Top Tips for: March


March arrives 'roaring like a lion but leaves like a lamb' and for the gardener the trick is to know when. We're all fed up with the dark cold winter days and now the days are longer we're raring to go. So this is the month to be ready for the change but try not to be too early. More is lost by sowing in cold weather than gained, so despite our urge to get something in the ground – wait for the weather.

Of course, we can cheat nature and sow under cover. This is the month when the propagators really earn their keep. I've a couple of propagators but the most useful one and my favourite is the Vitopod. Because it is thermostatically controlled, I can sow knowing that things won't broil if we have a hot day – nor will things freeze if we have a frosty night.

I've lost count of the number of times I've lost seedlings when the uncontrolled propagator has cooked them because the sunshine has heated up the greenhouse. The Vitopod has another excellent feature, you can control the ventilation which really reduces losses with damping off.

Whilst we're waiting for the weather to improve, it's a good time to undertake some construction in the garden. Raised bed growing is becoming increasingly popular with grow your own gardeners and with very good reason.

Raised beds generally enable you to create high quality areas of deep topsoil if your soil is poor. Those of us with heavy clay soils really appreciate the difference it makes having a raised bed with good compost to grow in. The difference with crops like carrots and parsnips is amazing.

The other big benefit of raised bed growing is that you can look after your beds one at a time. It's daunting looking at a plot full of weeds but when you can handle it a bed at a time, things don't seem so hard.

The raised bed kits do make life a lot easier, you can just assemble them rather than spending hours at carpentry and the allotment raised bed prices are very competitive.

Whilst we're on construction, what about your fruit? Few things are more annoying than watching a great crop coming to ripeness and then you walk down one morning to find the branches empty except for a few fat pigeons laughing at you.

Netting is all very well but a proper fruit cage makes life a lot easier. Like a lot of things in gardening, it's an investment that pays you back over the years. There's a wide range from the budget build your own to the decorative types that would grace a stately home so you can find a cage to suit your needs.

Hopefully all this construction has helped you pass the time until the serious and exciting business of actually growing can get going. Sadly, whatever the weather, you can bet the weeds are growing so keep the hoe moving when you have chance. Don't forget, a sharp hoe is a wonderful tool but a blunt hoe is backache. It only needs a few strokes with a sharpening stone or file as you go, but the difference is tremendous.

Finally, nature has this nasty habit of surprising us. One day it's almost summer, the plants are popping up and then the weatherman gives a frost warning. Check you've got some horticultural fleece at the ready. You can bet if you haven't, you will need it!





 

Copyright © John Harrison 2008
Author of the Best Selling "Vegetable Growing - Month by Month Guide"  and Editor of the Allotment Website: www.allotment.org.uk