About plantseeds.ie

Almost every growing guide an Irish gardener finds online was written somewhere warmer. The sowing dates are a fortnight early, the varieties need a summer we do not get, and the shops listed at the bottom post from Britain. This site exists to fix that one crop at a time.

What we publish

For each crop there is a guide covering when to sow in Ireland, how to raise the plants, what typically goes wrong here, and which varieties are worth the space in a cool climate. Individual variety pages go further, and every page ends with Irish suppliers who stock the seed.

How advice gets checked

Sowing months, spacings, germination temperatures and growing advice are reviewed against multiple horticultural sources and against how the crop actually behaves in Irish conditions before a page goes live. A page that has not been through that review is not published, not even as a rough draft, because half-right sowing dates waste a whole season for whoever follows them.

Where the honest answer is that something is difficult or unreliable here, the page says so. Several varieties on this site are described as not worth growing outdoors in Ireland, because they are not.

Where to buy links

The suppliers listed on each page are Irish businesses, chosen so that seed arrives quickly and postage stays domestic. These are plain links. There are no affiliate arrangements, no paid placements, and no commission on anything you buy through them.

Links are checked when a page is written and rechecked periodically. Retailers reorganise their websites and sell out of popular varieties by midsummer, so if you find a link that no longer works we would like to know.

Regional differences within Ireland

Dates on this site describe an average Irish season. The south and east coast typically run around two weeks ahead, the north west and higher inland ground around two weeks behind. Coastal gardens get later first frosts but more wind; inland gardens get more heat but sharper frosts. Adjust the dates to your own garden as you learn it.

What is coming

More crops are being added steadily, guided by what people actually search for. Longer term the plan is to sell seed directly, chosen for Irish growing conditions rather than for whatever a distributor happens to have. Until then, the where to buy lists point elsewhere and that is the honest arrangement.

Get in touch

Corrections, missing crops and broken links are all genuinely welcome. Contact details will be listed here once the site is live at its own domain.