April At Last!
It's April at last. I almost feel like I've been holding my breath all winter. I'm counting the days now till I can safely plant outside, until I can make that vital investment in a whole season of fresh vegetables.
I was looking for a good picture of tulips so we can all get into the April spirit and found these. They're Dutch tulip fields from the air (obviously), I just thought they looked so good I had to give you a look. Nice farm to go an work in the morning I'd have thought!
If the last few years are anything to go by we'll get our summer early with the best weather in late April, May and June. Make the most of it. Even if you can only get out of the office for 15 mins in the day, stop what you're doing and feel the sun on your face. You'll miss it when it's gone.
What have we been up to? A lot, I need to take my own advice and get out of the office but there go, it's great to be busy. We did our first trade show in the U.K. this year, we've a new website and of course our unique 'Growmatic' free web tool. I think you're going to like it....
The Edible Garden Show Quickcrop.co.uk is now up on the web and we're delighted to welcome all our new U.K. customers. Niall and myself had a stand at the 'Edible Garden Show' at Stoneleigh Park in Warickshire and got an incredible response from the Quickcrop website. The stand was packed for most of the 3 days and required the pair of us to babble on non stop for almost 24 hours. I don't think we said a word in the van on the way home. We'd like to say a special thanks to Sligo County Enterprise board (one of the best in the country) for helping with this. You wouldn't believe how expensive it is to attend these shows and if it wasn't for their contribution we wouldn't have been there.
We're now distributing nationwide across the U.K. from our base in Rugby and hope to bring the Quickcrop system to gardens all over Britain. We're exporting top quality air dried Irish timber from our local sawmills so doing out bit for the local economy. For anyone thinking of starting a business, get online, there's a whole world out there!
Growmatic Our unique 'Growmatic' online tool is also now available for you to use. The web based tool is free to use and gives help and advice on the crops your growing at the right time in the growing season. It's aimed at new growers but also has a schools version to help teachers with their 'Grow your own' module. We're offering it free to our customers and to all schools and educational facilities. It's easy to use and packed with timely, accurate information.
Of course we also have the usual seasonal advice, this month we're covering Potatoes, Looking after seedlings and recommending some excellent seed varieties.
We're also exploring our creative sides with botanical artist Holly Nixon. Have a peek at her article and enjoy here wonderfully detailed and sublimely beautiful botanical illustrations.
All that remains is to wish you a sensational growing year, as always we're here when you need us and are always delighted to share any knowledge we've learned along the way.
Good luck and Happy Growing
Andrew & Niall Quickcrop