Q - My tomato leaves are yellowing but they seem to be producing good fruit, do I need to feed them? This question we received from a reader is a very good one, because I think many people as ... Read more

As we are coming into the main planting and sowing time I thought I would cover soil and plant feed as they are such an important part of the garden. I know I covered feed in January but I have bee ... 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

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

Plant feed and fertilizers play a huge part in the garden, and as a company we only use natural and organic alternatives.  Natural plant feed is a no-brainer in the vegetable garden as we ten ... Read more

Comfrey leaves are highly regarded as a natural and sustainable plant feed. The plant's far-growing roots enable it to extract nutrients from deep in the soil, including the the 'Big 3' pla ... Read more

I thought it might be a good idea to follow last week's mail on sowing seeds with some notes on seed and potting compost. It might seem like a boring subject but knowing your compost will become incr ... Read more

It is has been an interesting year in the Quickcrop garden with a hot and dry start followed by plenty of rain. The overcast or rainy days have not been much use for ripening tomatoes but has been gr ... Read more

Collecting autumn leaves may seem like another garden tidying task to add to the list, but they are actually a valuable resource for the vegetable gardener. When rotted they make an excellent m ... Read more

If you don't have a patch of soil to grow in then clearly you will have to grow your vegetables in a container of some sort. A container grown urban garden adds life to your balcony or back yard a ... Read more

How times have changed regarding the use of wild foods in our diet, since Wild and Free:  Cooking from Nature, written by my late husband, Cyril and I was first published in 1975.  Forag ... Read more

Healthy vegetables need a healthy soil, it's as simple as that. Soil Improvement for Vegetable Gardeners is very important as the quality of the vegetables produced is directly related to the qual ... 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

With rising energy bills being the reality these days, many people will want to avoid the expense of trying to heat a greenhouse by using storage or paraffin heaters etc. There are some alterna ... Read more

Spring cabbage is delicious and tender and will be one of the first proper crops you can enjoy in the Spring. Remember Spring cabbage needs to be planted the previous Autumn to over winter and pro ... Read more

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 precauti ... 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

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 preca ... Read more

‘You are what you eat and absorb’ is more accurate than the saying ‘you are what you eat’. More than 2,000 years ago Hippocrates stated that all disease starts in the gut, but we’re only now coming t ... Read more

I had a call from Dermot Carey (my personal vegetable guru) over the weekend as he wanted to pick up a couple of rolls of fleece. "I hope you don't mind me calling on a Sunday morning" says Dermot ... Read more

UK Vegetable Gardening In Raised Bed Kits Raised bed vegetable gardening in the UK is becoming more popular than ever before with increasing numbers of people growing their own food, especia ... Read more

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 ... Read more

'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 l ... Read more

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

As bin charges increase and households try to be more environment friendly, we are seeing a corresponding increase in home composting. We have been interested in domestic composting for a lon ... Read more

Growing Peppers Peppers and chillis are expensive when bought in the shops so growing your own is an economical exercise which also brings great pleasure. They are tropical plants and therefore app ... Read more

'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 ... Read more

Fruit trees and bushes are planted in the garden with the intention of remaining for the long term, providing produce for many years. In return for this supply of fresh fruit they require regular fee ... Read more

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 a ... Read more

The soil or compost you use in your school vegetable garden is the single most important part of the project. Vegetables are demanding as plants go, after all we we expect quick growth and lots of cr ... Read more

Thyme deserves a place in all herb gardens. Its foliage is attractive, the long-lasting flowers are very pretty and it is a compact easy-care plant. On top of that it is one of the most useful ... Read more

What is Square Foot Gardening? Square foot gardening is a method of growing vegetables which centers around planting crops in blocks rather than rows. The system divides the growing space up int ... Read more

A Protective Seaweed Mulch I took the opposite photo in early January, it's frosty seaweed obviously but it's in my garden rather than on the beach. I prepared most of my beds in December (even ... Read more

Mackerel sky Before we get going, here's a photo I took on Monday morning while out walking the dog showing a pretty 'mackerel sky' which, as you know, signals a change in the weather. The old sailo ... Read more

Here begins Part 2 of our guide to vegetable harvesting, going in neat alphabetical order. Knowing when to harvest can be just as important in its own way as growing, tending to plants, irrigat ... 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

The number of people having a go at producing some of there own fresh produce is on the increase every year. The latest revolution is the small space urban gardener, who takes advantage of ever ... Read more

I hope this morning finds you all well and that the current restrictions aren't bothering you too much. I must admit I am itching to do something outside the home / work loop but am still feeling ver ... Read more

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, a ... Read more

Home composting is a fantastic way of killing two birds with one stone. You can process garden and kitchen waste (and reduce your bin collection costs) while at the same time producing your ... Read more

So, the other week, I had an email from a customer asking for advice on what soil mix to use for planting fruit trees in containers. It was a simple question which should have resulted in a quic ... Read more

Parsley is a biennial edible herb grown for its leaves which are commonly used in cooking and for garnishing salads and other cold dishes. Parsley is also known known to be highly nutritious and is ... Read more

A new year brings with it the temptation to try something new in the garden, overhaul your growing space or simply fine-tune the way that you do things. Garden planning is something you ca ... Read more

Last week I filmed the first in a series of over 200 videos which will become the backbone of our new Quickcrop vegetable growers course. This epic learning experience will cover all the cr ... Read more

How To Build Raised Beds This article deals with how to build raised garden beds, what is the best size to make them and what is the best material to use. We will also look at preparing the soi ... 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

I made a vow to myself last week that I would go at least a month without including a photo of my tractor in these emails. As you see above I have failed already but, to be fair, that's a really nice ... Read more

One of the best (and the most fun) ways to make compost is back! Innovators that we are, we had taken in a small stock of these sturdy compost bins last year but due to problems with the European dis ... 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

Vegan gardening has a lot of overlap with organic or no-dig gardening. However, the ways in which it differs are related to the principles of veganism itself. Veganism is a belief or philosophy ... Read more

If you are considering building a garden pond you may want to calculate the volume of water for water treatment or if you intend to introduce fish. Water treatments to clear algae and other issues ar ... Read more

Blueberries are high in antioxidants so widely regarded as a 'Superfruit' (whatever that is) but taking their health benefits apart they are also exceptionally tasty so well worth growing yourself. A ... Read more

You don’t need a massive garden to grow delicious vegetables. Many vegetables can be grown in planters, buckets or bags with great results. Here is our top ten list of trouble-free container frien ... 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

This week sees a whole new departure for the Quickcrop team as we stick our pretty little toes into the wonderful world of flowering plants. It is not that we have fallen out of love with our vegetab ... 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

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 ... Read more

While you won't be able to fool yourself that you are lying on a beach with a pina colada (Ingredients: 3 parts Pineapple juice, 1 part White rum, 1 part Coconut cream) in your hand, you will be able ... Read more

Small Garden Ideas Vegetable growing should be available to anyone even if you have have a very small urban garden or worse, no garden at all! Small urban gardens can be just as productive as larger ... Read more

Top ten list of the easiest vegetables to grow for the beginner gardener. Our list of easy to grow vegetables all have a good chance of first time success and will give you the skills you need to ... Read more

A member of the onion family, chives are well worth cultivating in the vegetable and flower garden. They take up very little space, and the whole plant can be eaten from top to bottom - the bulbs ... Read more

What can I sow or plant in my garden now? Everything! Well, pretty much everything. You will be too late to sow most warm climate crops which need a long growing season like tomatoes, peppers and au ... Read more

We are nearly at that time again when we sow some tiny seeds in compost and see them magically transform into large tomato plants bearing 15-20 kg of fruit each. The whole thing is incredible reall ... Read more

Having some kind of automatic system set up to irrigate your plants is beneficial for a number of reasons: It frees you up to take care of other garden tasks, as you no longer have to traip ... 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

If you have read any of our previous blog posts you will know that we are rather spoiled at Quickcrop with our large rural gardens with plenty of room to grow in. If you have a smaller urban garde ... Read more

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 wh ... Read more

Getting Started   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 ... Read more

You might remember from a post a few weeks back that we are now manufacturing the fabulous 'Gro-Grid' weed control planting mat. We have the machinery set up in our warehouse and have been building u ... 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 like another word ... 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

Variety is important! Coriander (Cilantro) can be either grown for its leaves or for its seeds. Varieties have been bred to be better at producing one or the other so the variety you choose is impo ... Read more

My apologies for not posting last week, I am afraid drawing up planting plans and adding them as products to the site has taken a lot longer than I thought (this will come as no surprise ... 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

Why I Grow in Raised Vegetable Beds I guess the best place to get started is why should I grow in Raised Vegetable Beds in the first place? For me, growing in raised beds was my onl ... Read more

'How to grow gooseberries' is intended as a solid introduction to growing this relatively easy to grow fruit bush. For more detailed information on gooseberries please feel free to contact us, we ... Read more

Sage is very slow to establish itself, so be prepared for a wait if you grow it from seed. When established however, common sage is reasonably hardy and tolerant of almost all conditions as long as ... Read more

If your garden is anything like mine you've been reaping the rewards of the good weather with a fantastic crop of fresh vegetables. So much worked for me this year it was almost as if someone else ... Read more

In recent years more and more households - both rural and urban - have decided to keep backyard chickens or poultry. As well as being a source of ‘homemade’ fresh eggs, it’s something tha ... 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 ... Read more

As we move towards the beginning of May, things really start to move in the vegetable garden. Up until this point there have been very few seeds we can sow outside or seedlings we can plant out but t ... Read more

While I do spend plenty of happy time in the garden in January there really isn't a whole lot you can do other than preparing things for the season ahead. In may cases I will be tempted to start a fe ... Read more

Not too chilly for growing chillies! You don't need me to tell you that we are having a wet and windy February. So far we have dealt with high winds and heavy rain and, if the forecast is correct, ... 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

My weekend work for the last 2 weeks has been building our new fruit cage video location. The plan, as I think I mentioned in a previous mail, is to film a new set of videos showing how to plant, pru ... Read more

How to grow bare root soft fruit In general and for the purposes of this article, soft fruit refers to soft skinned, juicy fruit borne on bushes or canes. Other types of soft fruit include straw ... Read more

Using growbags couldn’t be easier, here is how to grow potatoes in a bag. The great thing about potatoes is that they can be grown almost anywhere, even if space is limited like in an urban setting. Read more

Frost is the first thought when considering where to grow strawberry plants in your garden. They are very hardy plants during the winter but are not so hardy when they burst into life in spring. S ... Read more

We can't all be blessed with a large outdoor garden space, and so it is that growing vegetables in containers can be an effective way of tackling space limitations. That doesn't mean you nee ... Read more

There's something quite pleasant about raking up Autumn leaves, it feels like such an ancient, seasonal practice that it connects you not only with the current yearly cycle but to the same ... Read more

We build a relationship with tomatoes unlike almost any other plant in our vegetable garden as they need such constant and varying care. We start off seeds when it is too cold for them to survive on ... Read more

Raised vegetable beds have a number of benefits, including protecting crops from foot traffic and creating a more comfortable working height. Another benefit is how versatile and adaptable they are. Read more

It's the start of Autumn here and we’re clinging on to a vague suggestion of an Indian Summer. It's still dry enough to spend a bit of time in the garden and there are a few seasonal jobs that are ... Read more

We are now moving into the time of year when we start to sow seeds (for those of you not reading this article 'hot from the oven' it is the beginning of February) so I figured it may be helpful to wr ... Read more

I have two books which are my vegetable growing bibles. One is Joy Larkcom's 'Grow Your Own Vegetables' and the other is 'Organic Gardening - The Natural No-Dig Way' by Charles Dowding. Both are f ... Read more

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 ... Read more

Gooseberry Bushes How to grow gooseberries. Ranging from huge, juicy, red dessert fruit to tiny, sparkling, golden drops of sweetness, gooseberries are a great, easy to grow choice. This section al ... Read more

One of the things first time vegetable gardeners ask about when they call or email us is tomatoes - everyone wants to grow their own tomatoes. This is a bit unfortunate as for the most part they a ... Read more

Raised bed vegetable garden plan. I include my 2016 vegetable garden plan below if anyone is interested in what I'll be growing next year. My garden is now split up into long raised beds with gr ... Read more

Our Story Quickcrop is all about making vegetable growing easy and accessible whether you live in the countryside or the city, whether you want to grow a pot of salad leaves or want to feed your who ... Read more