A vegetable garden on demand, delivered to your door

URBAN FARMER:You can start to grow your own veg, even in June, thanks to a green-fingered fairy godfather from Sligo

IF THERES one lesson that Mother Nature likes to firmly drum home to every gardener, it’s that good intentions – lovely and all as they are – just aren’t good enough. Nope.

Instead, you’re left to mournfully rue the day that you forgot to sow that packet of carrot seed, postponed pricking out those baby tomato plants or delayed building that raised bed that was so enthusiastically planned many months ago.

To make matters worse, as another year’s growing season kicks into full swing, you must now endure seeing, reading or endlessly hearing about the gloriously productive results of other gardeners’ better-timed and worthwhile efforts – their neat rows of cabbages and calabrese, their succulent baby beetroot and broad beans, their flourishing sweet corn and their tender early potatoes that are almost ready to harvest. Sigh . . .

If all this sounds painfully familiar, then you’ll be delighted to discover that there’s a green-fingered fairy godmother out there by the name of Quickcrop (quickcrop.ie), the Sligo-based company established by Andrew Davidson and Niall McAllister just three years ago but already so successful that there are plans in place to expand into the UK.

Their truly excellent website stocks everything you might possibly need to begin growing your own food (yes, even in June), including a great range of raised timber beds.

These come in flat-pack form, can be erected in less than an hour and can be supplied along with tonne-load bags of screened and peat-free topsoil (with loads of added composted green waste), and a fantastic selection of “plugs” or baby herb, vegetable and salad plants. Quickcrop also sells composters, wormeries, tools, garden books, organic plant feeds, garden accessories and a great selection of organic seeds.

What’s also excellent is the company’s flat-rate delivery charge of just €6.50 to anywhere in the country, whether you’re ordering a portable Vegtrug, several tonnes of soil or one of their “growhouses”.

The latter, by the way, is a bit like a baby polytunnel and fits snugly over their modular raised beds to allow gardeners to grow a range of more tender crops such as tomatoes and basil.

And if you then happen to find yourself in need of some inspired horticultural advice, the Quickcrop website also provides a wealth of detailed and well-researched information on how best to cultivate and cook everything from beetroot to butternut squash, along with an ever-expanding library of video tutorials on all matters gardening.

“We discovered that when it comes to being even a little self-sufficient, the problem for many people isn’t a lack of interest or a lack of enthusiasm, but a lack of knowledge and a lack of time,” explained Niall and Andrew when I caught up with them in Dublin last week.

“So we came up with the idea of QuickCrop – it’s a way of quickly giving people a proper vegetable garden, using quality timber raised beds, a great soil mix and healthy young plants, all of which can be delivered to the customers door at a relatively low cost. Right from the very start of the business, we understood that it’s also about holding the customers hand, which is why we’ve also teamed up with professional gardeners Klaus Laitenberger and Dermot Carey.

When and if our customers need particularly expert advice, they’re both are on hand to offer their expertise.”

But what makes Quickcrop really stand head-and-shoulders above its competitors is the business duo’s painstaking attention to detail, whether that is the exact specifications of their raised beds (these come with their metal fixing brackets already in place, and are made of air-dried Irish spruce treated with Tan-E – the chemical which has replaced CCA and is certified by the Soil Association as an organically-acceptable preservative), or the packing system they so carefully devised to ensure that plants arrive to customers in tip-top – condition.

“In the very early days of the business, there were various logistical problems that we had to overcome in terms of distribution and quality-control,” explains Andrew. “For example, we need to be able to stand by every single tonne of soil that we deliver – it has to be of a consistently high quality. And some plants are more suitable than others to being delivered as plugs. The almost round, stubby-rooted “Paris Market” variety of carrot, for instance, is better suited to our system than the long, tapered roots of other varieties.”

“We also quickly realised that very frequent sowings were important in terms of making sure that young plants didn’t get pot-bound,” adds Niall. “We like to torture our plants as little as possible, so once they’re ready, our plant plugs go straight out to customers rather than sitting in a polytunnel for a few weeks getting stressed.”

Both also agree that another priority has been choosing the vegetable and herb varieties that are the easiest to grow. “It’s about delivering a successful vegetable garden,” emphasises Andrew. “One that will deliver.”

There are, of course, some customers who take this a bit too literally, like the stockbroker who told them quite emphatically “I want to win”. Not that Quickcrop disappointed him in any way.

“We gave him a garden that he was delighted with,” says Niall serenely. Along with such ultra-competitive gardeners, there are also the Quickcrop customers who have their own very particular views on garden maintenance and pest prevention. “We recently installed some raised beds for one customer and then planted them up for him,” recalls Niall with a broad grin. “The beds were situated beside an old stone wall, which can sometimes be a problem as regards snails. So when we’d finished planting, I suggested sprinkling some slug pellets (the organically acceptable iron-based Ferramol brand) to protect the plants. But he told me not to bother. He explained that whenever he found a snail in his garden, he Tippexed a large “X” on its shell before flinging it over the wall and into his neighbour’s garden.”

Right . . . and what if the hapless snails managed to find their way back? “Well, then it seems that it was a case of one strike and you’re out,” chuckles Niall. “The way he saw it, if the snails were silly enough to return, they had to face the consequences. So that was that– he’d squash them.” Youch. Sounds like Mother Nature is not the only stern taskmaster around.

* The Secret Garden Centre in Newmarket, County Cork (thesecretgardener.com) will be holding a Poultry Day this Sunday afternoon coming (2-5pm), with a range of ducks and hens for sale and a chance to talk to the experts about all your poultry-keeping questions.

* The OPW’s Victorian walled kitchen garden is in the grounds of the Phoenix Park Visitor Centre, beside the Phoenix Park Café and Ashtown Castle. The gardens are open daily from 10am to 4.00pm

WHAT TO: sow, plant and do now

Sow in gentle warmth in pots or modules for a late tunnel/greenhouse crop:French beans (dwarf and climbing), sweet corn, courgettes, pumpkins, summer squashes, marrows and melons. You can still sow cucumbers for late summer, and calabrese and self-blanching celery for late autumn crops. Shade propagators and young seedlings from strong sun at all times now. Its also worth sowing tender crops like French and runner beans, sweetcorn, basil, ridge cucumbers, melons, pumpkins and squashes in a greenhouse, tunnel or propagator for planting outside in a couple of weeks - these will be at least 7-10 days earlier than similar crops sown now outside, and avoids any loss through slug damage.

Sow outdoors, sow in modules, in a seedbed for transplanting, or in situ where they are to crop:Beetroot, carrots, cabbages (leafy non-hearting and late Stonehead), peas (early vars. now), calabrese, courgettes and marrows, Witloof chicory (for winter forcing), endives, salad onions, Florence fennel, French and runner beans, leeks (an early var. for baby leeks), landcress, lettuces, perilla, orache, kohl rabi, kales (early June for winter cropping), radishes, rocket, swiss chards, spinach, summer squashes, sweet corn, white turnips and swedes, summer purslane, lambs lettuce, salad mixes, herbs such as basil, oregano, parsley, coriander, dill, fennel etc. and perennial hardy herbs including sorrel. Also sow some single, quick growing, annual flowers such as Limnanthes (poached egg flower), Calendula, Californian poppies, Convolvulus tricolor, nasturtiums, Phacelia, sunflowers etc. to attract beneficial insects like hoverflies to help with pest control, and bees to help with crop pollination. Sow fast-growing green manures like buckwheat, red clover, mustard (a brassica so watch rotations) and Phacelia, to improve the soil, lock-up carbon and feed worms (after digging in), on any empty patches of ground that wont be used for 6 weeks or more, or which needs improving.

Plant out:All well-established, module-raised young plants as long as they are well hardened-off.

Do: Earth up potatoes, keep seedlings and young plants well watered, continue to harden off well-established, module-raised plants, keep glasshouse /polytunnel well-ventilated, put up protective netting (Bionet) against carrot fly, net brassicas, provide support for tall plants (beans, peas, tomatoes), hoe/handpick weeds.

* sowing details courtesy nickykylegardening.com

Fionnuala Fallon is a garden designer and writer