flowering plants or shrubs because we remove nutrients every time we harvest a crop. Vegetables are also relatively hungry plants requ ... … Read more

Well, hello there folks. That's been a strange couple of weeks hasn't it? I apologise for the late mail but I have had the luminous vest on since last week as I've been packing orders in the warehous ... … Read more

So, how is everyone feeling with the improvement in the weather? I for one am feeling pretty good about it. I don't know what the temperatures were like where you are, but it was wonderfully wa ... … Read more

Harvesting homegrown vegetables can be just as important as growing them as some crops can quickly go past their best and loose precious flavour and texture. Harvesting at just the right time is impo ... … Read more

The unique selling point of the Vegepod is that it combines some of the benefits of raised bed gardening with those of growing under cover or in a container. You can create a microclimate ... … Read more

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 o ... … Read more

While I am not a fan of of winter I do enjoy preparing for it. There is great satisfaction in harvesting and storing crops in October, protecting beds from heavy rain and generally put ... … Read more

Crop rotation is a system of moving the position of certain crops (or families of crops) around so that they are not being grown in the same place for successive years. It plays an important role in ... … Read more

I don't know what it has been like for you, but March has been a relatively dry month in my garden which meant I was able to do a bit more outside than I normally would. While I write ... … Read more

Celeriac is a cool-season biennial grown as an annual. It is similar in growing habit and requirements as celery. Celeriac is best when it comes to harvest in cool weather. It is best started indo ... … Read more

‘French Intensive Gardening’. Sounds kind of daunting, who wants gardening to be intensive? Me, I like to do a little burst of work here and there and take it easy on myself. But you shouldn’t rea ... … Read more

Be Realistic! I'd give the same advice to any new gardener - to start small with easy to grow crops. A school vegetable garden also has the holidays to take into account so unless you have inter ... … Read more

Planting Christmas potatoes in July If you have some spare space in your vegetable garden in July you could put in some 'Second Cropping' potatoes for a late Autumn/Winter harvest. Winter seed potato ... … Read more

Like so many garden projects designing a pond requires careful planning. There are so many options to consider depending on use, size, shape, material and situation. A careful compromise of these fac ... … Read more

By Mark Ridsdill SmAny bright space, be it patio, balcony, roof terrace or window sill can become a productive and rewarding food garden.This is the first in a monthly series of tips on how you can g ... … Read more

When Dorcas Barry agreed to contribute to our blog I couldn't believe my luck. I met Dorcas at the G.I.Y. (Grow It Yourself) gathering in Waterford last year where she was talking about fresh and hea ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

Site Vegetables are expected to give a lot. We want them to grow quickly and provide good quantities of nutritious food. To do this we need to pamper them a bit and this means giving the best si ... … Read more

July in the garden is a bit of a double edged sword, Mother nature shows her muscles both in the vigourous growth from your vegetable crops but also in the vigourous growth from your weeds. While you ... … Read more

Weeding the garden is an ongoing process that never seems to end and, of all the jobs in the garden, appears to be the most time consuming.  We can hoe at speedwell and chickweed, tug ... … Read more

If you're looking for a composting solution that's somewhere between a traditional static pile and the larger insulated composters, The Thermo range of composters have a lot to offer. Produced ... … Read more

Maintaining a garden pond fosters a healthy ecosystem, providing the suitable environment for fish and plants to thrive. It's important to practice regular maintenance routines, which can ... … Read more

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' ... … Read more

Perfectly healthy plants can be affected by air, water or soil borne diseases at any time. Understanding the causes, identifying them early and taking effective action will help you establish and mai ... … Read more

A new year brings with it the temptation to mix things up in the garden, expand your growing ambitions or simply fine-tune the way you do things. I myself spent a fun few hours on Friday plannin ... … Read more

When we set up Quickcrop over 5 years ago now we pictured it as the ultimate lifestyle business. Both myself and Niall were passionate about growing and saw the  business as something that would ... … Read more

I feel a bit guilty about my post last week where I said there was nothing to do in the November garden so I thought I would offer a few tips today. It is true that there are very few vegetables to s ... … Read more

Raised Vegetable Bed Soil Volumes Our Raised vegetable beds come in all shapes and sizes and each has a different soil volume requirement. It is very easy to underestimate the amount of soil needed ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

How to grow daikon radishes. Daikon is a long, white variety of radish. Also known as white radish, mooli or Oriental radish, daikon radishes can grow over a foot long. They have a crispy texture, ... … Read more

Rainwater harvesting has become more popular and more common in the UK in recent years. Whether in response to hosepipe bans and water shortages, or in anticipation of climate change and future droug ... … Read more

What kinds of things can you do in the garden at this time of year. It’s not quite Spring after all? Well, no, we’ve still a long way to go before we get to Spring. This time of year is really all a ... … Read more

Sowing and planting too early in the year We can all get a little over excited when the new year comes around especially if, like now, we've had relatively warm Winter so far. We can all be guil ... … Read more

Researching the benefits of drinking wheatgrass juice has to be one of the most challenging tasks as opinions vary wildly from one side to the other. The problem for me is that the more ardent suppor ... … Read more

Honestly, do you ever think about how weird it is that ‘pond life’ has become a derogatory phrase and insult, when actual pond life contains some of the most fascinating and beautiful creat ... … Read more

One of the greatest pleasures in gardening is watching life flourish all around you: not just in terms of the plants you grow, but also the non-human visitors to your garden. A biodiverse garden isn ... … Read more

Right, well it's started to get a bit cold and the leaves are falling so I suppose we will have to admit that winter is coming. I have mentioned it here before that I am not a winter fan. This is pr ... … Read more

Due to a relatively dry end to last week I had thought the worst of the weather was over. I said as much on Facebook (and nearly caused an International incident) but today, it seems, the rain is bac ... … Read more

I have always been a bit jealous of my brother in law as despite not being the worlds best linguist he manages to communicate no matter what country he finds himself in through the universal language ... … Read more

Outdoor or patio furniture makes for a great addition to your garden, allowing you to spend time in the fresh air with family or just sit and soak in the serenity. With some items of furniture it’ ... … Read more

Garden furniture is often designed or bought with relaxation or solitary ‘me time’ in mind, but that’s far from the only option. The garden can be a great place to entertain, have guests around for a ... … Read more

After a wet week last week, the weekend looked promising (well, Sunday at least) to get some work done in the garden and start preparing it for the Winter. As you may know, my garden is in an area of ... … Read more

There are many claims made about seaweed in terms of it's beneficial effects for the gardener. It is known to improve soil structure and invigorate soil organisms, while seaweed extracts are ... … Read more

There are no bounds when it comes to creativity when it comes to gardening, and the keyhole garden is a pretty neat example. This raised bed method of growing vegetables in a compact space is b ... … Read more

Whatever style of greenhouse you opt for - whether it’s a ‘lean-to’, a compact house or a larger one - it will open up new possibilities for you and extend your growing season. It’s also a very ... … Read more

2024 has been another year with lots of reports of seemingly insurmountable slug problems in UK gardens. You can theorise as to why slug populations seem so robust of late. Milder winters and a decl ... … Read more

Aphids are the source of much frustration in the garden. Also referred to as greenfly or blackfly, these small sap-sucking insects feed on ornamental plants and edibles alike. They can cause a ... … Read more

Whether you're moving into a new build or you're looking to improve an existing boundary that has deteriorated, the thorny (pun intended) question of fencing vs hedging is likely to come up. Th ... … Read more

Perennial Weeds Perennial weeds come up every year from the same plant and are difficult to get rid of but not as hard as they are often made our to be. Most have deep tap roots which need to be rem ... … Read more

Hi there and a Happy New Year to you all! So, Andrew asked me to do a series of articles about nutrition and everyday health, I’m a Nutritional Therapist so I guess he thought I'd be a good person to ... … Read more

If you're staring off your vegetable plants in early Spring you'll need to give them some heat as temperatures will be too cold for the seeds to germinate. If you're growing in a greenhouse or pol ... … Read more

Onions are some of the easiest things to grow and require very little looking after. As our friend Dermot Carey (last head gardener of Lissadell House) says if you can't grow onions you might as w ... … Read more

This might seem an odd time of year to talk about irrigation but if you are thinking of adding a watering system to your polytunnel or greenhouse now is the time to get it done. Irrigation ... … Read more

Growing your own fruit has to be the easiest, most satisfying and most joyous gardening pursuit. Yes, I am delighted when I fork out some nice straight carrots or creamy skinned potatoes but do th ... … Read more

Although it is still too early to sow anything I thought I would run through some seed sowing notes this week for any new growers who are unsure when or how to start growing. It will also likely b ... … Read more

I don't think I ever showed you my garden did I? It was originally put together as the shared Quickcrop garden but since the business moved from my house this Spring (it used to be housed in my barn ... … Read more

Water is necessary to sustain all living life forms, we are made up of about 60% water while herbaceous plants like the vegetables growing in your garden contain between 80 and 95%. Plants use water ... … Read more

Timetable for growing tomatoes: a summary of a decade of learningI started growing tomatoes in the wet summer of 2009 and was quite frankly, not very successful. It probably took me until 2013 to kno ... … Read more

It is incredible just how fast the season slips by, I can't believe it's September already! The final part of the season got away from me a bit (broken collarbone) but luckily work done earlier ... … Read more

A high yield vegetable is one that produces a large amount of end product per area of planting. ‘Output’ shouldn’t be seen as the be all and end all of growing your own food, but high yield veg ... … Read more

What is Meant By Organic Gardening? You will no doubt often hear the term organic gardening or ‘gardening naturally’. What it actually means - or how strict the definition is - can be ... … Read more

As you will know if you read last week’s mail, we kicked off our winter plant biology series with roots (I was going from the bottom up), but, in retrospect, I should really have started with se ... … Read more

Growing your own can be tricky business for someone new to vegetable gardening but there are a number of ways you can stack the odds of a successful harvest in your favour. My number one would be ... … Read more

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

It is rare that my wife and I agree on anything but I was pleasantly surprised when my liking for pickled vegetables converged neatly with her interest in the health benefits of home fermented pro ... … Read more

Many of you will have noticed it is no longer Autumn, so clearly planting tulips and daffodils aren't an option at the moment. The great news is there are a whole range of Spring-planted bulbs ... … Read more

Regular watering and sensible irrigation is essential to the development and healthy growth of any plant. Water is drawn from the root of the plant and transported through its capilla ... … Read more

Why Compost in the first place? Composting is the best thing you can do for your vegetable garden. It is the natural process that returns the nutrients used by growing plants back to the soi ... … Read more

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 wh ... … Read more

You’ve probably seen the word 'sustainable' a fair bit, but we wouldn’t blame you if you’re not entirely sure what it means. With the way it’s used, it can sometimes seem lik ... … Read more

I know I have looked at soil and plant feeds a number of times over the years but, for the benefit of new growers, I think it may be helpful to cover it again today as we prepare our gardens for a ... … Read more

Tomatoes are one of the most rewarding crops for the home gardener to grow, simply because their flavour is so much better than their shop-bought cousins. Tomatoes grown for the supermarket shel ... … Read more