What to do now - MARCH

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Winter is making way for brighter, warmer spring days and the ground is getting warmer. The days are getting longer – there’s even time now to visit our plot in the evenings. It’s time to prepare our seed beds for the coming year and starting to grow plants under cover, In April the first seedlings start to appear and established plants will need feeding, seeds need to be sewn, and young seedlings will require potting on. But there is still a danger of frost and pests are on the rise.

There’s not much to harvest – April is the so-called ‘hungry gap’ when there is little to harvest (and not much is growing!).The most important job is getting the ground ready: dig over beds; lift any weeds; apply organic matter (compost/manure) and apply plant feed. There is also a chance to make some early preparations by erecting climbing frames, preparing cloches and cold frames, and re-establishing borders and edges.

March is not only when most of ramp up our activities on our plots but it’s also when plot inspections start.

It is also in March that we cut the grass for the first time in the year, bringing with it that very British smell of mown lawns (and some green growth to add to our compost heaps).

Finally, The Shed at the Digswell site re-opens this month – pop in on Sunday mornings between 11:00 and 12:30 to stock up on canes, compost, fertilisers, grow-bags, slug pellets, seeds and other essentials.

Early spring is the time to plant root crops, and carrots can even be planted outdoors under cover during February. And a little preparation before they are planted can make a big difference to crop.

Carrots naturally grow in well drained sandy soil. They are not well suited to heavier clay soils where their development is hindered by solid clay or stones and the wet ground can increase the likelihood roots rotting. This can be overcome by growing them on raised beds and/or by selected short root varieties. 

Whilst root vegetable take nutrients from the soil, too much goodness can cause them to fork. Carrots, for example, tend to have greatest success when grown in a bed that was well manured for the preceding crop.

They are sometimes grown for competition in plastic tubes containing a soil/sand mixture. 'V-shaped’ channels in a bed to the depth of a spade head, filled with a mixture of sand, coffee grounds and spent soil from grow bags can also help to reduce obstructions to root growth, and prevent forking.

In almost any year Slugs are the most troublesome pests on our plots. 

A cubic metre of soil can hold up to 200 slugs. Most of these are below ground during the day only surfacing in the evenings.

The best way to keep them in check is to tackle them on several fronts: 

• removing them by hand at dusk when it’s damp, 
• applying barriers of bran/sharp sand/egg shells around vulnerable seedlings, 
• fitting copper bands to flower pots
• setting slug-traps (sunken pots filled with (cheap!) beer, and 
• slug pellets (ideally environmentally friendly ferrous-phosphate varieties).