If you’ve been growing over autumn and winter, you may be noticing the beginning of the ‘hungry gap’ now, as many crops go over. With luck, you may have some purple sprouting broccoli appearing already to keep you going, as well as some spinach, kale and other green leaves.
It’s a great time to get ready for the new season of growing too and you can start planting out seed potatoes in the next few weeks, especially if the weather is mild and harsh frosts are less likely.
What to harvest
If you’ve been growing over the winter there should still be plenty to harvest this month… Sprouting Broccoli spears can be cut off from mature plants now, Spring Greens (and any remaining Winter Greens) can be harvested as whole heads. Spring Onions can be picked as soon as they reach the right size. You should be able to harvest lots of winter salad leaves, spinach and chard, as well as any autumn planted kale.
What to plant
March is not a big planting month, but you can soon plant out seed potatoes. Chit them over the next few weeks (and warm the soil) for planting them towards the end of the month, or in early April.
There is still time to plant out onion sets this month too, but be quick to get them in the ground.
Jobs for the veg patch
The main focus this month is getting ready for spring – build new beds, fix broken greenhouse window panes, top up existing veg beds with plenty of organic matter (well rotted manure is great, or good quality compost), build compost bins and so on.
It’s also a good idea to mulch any fruit plants that you have been growing.
Watch out for frosts, heavy rain, snow and other classic British March weather….keep vulnerable plants protected with cloches or fleece.