Jobs for the month: March 2012

For those early plantings of lettuce and brassicas, fleece can work wonders, especially when we get bright days which, at this time, are so often accompanied by a cold easterly wind. Vegetables hate the wind just as much as the cold. Crawling under the fleece on one of these days can be like entering the tropics.

Purple sprouting broccoli is a favourite of our Vegbox customers and is a godsend for bridging the spring hungry gap between old and new season crops. Early varieties like ‘Rudolf ‘ can mature in December but the most tender and heavy yielding varieties crop in March and April. Keep on top of things, as soon as you pick the leader (or central head), apical dominance is removed and the plant will send out shoots (or spears) lower down. Never let it flower and you can still be picking late varieties like ‘Cardinal’ right into May. When the spears get small, put a band around your wrist and bunch as you pick. Cook bunches standing up in an inch of water like asparagus to avoid the tender flowers getting overcooked.

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Prepare your soil

Getting the soil right for sowing and planting is the most important job this month. This may seem like hard work and far less interesting than actually sowing your seeds, but if the soil isn’t right, sowings are likely to be disappointing.
You probably started the process in the autumn and winter by digging and removing debris from last season’s crops and any weeds. You may well have dug in some well-rotted manure or garden compost to improve the soil, too.

Providing your soil isn’t too wet (as mentioned by Guy Watson below) and doesn’t stick to your rake or boots when you try to work on it, you can break down any large lumps that remain with a rake. Before raking however, you might want to consider checking the nutrient levels and pH of your soil with a simple testing kit from your garden centre. This will tell you which nutrients are lacking and how much and which fertilisers to add to make up the shortfall. Alternatively sprinkle 56g (2oz) per square yard of pelleted chicken or sheep manure or some Growmore to make up for any losses caused by the winter rains.

When it comes to levelling the ground a wide soil rake is often easier to use than an ordinary garden rake. Keep your back as low to the ground when using the rake as you can for the best level. Large stones and other bits and pieces can be removed, but smaller stones should be left in place to aid drainage and aeration. Ideally the ground should be left for a week or so to settle prior to sowing or planting and a layer of black polythene could be placed over the ground until then to help warm it and keep it dry.

Tend to potatoes

You will probably by now have bought your potatoes and have them chitting in trays in a cool, light place. If not, order or purchase your seed spuds without delay to be sure of getting the varieties you want. If you do buy them late don’t worry about chitting them. This is more important with early varieties than other types and all will grow very well if planted without the embryo shoots that chitting provides. You just have to be more careful to plant them with the rose end (the end with most eyes) upwards.

If you do have potatoes chitting in trays, do be careful to make sure each tray is clearly labelled to avoid problems at planting time.

Plant strawberries

Strawberries are one of the easiest crops to grow and need very little attention. They can also be grown in a small space such as in a growing-bag or container and make attractive plants for the patio.

Although not too fussy they do prefer a sunny, sheltered spot in reasonably well-drained soil. It is also important to remove any deep-rooted weeds as these will be difficult to remove once the plants are established.

On poorly drained or heavy soils which remain wet in the spring and autumn, plants can be planted on a slight ridge to drain water from the crowns. Having prepared the soil as if you were preparing a seed bed for sowing (see above), cover the soil in permeable soil covering fabric to suppress weeds. Cut two slits in the shape of a cross at 45cm (18in) intervals and plant through these. It will need to be held down with bricks or stones or push the edges into the soil with a spade.

If growing in containers choose any good multi-purpose compost or John Innes no 1. Too much fertiliser can encourage lots of leaves at the expense of fruit.

Maincrop varieties such as ‘Elegance’, ‘Florence’, ‘Elsanta’ or ‘Alice’ produce wonderful fruit, but it is also worth considering one of the perpetual fruiting types which, rather than cropping all at once in the summer, spread their cropping from August to October. Look for ‘Flamenco’, ‘Malling Opal’ and ‘Mara des Bois’.

• Read the full feature in Kitchen Garden magazine, March 2012!