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 ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

A greenhouse is very effective at what it does, but to keep it working to the best of its abilities you should keep on top of any maintenance issues that may arise. Keep a sharp eye on things l ... … Read more

In our culture of instant gratification, it can sometimes be difficult to do something in the garden now when it won't give you any reward till next year. Fruit bushes are a good example, you go o ... … 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

Parsnips are easy to grow members of the cow parsley family. This family includes carrot, dill, fennel and parsley among others. These seeds tend to have a short period of viability, so new packet ... … 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

A finish generally refers to a coating which you can apply to your garden furniture to add extra protection, improve its weather resistance or retain its visual appeal. This can be done just af ... … Read more

Many of you will have noticed it is no longer Autumn, so clearly planting tulips and daffodils aren't an option at the moment. The great news is there are a whole range of Spring-pl ... … Read more

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 other than harvesting any remaining crops ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

Why Plant Bare Root Trees? Everyone seems to be talking about trees these days and with good reason. They are one of the single most effective ways to take carbon out of the atmosphere and help ... … Read more

Maintaining a garden pond fosters a healthy ecosystem, providing the suitable environment for fish and plants to thrive. It's important to practice regular maintenance routines, which can inv ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

As the garden is currently in the process of springing into life and we have 'work' to do, it might be a good idea to have a look at some of the essential garden tools for vegetable growing ... … Read more

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 that there are very few vegetables to s ... … 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

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 ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

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 hopefully offer some advice on some of my frui ... … Read more

Tomatoes can be grown in containers like pots, planters, growbags, and hanging baskets, they may not be the easiest plant to grow at home but they are definitely one of the favourites. There are many ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

Seed sowing dates This week I thought it might be helpful to include some more detail on seed sowing dates as, with some minor planning, you can skew the season in your favour and avoid some common ... … 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

This might seem like an odd time of year to talk about irrigation, but if you are thinking of adding a watering system to your polytunnel or greenhouse then now is the time to get it done. Irri ... … Read more

It is rare that my wife and I agree on anything but I was pleasantly surprised when my liking for pickled vegetables converged neatly with her interest in the health benefits of home fermented produc ... … Read more

One of the stereotypical images that might spring to mind when you think of someone gardening is someone on their hands and knees with a trowel. After all, the soil is at foot-level and that’s where ... … Read more

'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 ... … Read more

If you are new to vegetable gardening you will probably be imagining yourself carefully nurturing your healthy, glossy plants, perhaps giving them a little water from your pretty yellow watering can ... … Read more

Whatever about sowing onions, broad beans or other early crops in February, it isn't until tomato sowing time that I get properly excited. That is when the season really gets going. It is possible t ... … Read more

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 saturat ... … Read more

Growing garlic is one of my favourite jobs in the vegetable garden. It is pretty much trouble free to grow and adds wonderful flavours to our home cooking. Homegrown garlic comes in a wide rang ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

How to grow endive, a popular salad vegetable on the Continent there are two types: curly endive (chicorée frisée), which is more heat-resistant, and Batavian or broad leaved (escarole); there are ... … Read more

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 in domestic composting for a long time ... … 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

While I am not a fan of of winter I do enjoy preparing for it. There is great satisfaction in harvesting and storing crops in October, protecting beds from heavy rain and generally put ... … 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

I gather that while the whole country is experiencing some warm and dry June weather, us culchies on the west coast are getting the highest temperatures (for a change). Of course, last week I had de ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

I do love the colour of beetroot, its glorious deep fuschia just makes me feel good looking at it. Add chickpeas, oil, garlic, lemon and some ground cumin in the blender and I still see that wonder ... … Read more

Weed control options 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 wandering a ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

‘You are what you eat and absorb’ is more accurate than the saying ‘you are what you eat’. More than 2,000 years ago Hippocrates stated that all disease starts in the gut, but we’re only now coming t ... … 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

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 ... … 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

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 ... … Read more

The sauna can be a terrific place to unwind, rejuvenate or socialise. It’s a place you want to retreat to so you can take your mind off daily stresses. Having said that, you should still be aware of ... … 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

Currants are an excellent fruit for the home gardener as they a relatively trouble free and produce large crops of highly nutritious fruit. Currants are divided into black, red and white types wit ... … Read more

If you’re new to the whole world of ‘sitting in a heated room to relax’, it may not be immediately clear what the difference is between a sauna and a steam room. Some people will use the terms ... … Read more

Water is one of the most crucial building blocks for plant growth. The rest of the ‘Big 5’ consists of oxygen, light, favourable temperature and nutrients. Interestingly enough for the purpose of thi ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

This March I am starting a new monthly update project which is centered more around what I'm doing in my garden. This is because it's easier for me to write but also I hope you find it more engagin ... … Read more

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 ... … 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

Aphids are the source of much frustration in the garden. Also referred to as greenfly or blackfly, these small sap-sucking insects feed on ornamental plants and edibles alike. They can cause ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

Onions are some of the easiest things to grow and require very little looking after. As our friend Dermot Carey (last head gardener of Lissadell House) says if you can't grow onions you might as well ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

As we move towards the beginning of May, things really start to move in the vegetable garden. Up until this point there have been very few seeds we can sow outside or seedlings we can plant out but t ... … Read more

Growing your own fruit has to be the easiest, most satisfying and most joyous gardening pursuit. Yes, I am delighted when I fork out some nice straight carrots or creamy skinned potatoes but do they ... … Read more

Raised bed vegetable garden plan.I include my 2016 vegetable garden plan below if anyone is interested in what I'll be growing next year. My garden is now split up into long raised beds with gravel ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

The vegetable garden was beginning to get very dry over the last few weeks - so much so that I found myself out with the hose watering crops, which can be a very tedious and time consuming job. So y ... … Read more

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 a change in the weather. The old sailo ... … Read more

If you read any of the guff I write you will probably have heard me mention Charles Dowding before. He's a bit of a hero of mine basically because his book 'Organic Gardening - The Natural No Dig Way ... … Read more

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 ... … 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 pro ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

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 outdoor sowing in September, naturally ... … Read more

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 ... … 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

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 ... … Read more

We are now moving into the time of year when we start to sow seeds (for those of you not reading this article 'hot from the oven' it is the beginning of February) so I figured it may be helpful to ... … Read more

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 normally would. While I write ... … Read more

Here begins Part 2 of our guide to vegetable harvesting, going in neat alphabetical order. Knowing when to harvest can be just as important in its own way as growing, tending to plants, irrigation ... … Read more

It's no secret that bee populations are under threat due to issues like habitat loss, pesticide usage and shortages of food. More than half of Ireland's bee species have shown a marked decline in th ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

Those of you who are subscribed to our newsletter may already be familiar with this A-Z guide that I've been gradually putting together. It's easy to find sowing times for vegetables but sometimes it ... … Read more