I had the pleasure of a few very sweet pints of the black stuff with vegetable gardening genius Dermot Carey the other night. Growing food runs deep in Dermot's blood (as did the Guinness by the time ... … Read more

I sometimes throw my vegetable garden a guilty look as I skip past it on my way to the fruit cage or down to look at my young apple trees. The vegetable garden, though not as glamorous, does the heav ... … Read more

Try saying that blog title quickly! Slugs have always been a challenge for anyone trying to grow their own vegetable crops, but 2023 seemed to see higher numbers than ever in gardens across the coun ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

Gooseberry Bushes How to grow gooseberries. Ranging from huge, juicy, red dessert fruit to tiny, sparkling, golden drops of sweetness, gooseberries are a great, easy to grow choice. This section al ... … Read more

I was pleased to bump into writer and journalist Fionnuala Fallon recently as I wanted to compliment her on her new book 'From the Ground Up'. I'm a sucker for good photography and also a bit of a no ... … 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

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

I posted an 'info graphic' (which I did myself) on facebook the other day illustrating that an acre of land could support 20 families in vegetables but just the one cow. I was hoping for a bit of ... … Read more

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 most of my beds in December (even then ... … Read more

Fruit trees and bushes are planted in the garden with the intention of remaining for the long term, providing produce for many years. In return for this supply of fresh fruit they require regular f ... … Read more

Greenhouses and polytunnels are both structures that allow for regulation of climate and enable you to grow a wider range of vegetables, fruits and plants than you would be able to outdoors. Te ... … Read more

Cabbage Pests & Diseases Cabbages and other brassicas have become a very important part of the vegetable garden in our climate. Different varieties of cabbages have been bred for productivity, s ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

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 ... … 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

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 ... … Read more

I'd kind of given up including recipes in our newsletters as I can see by my sneaky control panel that not many of you read them. Still, this is a soup my lovely wife made the other day which I think ... … 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

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 composters. This the area where my old ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

As we slip into the cooler weather of October there is very little we can sow now (apart from some cold tolerant Asian salads) so, as per last week's mail, it is mostly about preparing the ... … Read more

Firstly, thank you to anyone who replied to last week's mail expressing interest in information on plant feed for container growing. I am a bit tight for time this week and there is a lot to go throu ... … 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

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, ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

This week I thought we would take a break from vegetables and look instead at the flowering garden. Some of you may remember my ambitious plans earlier in the year to create a number of flo ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

We are taking a break from the vegetable garden this week and looking at some wild flowers as they are often far prettier than anything in the garden. This week's star of the show is sea campion (abo ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

As winter approaches in the second half of the year it's important to consider protecting your plants from cold weather - and the damage that can be caused by frost. In a lot of ways though, it' ... … 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

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

I rarely get out these days but myself and Niall always try to squeeze in a relaxing pint on a Friday evening. Pubs whether you like or loath them are great places to meet people in a similarly re ... … Read more

When you see someone with glowing skin, it stands out but not all of us are blessed with radiant, flawless skin. There are millions of products available we can slather, scrub and rub into our skin o ... … 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

You have to hand it to garlic for it’s sheer audacity, showboating through the kitchen, loving the attention it gets as its aroma permeates everything whether being cooked or chopped. It may be the ... … Read more

The Painted Lady is a very interesting butterfly due to the vast migratory path that it traces and the fact that record numbers have been reported in the UK and Ireland this year. Normally high numbe ... … Read more

If you're getting a bit upset that the vegetable growing season is over you might like to try growing some sprouting seeds. O.K. they're never going to replace a large bushel of carrots or a bowl of ... … 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

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

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' ... … Read more

Garden Update I am making some progress in the garden this week with a few tips coming to mind which hopefully you will find helpful.The first tip I have is get a tractor! Readers from last Autumn m ... … Read more

The vegetable garden is still pretty quiet this week, so I thought we would return to ornamental gardening and look at some of the plans for my garden and some ideas we are working on for yours. I ha ... … Read more

Forest gardening aims to mimic the natural balance found in forest or woodland ecosystems. Woodlands are known to support a diverse array of plants, wildlife and microorganisms, from tall trees to s ... … Read more

I mentioned a couple of mails ago that we would be adding a new flowering plant section to our website but as usual I am a bit behind. We have been growing some very nice nursery stock (available now ... … Read more

Potatoes are a staple, a real mainstay of the kitchen but I think we can take them for granted in this part of the world. I grew up in a household that served them one way with Sunday dinner so get q ... … Read more

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 growing plants back to the so ... … 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

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 ... … 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

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 lon ... … Read more

As someone who makes a lot of mistakes, I have to say I absolutely love a clean slate. I can literally drag myself to the end of the year yet emerge completely transformed once the calendar rolls aro ... … Read more

Fennel is easy to grow. They prefer full sun and a well drained soil. They will do best in rich soils.Water them during dry periods, once or twice per week. Add a general purpose fertilizer once or t ... … Read more

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) but today, it seems, the rain is bac ... … Read more

With rising energy bills being the reality these days, many people will want to avoid the expense of trying to heat a greenhouse by using storage or paraffin heaters etc. There are some alterna ... … Read more

I thought it might be a good idea to follow last week's mail on sowing seeds with some notes on seed and potting compost. It might seem like a boring subject but knowing your compost will become incr ... … 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

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

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

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

This Friday I thought we'd continue looking at pollinators as we had such a good response from our first 'Friday Facts' on solitary bees. Solitary bees tend to be overlooked in favour of honey bees, ... … Read more

Rosemary is one of the most decorative herbs and is well worth growing for its appearance alone. Dependent on the variety, it has small, profuse flowers appearing in late spring which range from da ... … Read more

I am not going to pretend that I know much about cut flowers, but what I will say is that I have a growing (excuse the pun) interest. As you may know, we are doing a lot of work this year on th ... … Read more

If you're familiar with the Quickcrop garden diary, you may have noticed the low timber fence around my vegetable plot, which is supposed to keep things looking neat and tidy but has got very r ... … 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 (pronounced&n ... … Read more

We talked a couple of weeks ago about how adding well rotted organic matter to your garden soil is the number one way to grow the best vegetables. One of the key ingredients is your own home produced ... … Read more

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 with the lightest touch and produces ... … Read more

When doing a quick (or maybe not so quick; I like to make sure I'm fully informed) spot of research for this article, I came across a blog from Pumpkin Beth (very seasonal) which extols the v ... … Read more

While a greenhouse shouldn’t need to be cleaned quite as much as a 'human house', it is very important to schedule a good cleaning session once or twice a year. Ideal times for carrying out ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

The rewilding movement has picked up pace and momentum in recent years. In short, the idea behind rewilding is that we humans take a step back and allow nature to reclaim large or small areas of lan ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

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 estimated by the EPA (Environmental Prote ... … 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 ne ... … 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

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

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, ... … Read more

Rewilding is a somewhat complicated topic, suitably so for the complicated times that we live in. In simple terms it describes a way of restoring ecological balance by lessening the grip that ... … Read more

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 ... … Read more

I spent most of last weekend loafing around Kent and Sussex as I was keen to visit a few gardens while the season still has some life left in it. One of the highlights of the trip was a visit to the ... … Read more

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 ... … 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

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

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

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 ... … 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

There are many claims made about seaweed in terms of it's beneficial effects for the gardener. It is known to improve soil structure and invigorate soil organisms, while seaweed extracts are ... … Read more

Hi there and a Happy New Year to you all! So, Andrew asked me to do a series of articles about nutrition and everyday health, I’m a Nutritional Therapist so I guess he thought I'd be a good person to ... … 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

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

As you may know from last week's communication I have been having a very enjoyable time reading Jane Powers' new book 'An Irish Nature Year'. The book is a compilation of 366 entries (one for every d ... … 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

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 ... … 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

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

Gardening has been going on in some shape or form since time immemorial, so it’s natural that garden tools tend to follow a traditional design depending on what task they’re designed for. After ... … Read more

When it comes to dealing with garden pests, the enclosed space of the polytunnel can be something of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, your crops are protected from the outdoors - which can ... … Read more