Beginners Gardening Kits Vegetable gardening can be a little intimidating to the beginner and it is hard to know where to start with all the various information flying around. Our new beginners gard ... … Beginners Vegetable Garden Kits

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 ... … New Perennial Style Planting Plans

I quite like February, it's a bit of a renegade. Not only does it have a different number of days than any other month but it also reserves the right to change that date on a leap year. It is the m ... … February in the Vegetable Garden

We've started taking down a few old and scruffy conifers at the Quickcrop estate to make room for some beech trees and for the valuable winter firewood they provide. That's Clive in the picture who's ... … The August Vegetable Garden

Common garden weeds are a large part of our gardens, and need to be identified before they manage to sow seed and multiply. If you keep a strict and thorough weeding regime, this particular chore wil ... … How To Recognise Common Annual Garden Weeds

Flowering bulbs are ideal for container gardening or as part of a vibrant garden border. They are one of the easiest plants to grow and with a little careful planning can provide a beautiful show of ... … Planting Garden Bulbs

I spent a good bit of time in the vegetable garden this weekend as the skies were blue for a change which made working outdoors a pleasure. I was also able to have a good snoop about without getti ... … The Quickcrop Vegetable Garden in July

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

What can I sow or plant in my garden now? Everything! Well, pretty much everything. You will be too late to sow most warm climate crops which need a long growing season like tomatoes, peppers an ... … The Vegetable Garden in Mid May

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

Site Vegetables are expected to give a lot. We want them to grow quickly and provide good quantities of nutritious food. To do this we need to pamper them a bit and this means giving the best si ... … Where to build a school raised bed garden?

Our Top Ten list of plant protection products for the vegetable garden. Plant protection is the practice of managing weather, weeds, pests and diseases that damage or inhibit the growth of fruit, veg ... … Top 10 Plant Protection For The Vegetable Garden

I can't believe I am already writing about the vegetable garden in August, where has all that time gone? I don't know what the weather is like where you are but we are seeing cooler, showery days whi ... … August in the Quickcrop Vegetable Garden

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

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

The soil or compost you use in your school vegetable garden is the single most important part of the project. Vegetables are demanding as plants go, after all we we expect quick growth and lots of cr ... … Soil or compost for a school vegetable garden

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

This week I would like to talk about succulent plants and flowering perennials, as both give me something to do while the vegetable garden sleeps. First though, I thought we might start with a couple ... … Stuff for gardeners to do in winter.

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

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

This weekend showed some real promise with blue skies and the first fleeting traces of heat from the sun. As you see from the photo (taken on Sunday morning) the wind had also dropped leaving the lak ... … February 2018 - Vegetable Garden Update

The unwelcome garden visitors that come back every year. Here's a rundown of who they are and how to send them away. SlugsThese garden molluscs, along with their close relative the snai ... … Top Ten Garden Pests

Whether you're moving into a new build or you're looking to improve an existing boundary that has deteriorated, the thorny (pun intended) question of fencing vs hedging is likely to come up. Th ... … Garden Fencing vs Hedging: Pros and Cons

Well, it's been a while. I always have great intentions to write more articles every month but time seems to slip by so easily with the day to day business at Quickcrop. Yes, I am the same person who ... … The Vegetable Garden in Early Spring

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

The news from the Quickcrop garden could be described as 'mixed'. Outside, a mind boggling amount of slugs continue to eat everything in sight despite my best efforts at control. On a more ... … Early May in the vegetable garden

One of the greatest pleasures in gardening is watching life flourish all around you: not just in terms of the plants you grow, but also the non-human visitors to your garden. A biodiverse garden isn ... … How To Create a Wildlife Friendly Garden

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? Well, it looks nothing like that now. I a ... … Rathdooney Vegetable Garden Blog - November 28th

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

Perennial Weeds Perennial weeds come up every year from the same plant and are difficult to get rid of but not as hard as they are often made our to be. Most have deep tap roots which need to be remo ... … Recognising Common Perennial Garden Weeds

I thought we'd start the garden update with a couple of photos taken last evening while having a walk on a local bog. The photo above is of Eriophorum angustifolium or bog cotton (oddly, th ... … The Quickcrop Garden in Early June 2020

When choosing bare root hedging for your garden, a number of different factors can come into play. Your number one priority might be privacy, creating a natural windbreak, or ease of maintenance. Ho ... … The Best Wildlife Friendly Hedging for Gardens

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

We are often asked about the pros and cons of raised bed gardening, and how raised bed kits can help you overcome space or soil limitations. And since there's a good chance you're asking yourself (o ... … Gardening With Raised Beds: Frequently Asked Questions

As you know, September is about the final act in the vegetable garden when we harvest many of our crops and prepare the soil for winter. This week I have had a quick run around the garden to check in ... … September in the Quickcrop Garden

Four Seasons in Our Garden was a year-long intergenerational project that took place in the setting of the Cranmore Community Co Op, a Sligo-based communal space with its own garden, polytunnel and ... … Four Seasons in an Urban Community Garden - an interview with Kids' Own

If you’re just thinking about starting your first vegetable garden, you might feel like you’ve missed the boat or that it’s the wrong time of year. Fair enough: many gardeners see ... … Is It Too Late To Start A Vegetable Garden in August?

Edible landscaping or foodscaping is the practice of interspersing ornamental plant displays with edible crops, often in a way that creates a lush and colourful variety of foliage.  There’s ... … Foodscaping: How To Combine Ornamental & Edible Gardening

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 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-Dig Way' by Charles Dowding. Both are f ... … Mulching is the key to a healthy garden

I don't know what the season has been like for you but thanks to a warm and dry early summer followed by some welcome rain, my garden is looking vibrant and green. Despite the fact that the ... … July 7th - Quickcrop Vegetable Garden Update

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 ... … Growing Vegetables In Urban Planters - Container Gardening

When my daughter Anna (21, not living at home) called to tell us she had adopted 2 kittens I started a countdown in my head to see how long it would take for them to end up with us. It took about 4 w ... … Early May in the Quickcrop Vegetable Garden 2021

Using school raised garden beds We would strongly recommend using timber raised vegetable beds for your school garden for a number of reasons, the biggest from the teachers point of view is they ... … How to build a school raised bed vegetable garden

I took a few photos while the sun was out at the weekend which I might as well show you. Above you can see the beds covered in seaweed which has started to rot down. It starts off a mustard brown col ... … Photos from the Quickcrop Garden in January

Garden 'pests' are the scourge of many a gardener - it can feel like they’re taunting you and all your careful work as they infest, burrow into and devour crops or plants. In these kinds of ... … How To Attract Beneficial Insects To Your Garden

Unusually for me I found myself in not one, but two fancy restaurants at the weekend (it was my Mother's birthday) both of which presented me with pea shoots perched on top of my dinner. It got me ... … Edible Flowers in the Vegetable Garden

This week we have our second installment of the Burtown Kitchen Garden Diary where we see Dermot building a new polytunnel on the site to broaden the choice of fruit and vegetables destined for the ... … Burtown Kitchen Garden Diary – How To Build a Polytunnel

A raised bed can provide the perfect environment for creating a herb garden. It can be positioned anywhere that suits you and can be maintained easily. A selection of plants can be mixed for a div ... … How to Create a Raised Bed Herb Garden

I took the above photo on Friday morning on the last day of my holidays. It shows Gurteen bay in Co. Galway on another gloriously sunny day. For the first time ever the weather went my way, with nea ... … How to Irrigate your Garden During a Hosepipe Ban

For a bit of colour to start, below is the beautiful magenta bulbs of onion 'long red Florence': a crop I harvested in 2021, but a variety I sow every year. A new batch of onion seedling plants ... … April in the Vegetable Garden - What Can You Sow?

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 ... … The Vegetable Garden in August - What to grow in Late Summer

Pollinating Sweetcorn As you may know from previous mails, I am growing sweetcorn in the polytunnel this year as part of our video project. I thought you might like to see a couple of photos as the c ... … Mid July Vegetable Garden Update

Crop rotation is a system of moving the position of certain crops (or families of crops) around so that they are not being grown in the same soil for successive years. It plays an important role in a ... … What Is Crop Rotation?

What to sow or plant in September - it's not too late! I have included below some good things to sow or plant out as vegetable seedlings in September. Most of the varieties mentioned are available a ... … Plants for the Autumn Vegetable Garden

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

Last week the blog included some tips on starting a new vegetable garden and, judging by the emails I received (thank you), a number of you found it very helpful (fantastic!). With that in mind, I ... … Growing tips for beginners

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? Similarly it's nigh on impossible not to ... … The Spring Vegetable Garden, Looking After Your Soil.

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

This week we are back in the vegetable garden to look at growth towards the end of the season and to make sure we get the best possible harvests before the cold weather arrives. While August can seem ... … Late August Garden Update & Protecting Your Soil.

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 Summer cabbage. According to the weather fo ... … Rathdooney Vegetable Garden Blog - Jan 10th

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

Whether you have a large garden or a modest balcony, what better person to speak to about making your space more wildlife and nature-friendly than someone who's just written a book about the subject ... … Attracting Wildlife to Your Garden - an interview with Donna Mullen

It’s always fun to learn about and experiment with a new gardening technique. Olla pots (and the unique way that they work) aren’t exactly new though, far from it. The use of olla (prono ... … How to make your own Olla Pots for Eco-Friendly Garden Irrigation

Keep sowing those seeds! I know I said it in a previous mail/blog post, but I feel I should again remind you to keep sowing seeds for late summer, autumn or overwintering crops. I know it doe ... … Late July in the Quickcrop Vegetable Garden

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?

It might seem a bit premature talking about pest control in mid March as we have very little in the ground but I think it is worth learning how to avoid some common issues before they arise. As ... … Natural Pest Control Methods

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

If you are considering building a garden pond you may want to calculate the volume of water for water treatment or if you intend to introduce fish. Water treatments to clear algae and other issues ... … Quickcrop Pond Volume Calculator

The trouble with pots and planters made from ceramic or stone is that they are heavy (extremely heavy if we're talking about stone), and can split in a heavy frost. From our point of view, they are ... … How To Plant an Attractive Succulent Display

Rhubarb is a fantastic plant for any vegetable garden as it comes up every year and will produce an excellent crop with the minimum of maintenance. It is perfect for the first time grower as it is ... … 3 Best Rhubarb Varieties

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

'How to grow gooseberries' is intended as a solid introduction to growing this relatively easy to grow fruit bush. For more detailed information on gooseberries please feel free to contact us, we ... … How to grow bare root soft fruit part 3: How to grow Gooseberries

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. When rotted they make an excellent mulch, ... … How to Make Leaf Mould: A Free And Natural Soil Improver

Weeding the garden is an ongoing process that never seems to end and, of all the jobs in the garden, appears to be the most time consuming.  We can hoe at speedwell and chickweed, tug ... … Sheen X300 Flamegun Product Review

I know I have looked at soil and plant feeds a number of times over the years but, for the benefit of new growers, I think it may be helpful to cover it again today as we prepare our gardens for a ... … Soil health, plant feed & pruning fruit.

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?

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

Cleaning: not the best fun in the world, but it has to be done. Fortunately a polytunnel doesn’t have to be cleaned too often. Once a year is generally sufficient, and the best time of year to ... … How To Clean and Maintain Your Polytunnel

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 ... … How To Grow Cabbage (Spring)

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 yearly cycle but to the same dependable ... … 5 Good Things To Do With Autumn Leaves

Thyme deserves a place in all herb gardens. Its foliage is attractive, the long-lasting flowers are very pretty and it is a compact easy-care plant. On top of that it is one of the most useful ... … How To Grow Thyme

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 chill in th ... … Lawn Care Tips

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 most gardens but what you need to be ca ... … Planting Potatoes in March

Grow Your Own Oriental Salads Spicy Chinese Mustard. Mustard greens are very popular in China for stir-fry, and mostly used cooked. The oriental mustards are a very large group of rather coarse-lea ... … How To Grow Chinese Mustard

Mustard greens are very popular in China for stir-fry, and mostly used cooked. The oriental mustards are a very large group of rather coarse-leaved brassicas, usually having a spicy flavour. The m ... … How to Grow Osaka

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?

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

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

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)

Cabbage is a demanding plant from 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 precauti ... … How to Grow Cabbage (Winter)

Sleep is something many of us take for granted and don’t give a second thought to, but for others it’s a huge obstacle in their life. Sleep deprivation actually has more negative effects on our healt ... … Functional Nutrition Basics Part 3 - Sleep

Marina Kessopersadh of Iona Herbal contacted us about one of her courses she's running on Saturday April the 6th and the 20th in North Sligo. I thought it looked pretty cool, as I love the idea ... … Wild Irish Medicinal Herbs - Coltsfoot

O.K., so you've managed to get your seedling plants off to a good start (or have bought in some promising looking specimens). You have hardened them off and are ready to move them out into your gard ... … Tips for Planting Out Seedlings

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. As you probably know, digging saturated ... … How To Plant a Bare Root Hedge

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 review this advice.  Unless your pot ... … Can I Re-Use Potting Compost?

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) while at the same time producing your ... … Hungry Bin vs Hotbin (Composter Comparison)

When Dorcas Barry agreed to contribute to our blog I couldn't believe my luck. I met Dorcas at the G.I.Y. (Grow It Yourself) gathering in Waterford last year where she was talking about fresh and hea ... … Green Smoothies with Dorcas Barry

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

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