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 ... … April Vegetable Seedling Care Guide

I think I mentioned last week that haven't been spending as much time as I should have in the vegetable garden due to the uninspiring weather we have been having lately. I had noticed on one of my br ... … How do I deal with potato blight?

We received this recipe from one of our customers and we were delighted to get it. If anyone has any favourite dishes they’d like to share please send them in. I must admit I haven’t tried it yet but ... … Grainne's spiced potato and cauliflower

Regular readers will know that I included my outdoor garden succession planting plan in one of our January emails. I also said I would follow with my polytunnel plan if anyone was interested and have ... … Polytunnel Succession Planting Plan 2021

With so many available options causing confusion for novice gardeners here are some simple suggestions for anyone planning to grow vegetables. Herb Garden Preferably planted close to the kitch ... … The Top 5 Gardening Ideas for Beginners

As you can see from the image above our seed potatoes for this year have now arrived and are looking forward to going out to their new homes. We have the usual broad selection of varieties with the i ... … Tips on sprouting or 'chitting' seed potatoes

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't as good. From my own person ... … How to Grow Chilli Peppers

This week I thought I would concentrate on the polytunnel or greenhouse as there is a lot to be done in April both in terms of sowing new seed and in potting on tomato, chilli and sweet pepper plants ... … The Polytunnel in mid April 2021

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 has been cut it will die and so will ... … Can I compost potato plants affected by late blight?

Small Garden Ideas Vegetable growing should be available to anyone even if you have have a very small urban garden or no garden at all. Small urban gardens can be just as productive as larger suburb ... … Urban Planters - Small Garden Ideas

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 has also warmed enough for weeds and gra ... … Vegetable Sowing and Planting Tips

Despite the fact that I am usually busy enough in the polytunnel in late Winter (sowing sweet peas, peppers, broad beans etc....), it is not until I sow my tomatoes that I really feel the season ... … Sowing Tomatoes in late February - a guide from Rhys Jaggar

Courgettes are easy to grow with two plants producing ample courgettes for most families. Courgettes are best picked small for best flavour, these plants are also very prolific so don't worry ther ... … How To Grow Courgettes

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 ... … Plant feed for Container Growing

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, ... … Sowing Chillies in February - How to Grow Chilli Peppers.

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 ... … Urban vegetable planters

Since I've been slow in the vegetable garden this year (which has recently turned from a wet and miserable prospect into a sun kissed paradise) I am very interested in what I can sow or plant right n ... … Mid June in the Vegetable Garden - What to sow

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 vigourous growth from your weeds. While you ... … July in the Quickcrop garden

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 spr ... … How To Extend The Growing Season with a Polytunnel - Part 1: Spring

Last weekend I was back in the polytunnel and sowed a few trays of seeds which I wanted to start on the heat bench (onions and leeks). It is still very early days but there are seeds that can be sown ... … February in the Quickcrop Vegetable Garden

It's one thing to have your greenhouse all set up, installed and ready to go for the new season. However an empty greenhouse is a bit like an empty house; you're best off getting some furnishin ... … Essential Greenhouse Accessories

I am excited about this week's post because I am covering one of my favourite subjects, fermented food. To be fair, I am a lot better at eating it than making it but all that is going to change now I ... … Fabulous and Funky Fermented Foods

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 ... … Growing Peas and Beans in the Quickcrop Garden

So, how is everyone feeling with the improvement in the weather? I for one am feeling pretty good about it. I don't know what the temperatures were like where you are, but it was wonderfully wa ... … ​The Polytunnel in April

The unique selling point of the Vegepod is that it combines some of the benefits of raised bed gardening with those of growing under cover or in a container. You can create a  microc ... … Vegepod Self Watering Raised Bed

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 ... … How To Make Comfrey Tea Plant Fertiliser

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. … How to Grow Blueberries and Cranberrries

A plant seed is created to grow, and will perform that task admirably once given the opportunity. For successful germination seeds will need:  a suitable growing medium moderate moistu ... … How to Germinate Seeds Successfully

A greenhouse can open up possibilities for you and extend your growing season. It mainly does this by increasing levels of heat and light: an effect brought about by the inherent design of the greenh ... … What Do I Need To Start an Unheated Greenhouse?

Runner beans, or 'scarlet runners', are native to central and northern South America, where they were seen as one of the 'Three Sisters', a famous companion planting growing technique.Runner beans ar ... … How To Grow Runner Beans

I am not someone who is very keen on getting up at 5 am on a Sunday morning but last weekend I found myself sitting blinking in the car three and half hours before Sunday Miscellany was due to ... … Lough Gill Kayak Tour

.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 vegeta ... … Where to buy vegetable seedlings online

When it comes to watering the vegetable garden, convenience and automation has a lot going for it, but it’s not the be all and end all. Being a gardening ‘luddite’ whose weapon of choice is a ... … How to Water Your Garden by Hand

March can be a deceptive month. The season is clearly starting to turn with warmer days, grass beginning to grow and buds opening on fruit bushes, yet it is still too early to sow most outdoor ... … The Vegetable Garden in March

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 ... … How to grow raspberries

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 ... … How To Grow Tomatoes

Like you, I am itching to get outside and can't wait for the season to get started. This year I will be spending more time in the garden as my output of video and photos was pretty weedy last year, I ... … 2020 Quickcrop Garden Plan

Firstly, thank you to anyone who mailed me last week to let me know you found our most recent article on plant feed for container growing useful. It is always great to hear from anyone out there, wha ... … The Quickcrop Garden in Early June

I spent last summer dreading weeding my vegetable garden, as time pressure meant the hoe didn't get used as much as it should. I'm not the best weeder in the world (I find it pretty boring) and can e ... … Sow Easy Grow - Grow Grid

We are now very close to being able plant out seedling plants outdoors or to be able sow directly in the garden soil. Please be aware, however, that despite the recent sunny weather, it has been a co ... … Late April in the Quickcrop Garden 2021

Plant propagation is creating new plants from existing plants. This can be done using seeds or bulbs, by taking cuttings from existing plants, or by dividing roots. Taking cuttings is by far the eas ... … How to Propagate a Plant From Cuttings

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 has also warmed enough for weeds ... … The Vegetable Garden in May

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 ... … When to Feed Tomato Plants

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 ... … May 5th, Planting tomatoes, chillis and cucumbers in the polytunnel

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 ... … What to grow in a School Vegetable Garden

I am afraid we have had to close the Quickcrop site for 3 days and not taking any new orders until Friday. As I think I explained last week we are down to a small team of core staff who are doing all ... … March 31st Vegetable Garden Update

Q - My strawberries are in their 4th year growing in an outdoor bed; fruit has been very poor this year despite feeding them, what is going wrong?  Apart from the fact that this spring a ... … Q & A: Why Aren't My Strawberry Plants Producing Fruit?

When we move towards the end of July and into early August, it can be easy to think that the time for sowing new crops has passed. To be fair that's true for most things, with the garden now in ... … Asian Greens for Autumn Sowing

The trick with growing celery is to take a lot of care sowing your transplants, making sure the plants never get stressed or pot bound. When planted out remember celery is originally a ... … How To Grow Celery

Pumpkins have a special appeal for both adults and children, especially at Halloween. The carved pumpkin outside the front door - or being carried house to house as a lantern - is an establishe ... … How To Grow Pumpkins

Garden Sorrel, also known as Spinach Dock or Narrow Leaved Dock, is a commonly grown herb or leaf vegetable, it has tall juicy stems and edible oblong leaves. Sorrel has a sharp almost sour taste ... … How To Grow Sorrel

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 can d ... … How to plan a vegetable garden

As you know, the Quickcrop research team never sleeps. We work tirelessly night and day to improve our product range and bring the best possible products to our shop and, hopefully, to your gar ... … The Benefits of Cold Pressed Seaweed and Foliar Feeds

Well folks, I am back from my week's holidays loafing around with the day to myself. If anyone is interested, I was in Oysterhaven, a pretty spot on the sea in county Cork. The idea was to have an id ... … The Quickcrop Garden in Mid June

In a perfect world, there’d be plenty of room for gardens, greenery and foliage to exist in harmony with us as we go about our day-to-day lives. However, urbanisation and increasing levels of populat ... … Green Wall Gardens - Living Walls & Vertical Gardening

Garden furniture is often designed or bought with relaxation or solitary ‘me time’ in mind, but that’s far from the only option. The garden can be a great place to entertain, have guests around for a ... … Garden Party Furniture

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 ... … Building a timber fruit cage

As we are probably all itching to begin the growing season, I thought it might be helpful to talk about starting seeds off early and how to give the best chance of success. As we need extra warmth t ... … Starting Seeds Early in the Season

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. Layers of organic matter - which may includ ... … The Vegetable Garden in October

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 ... … How To Grow Climbing French Beans

Pricking out tomato and chilli seedlings This week I have started pricking out and potting on my tomato seedlings, you can see the tomatoes happily growing away in the photo above. There are a coupl ... … Mid March 2021 Vegetable Garden Update

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 ... … Automatic Garden Watering Systems

I am not sure what it's like with you but we have had some real January weather over the weekend with some hard overnight frosts. A hard frost ads a touch of magic to the garden, with ice cryst ... … Sowing Sweet Peas and Broad Beans in January

A polytunnel can really open up a world of growing possibilities, extending the growing season, providing extra shelter and increasing your chances of success with warm climate crops.  However, ... … The Best Crops to Grow in a Polytunnel

This is a follow up to a weekly newsletter post where I mentioned a guy who worked with me a number of years ago who was always good for a funny turn of phrase. To set the scene, James was an old ... … Fencing with James

The greenhouse has a long and interesting history. Did you know that a proto-greenhouse structure was designed by the Romans to support Emperor Tiberius's one-cucumber-a-day habit? Or that the ... … How Do You Use A Greenhouse (for Beginners)?

Rocket is very quick growing, Rocket Cultivated Rucola Coltivata is a vigorous, robust plant with pungent leaves. Use as a main ingredient of a mixed green salad to add zest and texture.   ... … How to Grow Rocket

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 ... … Best Compost For Urban Container Growing

While we are heading in the right direction in terms of day length, February is still a very cold month with little we can sow or plant outside. There are a few crops that we should sow indoors in Fe ... … The Vegetable Garden in February 2021

Your Immune System The immune system is made up of a network of cells, tissues, and organs that work together to protect the body. It is a highly evolved series of defences designed to ... … Functional Nutrition Basics Part 5 – Immune Function

One of the key differences between growing plants inside and growing them outside in your garden is that indoor plants don’t benefit from rainfall. As such, irrigation becomes even more importa ... … Greenhouse Irrigation

Although it is still too early to sow anything I thought I would run through some seed sowing notes this week for any new growers who are unsure when or how to start growing. It will also likely be d ... … Vegetable Seed Sowing Notes

Researching the benefits of drinking wheatgrass juice has to be one of the most challenging tasks as opinions vary wildly from one side to the other. The problem for me is that the more ardent suppor ... … Gaby Wieland on Wheatgrass

Blueberries are delicious and extremely high in antioxidants which is why it is regarded as a super food. Plants are easy to grow provided you use an acidic or 'ericaceous' compost. Site and ... … How To Grow Blueberry

Whether you're (a) looking for a gift for the gardening enthusiast in your life or (b) you want to leave some heavy hints lying around about what you yourself would like - here's our Christmas gif ... … Christmas Gift Ideas for The Gardening Enthusiast

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 ... … New Quickcrop Vegetable Growers Course

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 ... … September 2020 in the Quickcrop Garden

Celeriac is a cool-season biennial grown as an annual. It is similar in growing habit and requirements as celery. Celeriac is best when it comes to harvest in cool weather. It is best started indo ... … How To Grow Celeriac

Leeks are a very easy and rewarding crop to grow. They are such a welcome vegetable in Autumn and Winter and add interest and colour to your garden with their blue/green spiky leaves. You ca ... … Sowing Leeks in February

Following on from last week's post I thought we would continue with more planting tips, this time on tomatoes as I put some in my tunnel at the weekend. As regards flavour, there is no comparison bet ... … Easy Home Tomato Planting Tutorial

Slug control is an on-going battle for us gardeners, and it seems that you are never quite free of them. It doesn't help at all that they are hermaphroditic, or that their eggs can lay dor ... … Natural and Non Toxic Slug Control Methods

Pumpkins can be a bit of a challenge to grow in Ireland, as they require a long growing season with good levels of sunshine - something that we can't really take for granted in this side of the ... … Do Pumpkins Grow in Ireland?

Towards the end of summer and into autumn, activity in the vegetable garden slows down as crops are fully grown and their fruit begins to ripen. Winter brassicas are bedded in until spring, and work ... … How to Grow Microgreens Indoors

If you're staring off your vegetable plants in early Spring you'll need to give them some heat as temperatures will be too cold for the seeds to germinate. If you're growing in a greenhouse or pol ... … Germinating Vegetable Seeds in a Heated Propagator

Whether learning by experience or by reading up, you’ll soon come to realise that - for the most part - there are no hard and fast rules for gardening. This applies to irrigation as well. Sure, there ... … When is the best time to water plants?

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 cr ... … How to Grow Beetroot

The Quickcrop Garden Irrigation System can be adapted to suit a range of vegetable garden design layouts using a selection of connectors, hoses, valves and timers which can be arranged and connect ... … The Quickcrop Garden Irrigation System

It is still early days for sowing but there are a few plants that you can start off now, especially if you are lucky enough to have a greenhouse or polytunnel. Sowing times will differ dependin ... … Getting the season under way

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 "N ... … How to Plant Tomato Seedlings

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 ... … Growing your own Dwarf Vegetable Varieties

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 ... … How To Build and Install Raised Garden Beds

It might sound like a phrase from some futuristic sci-fi story involving androids and off-world colonies, but xeriscaping actually comes from the Greek word ‘xeros’, meaning dry. It’s the pract ... … Xeriscaping and Drought Tolerant Plants

Perfectly healthy plants can be affected by air, water or soil borne diseases at any time. Understanding the causes, identifying them early and taking effective action will help you establish and ... … Diseases in the Vegetable Garden

I asked my wife Siobhan to have a go at documenting her chutney making endeavours with the following results, go Siobhan!The English made chutneys their own after the traders brought back these exoti ... … Making Chutneys

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 ... … How To Grow Cabbage (Summer)

I had always read Jane Powers' Irish Times articles with interest so I was quite excited when I answered the phone one day and found herself on the other end. She was doing an article on raised be ... … A drop of Powers: an interview with Jane Powers

Growing garlic is both easy and satisfying: it's well-suited to both the first time gardener and the more experienced. A haul of freshly harvested garlic is a beautiful thing, especially wh ... … How To Grow Garlic

Here at Quickcrop HQ we propagate large amounts of vegetable seedlings in the early spring, so we need some heat to get them going. Clearly a heated propagator or heat mat isn't really practical whe ... … How to Make a Heat Bench Propagator Using a Soil Warming Cable

Unless you live in a part of the country with a unique and unreported special climate you will have experienced a pretty disappointing summer for growing fruit and vegetables. Apart from the fact it' ... … The Polytunnel in September

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 ... … About Us