March

The cold weather is receding and the days are getting longer, the soil is starting to warm and its time to start seed sowing. Staying on top of early sowing is critical as workload will increase quickly as the year progresses.

Potatoes, onions, artichoke tubers and rhubarb can all be planted along with a handful of seeds that germinate in colder weather

What to harvest?

• Swiss chard

• Parsnips

• Spring Cabbages

• Lettuces

• Sprouting Broccoli

• Spring Onions

• Spring Cauliflowers

• Leeks

• Brussel Sprouts

• Kale

• Rhubarb

• Corn Salad

What to sow indoors?

• Aubergines

• Brussels Sprouts

• Cabbages

• Celeriac

• Celery

• Chillies/Peppers

• Cucumbers

• Fennel

• Globe Artichokes

• Kohl Rabi

• Lettuces

• Sprouting Broccoli

• Tomatoes

• Peas

• Salad Leaves

What to sow/plant outside?

• Broad Beans

• Cabbages

• Calabrese

• Carrots (covered)

• Rocket (covered)

• Garlic

• Apple Trees

• Gooseberries

• Leeks

• Lettuces

• Onions

• Cucumbers (covered)

• Turnips (covered)

• Potatoes

• Pear Trees

• Grape Vines

• Parsnips

• Peas

• Spinach

• Lettuces (covered)

• Asparagus

• Rhubarb sets

• Blackberries

• Raspberries

• Spring Onions

• Sprouting Broccoli

• Beetroot (covered)

• Radishes (covered)

• Cauliflowers

• Spinach

• Cranberries

• Strawberries

Jobs

Prepare Seedbeds

March brings a surprising list of jobs, direct sowing of hardier seeds, plenty of indoor sowing, final pruning, and soil preparation. These aren't bad things, after all this is what we've waited all winter for. The important thing to remember is being organised now will pay back double later in the year, plants sown earlier will be larger healthier plants producing more with their extra time.

If you've followed our previous guides your seedbeds should require little work to prepare for your first sowings. Take a rake and lightly run over your bed removing and stones or twigs until you have a fine crumbly soil perfect for seed sowing.

Soil Work

Asses soil for compaction due to heavy rain and footfall. Where soil is heavy use a fork or spade to turn the soil over improving aeration. It's also not to late to spread a layer of well rotted manure over beds, its personal preference whether to dig in or let the worms do the work.

If possible use cloches to warm soil, if cloches aren't available a polythene sheet stretched over a bed will help raise the temperature. Once the whether and soil are ready for planting, polythene sheets can be propped up using canes with plant pots on top.

Chit Potatoes

Its a good time of year to start preparing your potatoes by chitting them on a cool windowsill. There is plenty of conjecture online whether supermarket potatoes should be used for chitting. Introducing disease to your beds is the primary reason against supermarket potatoes. However, there are many people who save money not buying seed potatoes and have successful results.

Protect Plants With Fleece

Even the hardiest of seeds sow at this time of the year would welcome some fleece while germinating and getting established. As an added bonus fleece will protect sprouting seedlings from hungry birds,

Remove Rhubarb Cloches

Hopefully rhubarb will have grown enough to allow a first harvest, if it hasn't there's still plenty of growing time left.

Prune Fruit Bushes

Now is the last good time to prune fruit bushes such as Raspberries, Blackcurrants, Gooseberries, Currents, and Blueberries. Remember pruning Raspberries requires two different techniques for Autumn and Summer varieties.

Check out our winter pruning guide here.