Overview

For an overview of the full year go to my guide to gardening month my month

Jobs: Plant new asparagus crowns. Your over-wintered onions, brassicas and lettuces might benefit from a little blood fish and bone, or poultry manure, depending on whether you applied compost and other amendments in autumn. Cover early strawberries outside with cloches (remove during the day once they start flowering). Finish mulching (with wood chips, compost or composted manure) and feeding berries with a high potash fertiliser. Keep an eye out for Sawfly larvae on gooseberry and currant bushes, they can strip them in 24 hours!

Everything that you sowed in February, you can also sow in March, especially if you don’t have good protected/light growing spaces. However, you will still need to sow almost everything under cover and germination is often better in the house.

Early March is the best time to pot sow a few summer cabbage, we don’t bother though as we have so many other brassicas available!
Plant any new asparagus plants
Keep sowing successions of peas, radish and spring onions
Module sow Boltardy beetroot and plant out with protection in April, I like to plant mine at the back of coldframes or lowtunnels, especially if these will have peppers in them in May, as they love the extra protection from the low tunnels
Pot sow celery and celeriac by mid-month. If you want celery in your polytunnel you can sow it in late February. I actually sow mine at the end of the month because it grows too fast in my warm grow room.
Mid/Late March is the best time to pot sow your autumn/winter brassicas: red cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kalettes, savoy cabbage, kale, you will be potting them on and then planting them out in early May. You get another chance in early April if they fail
Late March is also the perfect time to pot sow calabrese and early varieties of purple sprouting broccoli (like Early Purple and/or Sante) for a summer harvest
Don’t be tempted to sow Chard, be patient or module sow Perpetual Spinach instead
Early March is the time to start pot sowing tomatoes (in a warm place or propagator) that will be planted out in a conservatory or heated greenhouse in May. Wait until late March if you are planting in an unheated greenhouse or polytunnel
After mid-March module sow a few sweetcorn, and climbing summer squash to be planted in a polytunnel/greenhouse in April, but keep your fleece handy! Cucumbers that will grow in a heated conservatory or greenhouse can be sown now too.
Early Parsnip can also sown direct in the ground now, especially if chitted first, I sow most of mine in April/early May.
If you have space in your polytunnel I think it’s a good idea to sow a dozen climbing French beans and Runner beans indoors, to be planted in containers and wrapped in fleece if frost threatens in April when they are planted out.
Late March is a good time to test the germination of your outdoor tomatoes, then if there’s an issue you have plenty of time to sow again in early April ready to plant out in mid May

Weekly diary entries

These links take you to my weekly gardening diary:

This is what we harvested this month

Click this link for an expanded view in a browser window

https://airtable.com/shr8wF1CNzp3KvEv7?filter_Month=2022-03

This is what we sowed or planned to sow this month

Click this link for an expanded view in a browser window

https://airtable.com/shrGmehepSExE6U8Y?filter_SowingMonth=March

If an entry has "planned to sow” it's planned, if it’s been sowed it says “sowed”

This is what we planted this month

Click this link for an expanded view in a browser window

https://airtable.com/shr0NIUjMFKDNv4AR?filter_PlantingMonth=March