Vegetable & Fruit Growing in March

March is the month where things really heat up for the gardener and the garden, the true start of the growing season. The day’s length is such that the plants want to get going but the ground must be right for success. Don’t panic if the weather is bad for the plants will catch up.

Starting some onions under cloche on the vegetable plot

Although it may not be ideal for our pampered vegetables, the weeds will certainly be springing up. If conditions permit get the hoe moving and keep it moving to kill them young.

Your cloches can be moved on from those February planted crops when they are established but you’re likely to be short of crop cover so use horticultural fleece laid a week or more before sowing or planting if the temperatures are low to warm the soil.

Successional Sowing

Even if you sowed broad beans and peas in February there is nothing to stop you successionally sowing another batch to be ready later than the first.

Directly sow the following, under cloche if the weather is bad. Don’t forget setting up the cloche a few days to a week beforehand will warm the soil and if it is wet allow it to dry and be more workable.

Vegetables for Direct Sowing

Beetroot (small fast varieties for eating in June rather than larger storing varieties)
Kohlrabi
Parsnips
Carrots
Radish
Spinach Beet (Beet leaf)
Early Turnips
Cut and Come Again Lettuce and Salad Leaves
Spring Onions
Onion Sets
Shallots

Vegetables to start off in modules

Lettuce
Sprouts (Early varieties to be ready for September)
Summer Cabbages
Celery
Early Cauliflowers
Onions from seed (keep around 10 -12 degrees, do not let them go above 15 degrees)
Celeriac (celeriac needs a long season so best started at the beginning of the month)

Heating Propagator or Windowsill

In a heated propagator if you have one or inside the house in a windowsill you can start off your tomatoes, peppers, aubergines and greenhouse cucumbers. This needn’t take much room since you can start them in shallow 7.5cm pots and move them on to individual pots or modules when they are big enough to handle. Electric propagators can be bought quite cheaply and unheated propagators designed to fit in a windowsill are a satisfactory solution.

Last Harvest for Leeks & Parsnips

Any leeks you have left in the ground should come up now. Parsnips too should come out of the ground in early March before they try and re-grow. You can store them for a few weeks in damp sand but they know the season and will not hold for long.