soil and compost

While I am lucky enough to have plenty of outdoor and tunnel growing space, I do grow some plants in containers (e.g. bush tomatoes) and I realise that for many...

Vermicomposting is an alternative to traditional composting, using special composting worms which process and break down food waste. You may have heard of worm...

The Bokashi method is a way of recycling household food waste by fermenting it in a container - in anaerobic conditions - with the aid of microbes.  Howeve...

The bagged compost that many gardeners are familiar with has traditionally been peat-based (or has peat as an ingredient). Whether through individual experience...

Composting is a natural process that transforms your food scraps and garden waste into rich, crumbly ‘black gold’: the finest soil enhancer you can...

If you saw the state of my garden right now you would laugh your head off that I have the cheek to talk about weeding. It has never looked so bad (too much wand...

Food waste is a significant social issue with far-reaching consequences for the environment. According to the EPA, Ireland generated 835,000 tonnes of food wast...

Mulching is the practice of covering the soil surface with a layer of material to protect your plants or to insulate or improve your garden soil. It’s a w...

In a spade full of soil, there are many billions of bacteria, hundreds of metres of fungal hyphae, and millions of amoeba and protozoa. Plants need a mix of core...

I had the pleasure on Monday evening to give my very first talk to a gardening club. It was all very professional with a projector for my (first ever) Powe...

It is conventional wisdom that you should discard used potting compost but, given that we are all trying to be more sustainable, I think we should revie...

Plastic may have taken much of the attention in recent years, but food waste continues to be a pressing issue affecting the environment.  It was est...

As we all know growing vegetables takes a lot out of a garden, because when we remove our nutritious crops we remove nutrition from the soil. This has to b...

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...

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 some...

I had quite a few emails following my previous article on  mycogardening (gardening with fungi) and on my plans to make my garden more biodivers...

Regular readers will have heard me mention my farmer friend Clive Bright before (aka 'The Rare Ruminare'). He farms his 50 or so acres of Sligo countryside...

Put that shovel away! No dig gardening continues to grow in popularity with home growers and gardeners, but what does it actually involve? Will you need to sell...

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)...

Whether it’s homegrown or store-bought, compost plays a vital role in the health of your soil, and healthy soil makes for healthy plant growth. But you ma...

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 composter...

Preparing your soil is an important step that shouldn’t be skipped when setting up your first polytunnel. Trying to do intensive digging or soil amendment...

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...

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'm not sure what the weather is like where you are but it has been dry in the Quickcrop garden for the last week, which means the soil is dry enough to work. A...

I know I mentioned feeding your soil in some detail at the end of August, but it really is the best thing you can do for your garden at this time of year. Layer...

September in the Vegetable Garden Following our article on Autumn sowing for the polytunnel (17th August), we have had a number of requests for information on o...

I thought it might be a good idea to follow last week's article on sowing seeds with some notes on seed and potting compost. It might seem like a boring subject...

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 t...

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 coll...

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...

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...

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 i...

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...

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 yo...

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...

Depending on your location early potatoes are planted in mid March once the days begin to warm. To be fair, the soil is probably warm enough to plant now in m...

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-D...

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 vigou...

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...

I am sure you are sick of seeing pictures of my potatoes by now but I ended up digging out another barrow full of them on Sunday while I prepared a bed for Summe...

You may remember some of the vibrant looking photos from my vegetable garden in the Summer with its neat (ish) rows of healthy crops and tidy weeded paths? Wel...

Well, it's August again in the Quickcrop garden (and elsewhere I suspect) so I thought we'd take our customary stroll around to see what's growing and hopefull...

Garden soil can differ greatly in terms of consistency, texture and nutrient content. By identifying and understanding the type of soil you have, you can then t...

For the home gardener there is absolutely nothing more important than their soil. Soil is the life blood of the garden and its makeup will have a big influence...

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...

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. Whe...

Can potato plants with late blight be composted? If care is taken the answer is yes. Blight spores can only survive on living plant tissue, once the foliage...

Hello and welcome back to the Quickcrop garden. Well, it’s a beautiful day in mid September and today we are going to build one of our large New Zealand Box...

What is Soil pH? 'pH' refers to how acid or alkaline a soil is. The scale runs from 0-14 and basically measures the amount of calcium in the soil. Neutral is in...

November is the month when growth in the vegetable garden finally grinds to a halt. Temperatures fall and daylight levels decrease, the season is over and oth...

As my garden moves into autumn and I harvest and clear spent crops from my beds, I am looking at an increasing number of empty spaces. Some of these gaps will b...

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...

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...

I was working my way around my garden yesterday, checking on things and harvesting a bit of this and a bit of that. As I worked my way through a few small job...

You know when you meet someone at a party who you've never met before you have to try quite hard not to ask them what they 'do' to get the conversation going? Si...

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...

Easy compost making: throw some organic matter in a pile and wait. But of course we never let it be that easy. For years, composters all over have been monkeying...