Quick! March!
It’s an odd thing, but just a mention of the word February makes me shiver. February makes me think of sleet and snow, wind and rain, fog and frost. February is winter. March, on the other hand, is different! Blue skies, sunshine, puffy white clouds and lambs in the fields come to mind, as do sowing, growing and mowing. So throughout February I think there’s no need to do very much at all gardening-wise and I’m well ahead of the game, but come the first of March I suddenly feel I’m drastically and catastrophically behind!
There are loads of things to do on the allotment in March. There’s no need to panic though, we don’t have to do it all at once and we don’t even have to do it all this month. Many of the vegetables we can sow in March can just as happily be sown in April.
Spring doesn’t really arrive over night of course, so keep an eye on the weather forecast. Whilst we might find that by the end of the month the temperatures are beginning to rise, we’re a long way away from being frost free, and snow in March is not uncommon. If temperatures are low, sow under cover. A greenhouse, cold frame or cloches can all be used for a variety of sowing. A heated propagator can be useful too. If you don’t have any of these a makeshift cover of plastic or fleece can be used to keep the worst of the weather off your newly sown seeds. A sunny window sill will be adequate for sowing more tender things such as aubergines, tomatoes and chillies.
It’s not necessary to do all your March sowing early, but I think lockdown fever got the better of me this year, so I got off to a bit of a flying start.
In the greenhouse I’ve sown three varieties of beetroot and some red and white onion sets. These are all in modules. You can find out more about growing onions here.
I started cauliflower, calabrese, greyhound cabbage, rainbow chard, leeks and flower sprout in the conservatory which I keep gently heated. The flower sprout is new to me, it’s a cross between a cabbage and a Brussels sprout. I’m quite curious to see how these develop and I’m hoping my fellow allotmenteers don’t think they’re just failed sprouts!
Six types of tomato have been sown in small pots in a heated propagator. These are Moneymaker, Black Russian, Golden Sunrise, Red Currant and Gardeners’ Delight. To my delight they were beginning to germinate just four days later. As they begin to germinate I move them into the conservatory where hopefully the extra light will prevent them from becoming leggy.
We have been up the plot a couple of times in the last week or so and it’s noticeable that the weeds are starting to grow quite quickly. It’s good to keep on top of them early in the season to stop them getting established and setting seed.
Have a good gardening month whatever you are doing.