Tips and Jobs for March

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Tips for March

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Tips and jobs

Start sowing!
This is it! March is such an exciting month in the veg garden, as you get to open your first seed packets and coax them into life. Sowing seed is the cheapest and most satisfying way of raising veg, although even seasoned veg growers hold their breath until the first seedlings poke above the compost. Use good seed compost – John Innes is ideal – and sow into module trays or Jiffy-7 pots to avoid disturbing roots.

Protect early crops
Some seed, like beetroot, chard, carrots and salad leaves, are hardy enough to be sown outside from about mid-March, but pop a polythene or fleece cloche over the top to keep the worst of the frost off. Slugs are another menace to vulnerable seedlings, so stay vigilant.

Plant new potatoes
Traditionalists wait till Good Friday before planting new potatoes, but climate change has put paid to such predictability. Nowadays you're better off just keeping an eye on the weather. Once it starts warming up, usually towards the end of March, plant tubers about 30cm deep and 30cm apart. Keep young plants well covered with a double layer of fleece as an insurance against late frosts until mid-May.

Top tips

Sow just half a row at a time when planting fast-growing crops like carrots, salad leaves and beetroot. If you sow another half-row in a month's time you'll stagger the harvest and they won't all mature at once.

Mix your own salad by putting a pinch of seed from each of your favourite varieties in a bowl and stirring them up. You can then tweak the ingredients till you've got your own personal blend.

Grow a bouquet garni by grouping herbs for the same dishes together. Lemon thyme, tarragon and parsley are great for poultry, while oregano, sage, rosemary and bay are perfect in rich casseroles.

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