Kohlrabi sports a rosette of blueish-green leaves above a swollen stem. This almost globe-like stem makes it appear like a turnip growing on a cabbage root, in fact In German, Kohl means cabbage a ... … Read more

Know Your Broccoli! In Italian the word broccoli means 'little sprouts'. It is part of the Brassica family of vegetables, which also includes cauliflower, cabbages, Brussels sprouts, ... … Read more

Tatsoi is an oriental mustard green and is also called spinach mustard. Its a popular salad green in Aisan cuisine. Soil & Water Tatsoi greens prefer rich, fertile soil with a pH of 6.0-7.5 and ... … Read more

Salad Burnet, also called Garden Burnet, Small Burnet or simply just burnet, is a perennial herb of the Rosaceae or Rose family. It's edible leaves have a slight cucumber like flavour and can be u ... … 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

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

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 are ... … 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

Peas are well-suited to cooler temperate climates. In fact, when temperatures exceed 20C (70F), most varieties of peas will stop producing pods. Peas are part of the legume (Latin Leguminosae) ... … Read more

Radishes are a cool season vegetable that can mature very quickly. The small, round varieties will get woody if grown in hot temperatures.Planting Radishes Radishes are direct seeded in the gard ... … Read more

Sowing French Bean - Climbing Recommended varieties: Cobra. You can sow climbing french beans indoors from the middle of May to plant out later or sow outdoors at the end of May. Be aware that Fre ... … Read more

We had a number of questions recently on polytunnel growing: particularly whether polytunnels are worth the investment and whether it is true that they enable year-round growing, so I figured I ... … Read more

Hi folks, I hope everyone had a good weekend. I don't know what the weather is like with you but we finally had a beautiful summer weekend with plenty of heat and sunshine. It has been a woefully slo ... … 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 ... … 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. … Read more

An Introduction to School Vegetable Growing School vegetable growing is becoming more popular with the increased emphasis on healthy eating both at home and in the educational system. A ... … Read more

Wheatgrass is a tricky one to pin down. Many people I've spoken with swear by it while others will dismiss it as utter nonsense. It is claimed to be an energy booster, and a detoxifier, to be benefic ... … 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

Perpetual spinach is actually a chard (beet family) but is very similar to true spinach in flavour. We prefer it as it is much easier to grow and far more vigorous than true spinach. It also has th ... … Read more

How to grow red kale, the variety we use most often in our nurseries is Red Russian, this is a frost hardy variety with a sweeter taste than other kale. A wonderful addition to the winter garde ... … 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

Pak Choi (also called bok choy) is a mild flavoured Oriental vegetable in the same family as Chinese cabbage, Tatsoi and Wong Bok which are all grown the same way. Pak Choi can be eaten raw, stir ... … Read more

Spring onions tend to be treated as an afterthought by most gardening books yet they are a popular crop and very useful, possibly because they are really easy to grow. Salad onions, also properly ... … Read more

Broad beans are the simplest thing to grow. They are hardy and produce a large crop of delicious beans. I prefer to pick them young for a sweeter bean which are lovely tossed into a salad. … 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

A comprehensive article on How to grow Artichokes (Jerusalem variety). Artichokes area very easy crop to grow but be careful as they are very hard to get rid of once established! Delicious roasted ... … Read more

We pay them scant attention and know so little about them, yet fungi are critical to our survival. They support us indirectly by recycling carbon rich organic matter and by using their undergro ... … Read more

Why grow your own food? It's a fair question to ask. 'Fruits and vegetables aren't that expensive in the first place', you might say. 'It's time-consuming', you might also ponder, while wondering abo ... … Read more

Wheatgrass is regarded as a superfood, it is the young grass part of the sprouted wheat seed and is packed full of nutrients and vitamins. Because of this, it is an ideal addition to healthy jui ... … 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 ... … Read more

Climbing peas and beans are some of my favourite crops in the vegetable garden. They epitomise summer with their attractive flowers and lush growth. There is something 'active' about them with their ... … Read more

A brief explanation of 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 the middle (7 ... … 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 ... … Read more

When it comes to polytunnel growing, there tends to be something of a consensus around which crops are reliable staples in a temperate climate such as in the UK and Ireland. Indeed you will have p ... … Read more

I can't tell you how much of a relief it is that the weather has warmed a little and that there is no frost forecast for this week. As you may know I am filming our new vegetable growing course this ... … Read more

Growing Dwarf French Beans Dwarf French Beans are a compact habit plant that don't need staking like runner beans or peas. They are easy to grow and withstand dry conditions perhaps better than any ... … 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

How to plant your own Raised bed vegetable garden using the Quickcrop Square Foot garden method. Square foot gardening is all about taking advantage of smaller spaces and raised garden beds to maxim ... … Read more

Cultivating home grown vegetables is a simple pleasure that anyone can experience, even if you have limited space. We don’t all have the benefit of a large garden with room for a greenhouse and a r ... … Read more

Urban Planters / Container Gardening for vegetable growers. An image blog post. Wooden Wine Boxes make great little planters for herbs and salads. Vertical farming with herb containers. Any wall or ... … Read more

In answer to a number of queries on how to get started as a new vegetable gardener here's a few of my top tips to get you going: What do you like eating? This might sound like a silly ques ... … Read more

Squash plants are closely related to cucumbers, courgettes and marrows, and are a member of the same family, curcurbit. Squash plants come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and include butternut s ... … Read more

I must admit I'm finding it a little difficult to write my usual enthusiastic post today as my garden isn't quite the paradise it normally is at this time of year. I don't know where you are but her ... … 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

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

‘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 read t ... … 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

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 to ... … Read more

As you know my top priority is keeping you happy so when I noticed a sunny spell outside the office window I sped over to the Quickcrop garden to take some photos. I was concerned, you see, that you ... … Read more

This week I am taking a break from vegetable growing as I have been working on some new flowering perennial planting plans both for the site and for my back garden. The idea behind our flowering plan ... … 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 garden a ... … Read more

Why should I use a raised bed? I guess the best place to get started is why should I grow in raised beds in the first place? For me, growing in raised beds was my only option at first. When I began ... … Read more

A neat, well-maintained lawn is still considered a cornerstone of an appealing outdoor space. It provides a space for children to play, pets to chase after a ball or stick, or for you to ch ... … 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

Right then. For the last while I have been both adding to our list of flowering perennial plants and working on planting plants and corresponding plant packs. As the year so far has been nuts, progre ... … Read more

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of using a sauna, you’ll know that it can be a serene experience. The heat relaxes your muscles and eases body tension. This can create a deep sense of well-b ... … 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

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 soil, w ... … Read more