Health & Home

It's that time of the year again when wild blackberries are getting ripe and can be found in abundance growing wild around Ireland. We think that wild blackberries have an amazing flavour and we have a few tips for picking the best berries and, if you can manage to refrain from eating them all as you pick them, we have...

Easy to grow and producing a rewarding crop, courgettes are a popular vegetable to grow.  Sow indoors from April in medium sized pots at a minimum temperature 20c. Harden the plants off slowly and plant outside after last frost at a spacing of 30cm x 30cm.  Courgettes like a sunny spot and rich soil so incorporate some compost or well...

The first fruit to ripen in summer - and the most popular - strawberries are everyone’s favourite. Strawberries are a  member of the rose family and aren't really a fruit or a berry but the enlarged receptacle of the flower. First cultivated in ancient Rome, strawberries are now the most popular berry fruit in the world. Planting Strawberries Strawberries are best planted...

Ravishing radishes; quick and easy to grow they are often the first spring crop.  With their delicious crunchy texture and peppery taste they are real delight after the dull months of winter. How to grow tasty radishes Sow indoors from late winter or sow directly from late spring through to early autumn. Radishes can be planted from as early as...

Purple Sprouting Broccoli -  a great vegetable to grow in your garden.  Has a long harvest seson from February to April - the lean time when there is little fresh produce. How to Grow and Harvest Purple Sprouting Broccoli (PSB) Sow seeds in small pots or a nursery tray.  Can aslo be sown outside in a seed bed. Once the...

What's not to like about nettles! Urtica dioica  - the humble stinging nettle is a wonder plant and every garden should have a patch. Nettles in the garden Stinging nettles support more than 40 kinds of insects, for whom the sting can form a protective shield against grazing animals. Many nettle patches hold overwintering insects which swarm around fresh spring...

LEEKS: OVERVIEW Leeks are one of the most underestimated of all winter vegetables. Once dubbed “Poor-man’s Asparagus” the leek is one of the world’s oldest known vegetables, with its own set of nutritional benefits and flavours, leeks have been part of the human diet for thousands of years. Leeks are part of the allium family and are closely related to...

Kale - Overview, Health benefits & Cooking with Kale Kale is an amazing vegetable packed full of goodness and with some amazing health benefits, Kale is the king, of all the super healthy greens. It is one of the healthiest and most nutritious plant foods in existence - loaded with all sorts of beneficial compounds, some of which have powerful medicinal properties. ...