May is just the best, isn’t it? Especially this year when the Winter has been stubbornly holding on for all it’s worth. The buds are finally popping on the trees and the grass is beginning to grow. Forget the winter blues and think vibrant yellow/green spring leaves. Forget root vegetable stews, think tomatoes, basil, salt (not too much) and olive oil!

Here we go! My tomato plants are in the polytunnel getting settled in, I’ve other new guests too – dwarf and climbing French beans, cucumbers, yellow and green courgettes, and delicious squash ‘Delicata’ and ‘Uchiki Kuri’ and beautiful Hungarian Wax chili peppers. Continue reading →

We’ve got some cool new stuff on our site that you might find interesting as well us some less exciting but very handy consumables for this time of year. Let’s go cool stuff first:

The Storm Kettle
If your interest in the outdoor life coincides with an interest in hot beverages then this device is what you’ve been waiting for! We had one of these when I was a child and used to make tea on the beach in Summer (only the Irish!, imagine the Spanish or French making tea on a beach….). I know I can be accused of getting over excited about seemingly mundane products but this thing really is amazing. I’ve been kind of hinting we should stock them for ages and slipped it in on the sly the other day, someone better buy one! Continue reading →

O.K., so you’ve managed to produce your own seedling plants or have bought in some promising looking specimens. You have hardened them off and are ready to put them out into your garden or in the case of warm climate crops to plant them in your greenhouse or polytunnel. You want to make sure they get off to a good start and hopefully produce abundant supplies of delicious home grown vegetables. It’s not difficult, especially if you have good plants but there are a couple of tips which might be helpful. Continue reading →

Er, from us. Well, as far as I know we are the only Irish supplier of garden ready vegetable plants. We deliver nationwide and we grow great plants (though I say myself). If you don’t have the time to read why our plants are so great you can skip straight to our ‘Vegetable seedlings for sale’ here.

Buying plug plants is the key to easy vegetable growing as veg seedlings already started cut out a lot of the tricky stuff that can put off a novice grower. New gardeners who haven’t tried vegetable growing before get caught out as many plants like tomatoes, celery, leeks and peppers need to be sown early in the year, long before you would think it’s warm enough to do so. You need equipment to start off seedlings early like propagators and heat benches so why not save yourself a headache and the expense and let us supply them for you. Continue reading →

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 to start your seedlings off indoors in modular trays where they have a better chance of survival and of producing a strong and healthy vegetable plant. The magical transition from seed to seedling is a rocky road for baby vegetable plants so, just like us, it makes sense to protect them in their early stages of life.

Most vegetables, with the exception of root crops like carrots and parsnips, will do much better if started off indoors and planted out at about 4-6 weeks old. It makes sense to start seedlings off in a protected environment so they don’t have to face the elements in their early stages and can be planted out when conditions are more pleasant. There are things you need to look out for when growing vegetable seedling plants indoors but they do bring you a little bit closer to the elusive dream of hassle free vegetable growing! Continue reading →

If you’re getting a bit upset that the vegetable growing season is over you might like to try growing some sprouting seeds. O.K. they’re never going to replace a large bushel of carrots or a bowl of tangy fresh tomatoes but they just might be enough to keep the growing ‘monkey’ off your back for the winter. Sprouting seeds can be grown all year round for a nutritious addition to salads or sandwiches for a tasty snack. They are also brilliant first crop for children and are great for showing seeds germinating in a classroom setting as part of a school garden module. Continue reading →