March 7, 2025 • 19 mins
Welcome to another vibrant episode of Master My Garden Podcast, where we celebrate the arrival of March and all the planting possibilities this month holds. With the days getting longer and the promise of spring in the air, now is the perfect time to sow your seeds, whether it's vegetables, herbs, or beautiful flowering plants. In this episode, we dive deep into what you can plant, the optimal conditions for germination, and expert tips for nurturing your seedlings.
From the cabbages to herbs and the delightful annuals that elevate our outdoor spaces, our conversation weaves through essential gardening practices that help every enthusiast get the most from their garden this season. We stress the importance of paying attention to ground temperatures and light levels and how they influence successful germination. Let us guide you through the remarkable diversity of crops you can bring to life as the growing season kicks off.
Whether you're a seasoned gardener or just starting your horticultural journey, our insights can help you cultivate a flourishing garden. Join us in celebrating the earth waking from its winter rest and grab your planting gear! We invite you to engage with us: What seeds are you planning to sow this March? Share your gardening story and stay connected for more tips. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review to help us grow our gardening community!
If there is any topic you would like covered in future episodes, please let me know.
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Until next week
Happy gardening
John
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
how's it going, everybody, and welcome to
episode 266 of master, my gardenpodcast.
Now, this week's episode beingthe first friday of march, we're
doing the seed sowing guide forthe month of march and
typically these episodes provehugely popular.
It's kind of serves as a, Iguess, a reminder to people or a
prompt to people to you know,to highlight what they should
(00:33):
and can be sowing in the monthahead.
It prompts people and keepspeople going.
Since we did this last month, Isuppose a lot has changed.
We've seen the really obviouslengthening in the days and
that's vital.
I suppose it's vital for us aswell that we start to see some
longer days after quite a graywinter, and it's also really
(00:56):
important for germination.
So I said that in february thatlight levels are quite low, so
it's quite difficult to get goodyou'll get germination but to
get good growth because justyou're looking at short days uh,
the month, the month thatpassed, was quite wet until the
last kind of two weeks and we'veseen some beautiful sunshine,
dry days and a huge improvement,but still quite cold.
(01:17):
So as we go into march you knowthere's a whole month ahead of
us we're guaranteed longer days.
That means good sunlight, so itis a good time now to get
really sowing, or ramping up thesowing of, you know, of your
seeds.
I've started, done a small bitof sowing, not a huge amount, a
small bit, but definitely,definitely, from now on I'll be
(01:39):
ramping up.
As I say, it's still quite cold.
So there's, you know, as I say,it's still quite cold.
So there's, you know,proceeding with caution, as I
always say.
And yeah, there's a long listthat we can sow this month and,
again, depends on what you'regrowing or what you're looking
at.
So, a slight addition to thelist, I guess I'm going to chat
a little bit about sowingflowers as well.
(01:59):
So it has typically been.
This episode has typically beenfocused predominantly around
the edible garden and you knowthat's still going to be the
case.
But we're also going to talkabout flowers and the
ornamentals that you can be sown, and there's a huge amount of
those.
Probably won't be able to getthrough them all, but it'll give
(02:22):
you a flavor of what you can besown at this stage.
So March, as I say, busy month,lots month, lots, lots to be
done, lots that can be done.
Lengthening of days gives you abit of energy as well, so
you're able to get out and getmore done.
And you know it really is.
It really is an exciting monthand kind of hurls the kickoff of
of the season.
Now the fact that the days aregetting longer as well.
(02:43):
We're still seeing at thispoint in time we're still seeing
that cold.
So we are going to proceed withcaution and, yeah, just because
we're getting these longer daysdoesn't mean that we're in full
flight yet.
That'll be really when thetemperatures start to come up,
and that could be, it could bethis month, it could be in a
couple of weeks time.
It may not happen until, youknow, until next month, but when
(03:06):
we start to get temperatures,you know, up ground temperatures
, up 10, 12, 14 degrees, thenwe're really driving on at that
stage and getting lots, lots ofstuff into the ground.
A lot of the sowing that we'llbe doing this month.
You know you're still going toneed to be protecting them and
giving them a little bit of heatstarting off, and if you don't
have a greenhouse, potentiallyit could be sowing.
(03:27):
Somebody is still inside.
So yeah, it's, it's, it'snavigating though these first
few weeks and minding seedlingsduring these first few weeks.
So what can we sow?
I'm kind of going to batch themoff into, into into their
groupings as such.
Um, so we can start with prettymuch all of the calabrese or
(03:48):
all of the brassica families.
So we're looking at cabbage,we're looking at calabrese,
we're looking at cauliflower.
Typically, with cabbage andcauliflower, you're looking for
earlier varieties if possible,and you're going to sow them
into module trails, single cellor single seed to each cell, and
they're going to be plantedoutside, or maybe, if you have a
(04:08):
cooler polytunnel like myself,it's possibly some inside early
part of the season so you canget going with those at the
moment.
Then we're looking at, you know, some sprouting broccolis as
well can be can be sowed at thisstage.
And then we're looking at the,the onion family.
So we're looking at onionsthemselves, so red and white.
(04:29):
I'll be sowing them from seedin in the in the coming weeks
and I multi-sow onions.
So that means several seedsinto the same cell and I plant
them out as one bunch leeks.
I do the same multi,multi-sowing leeks and spring
onion as well, and spring onionwill become part of the
successional sewing.
So that's going to be onethat's going to be repeat pretty
(04:50):
much every month now to the endof the year.
And then we have some of the,the ones that are going to
require a nice bit of heat anddefinitely will require some
minding.
Things like peppers, chilipeppers the earlier that we can
do those, the better, becausethey're going to need a long
season, and obviously theearlier we can get them in, the
better, aubergine the same.
So these all need quite a bitof heat.
(05:11):
Starting off, you're lookingfor kind of 20 degrees, so
you're either putting them inyour house, in your windowsill,
in your conservatory, or you'reusing a heated propagator of
some sort.
For myself, I'll be using aseed tray with, and sitting that
seed tray onto a heatedpropagator with a lid on it.
So that's going to give thattemperature that I require and
(05:33):
that's vitally important forthese first few weeks.
They need that heat to reallyget going.
Tomatoes as well.
So they'll you know, a lot ofyou have your tomatoes sown at
this stage and you'll find thatthey probably have germinated,
probably are growing slightly,but they'll be stagnant enough
unless they're getting a goodbit of heat.
So hopefully the temperatureswill come up this month, but,
(05:55):
yeah, tomatoes can be sown thismonth as well.
Then, looking at some of thesalad leaves, we're looking at
lettuce, for example.
We're looking at spinaches thatcould be perpetual spinach, it
could be your annual spinach.
We're looking at the saladleaves such as rocket mizuna
even at this stage can still besown and chard now I've
(06:19):
mentioned before chard.
I'll just do kind of one sowingof that.
Maybe if I have four, five, sixplants that will kind of do me
for for the year.
Just harvest the leaves asrequired.
So I'll sow that this month aswell, and then Radish will
become pretty much like springonion, become a very regular
sowing.
(06:40):
Beetroot I'm going to do one bigsowing now this week.
That will be done in thepolytunnel, and then I'll do two
sowings in total and that willkind of give me what I'll
require in beetroot for thewhole year.
Carrots, then again an early ssewing directly into the
polytunnel, so that'll be one ofthe earlier varieties, like
(07:03):
early nonce or something likethat, and then later on I'll get
a, possibly in april time I'llget another sewing outside
parsnip that's more than likelyfor me anyway, going to be next
month before I do sowing it at.
Potentially you can sow inMarch, just typically I find
ground temperature is too coldand certainly at the moment it's
(07:24):
too cold for it.
But when I do it, it'll be onesowing only and, as I say,
likely to be April rather thanMarch for me, but you can sow
them in March.
Turnip as well I'll be doingtwo to be doing your, your, your
swede, or what we call turniphere in Ireland, but that's
typically a swede and I'll alsobe sowing a small amount of
(07:45):
Milan purple top.
So, yeah, do both of those thismonth, then onion sets can
still be planted and andpotatoes can still be planted.
So I I've missed some seeds,actually sorry.
So herbs, pretty much all ofyour herbs, with the exception
of some of the really hot oneslike basil you won't sow that
yet but coriander, dill, parsley, sage, thyme, you know those
(08:10):
type ones all of those can besown this month and you won't
need a lot of these.
Just remember that.
You know some of those time.
For example, is is is aperennial one, so that's going
to be there the whole time.
And then you're going to haveparsley, which is a biennial, so
you'll have that for this yearand next year, and then you'll
(08:31):
need to resew again, so you'realways.
You don't need it all the timeand you certainly don't need to
sew it at every sowing.
So it's kind of once a year thatI will sow my herbs, so I do a
nice sowing of those.
This month, coriander is theonly one that will kind of fall
in as a successional crop, sothat'll be pretty much sown on a
monthly, monthly basis.
That's going to be the annualone.
(08:52):
It runs the seed quite quickly,bolts quite quickly and it's
kind of hard to to get it right.
But I just continue to sow itand then once it starts to shoot
up, I just get rid of it.
So coriander is a good one, andthen you have some peas again.
I'll be doing that slowly, soin the next couple of weeks I'll
do that.
(09:13):
I might do it in the early partof the month.
Broad beans so now I alreadyhave some in, but I'll sow more.
And then celery and celeriac.
Now they need to get in earlyand celery and celeriac are
quite tricky to to growtypically.
Now if you're not you know, ifyou're not growing a lot of it
or you don't plan to grow a lotof it I'd nearly be inclined to
buy those as plug plants asopposed to trying to germinate
(09:35):
them.
This can be a little bitfrustrating.
They're difficult, but youleave the seeds uncovered and
you do need a consistent warmtemperature and that temperature
tends to be quite high.
So that means you really needsome sort of a propagation space
for them that keeps them at agood solid 22, 23 degrees.
So that can be the problem in apolytunnel you might be getting
(09:56):
fluctuations and that's whatwhy seeds can be slow to
germinate and a little bitsporadic.
So that's celeriac and celery.
Again, as I say, if you're onlygrowing a small amount of celery
, you might be just as well tobuy a good tray of it and and
stick it in.
And that's kind of your, your,your vegetables, your herbs for
(10:18):
the month, as I mentioned, onionsets, so red white onion sets,
spring planting, garlic andpretty much all of the potatoes
can get planted at some stagethis month.
For me I'll be doing charlotte,which is a salad potato.
I'll be doing that inpolytunnel.
I've been in british queens inthe polytunnel and I'll be doing
some.
I'll be doing British Queens inthe polytunnel and I'll be
(10:42):
doing some main crop potatoesoutside Variety, likely to be
Sarpomere or Sarpaxona, stillharvesting that from the ground,
so from last year.
So really, really surprised withthat in the end.
I was initially a little bitskeptical of it.
The taste wasn't wonderful but,as I said previously, the
(11:03):
longer it stayed in the groundthe better it got.
And yeah, the fact it has beenit has withstood any bit of
frost we had this year and I'mstill harvesting, but I will
finish them off very, very soon.
And yeah, onion sets, I'llprobably plant a few, but I'll
mostly be doing it from fromseed.
So yeah, that's kind of a broadlist of what you can do.
(11:24):
Still a little bit of time toget you know fruit trees in the
likes of you know any of yourbare root stuff your
strawberries, your raspberriestrees, pear apple plum, any of
those.
Still a bit of time on that.
And yeah, that's On top of that.
Then again flowers.
(11:45):
So flowers are a little bitlike some of the heated
vegetables that will be grown,so they're going to like
consistent warm temperatures.
So really, here these aregerminated in your house, your
windowsill, your conservatory,so long as it's warm.
They need to get as much lightas possible, but they definitely
need a consistent heat.
But they definitely need aconsistent heat.
(12:11):
And this is where you know the.
They will germinate fine solong as they get that good
temperature.
So, realistically speaking, ina polytunnel at the moment,
you're probably still looking atusing a heated mat underneath
them or a heated propagator inorder to get that good
germination and then to ensurethat they stay protected going
forward, because they willstruggle if it's if it's cold at
night, which it is inpolytunnels at the moment.
(12:32):
So what can you sell?
Pretty much all of the annualscan be sewn now, and so, like
you're looking at things likepoppy, nasturtiums, marigolds,
pansies, stock.
We're looking at sunflower,cosmos, sweet pea.
Some of the sweet, a lot ofsweet peas will have been sown
(12:53):
pre-christmas or even in theearlier part of the year january
and february but you can stillsow those now.
And you're looking at thingslike corn flowers.
You're looking at dahlias verygood one to be sowing from now
on.
Just be careful again withthose.
You're looking goodtemperatures, so they'll be.
They'll be a soup.
That's a super way of creatinga lot of flower, particularly
(13:13):
cosmos dahlias.
You're going to get such a hugemass of flowers from them in
this year.
And then, obviously, dahlias ifyou're willing to dig them up
and look after them, you canreplant them again next year.
So, yeah, that's a kind of a anoverview of the flowers.
A lot of the perennials can besowed now in springtime.
(13:33):
So talking about things likeverbenas, achilles, all of those
, so pretty much again, all ofthe perennials, the.
The thing with sowingperennials at this stage of the
year is that you're unlikely toget flower at any point this
year.
So you will get goodgermination, you'll grow good,
strong plants ready for plantingout in May and June, but you're
(13:54):
not likely to get much flower.
You will get a, you know, oneor two might might pop a flower
here and there, but generallyyou're looking at next year
before you're going to get goodflower on those, including in
that some of the things like the, the biennials, the likes of a
fox glove, for example.
All of those can be sowed now.
So again, a little bit like, asI said, with some of the tender
(14:15):
, the tender vegetables, there'sgoing to be a little bit of
minding on these at the start.
So they're going to need thatlittle bit of temperature.
You're going to watch, need towatch them for frost right
through to probably into maytime.
But if you're, if you're goingto do that, then you're going to
grow really, really successfulplants from from seed over the
month of March still loads ofother jobs that we can be at
(14:36):
this month, the.
We've just passed the, I suppose, the closing period for when
you can cut hedges here inIreland, so I raced to get all
of mine done before last weekend.
So all of that got done.
Everything's tidied up that way.
Then, like in terms of lawns,lawns are in quite bad condition
(14:56):
after the sort of long coldwinter and there has been no
growth whatsoever yet.
So while we've had a lot ofdrying over the last couple of
weeks, there hasn't been hardlyany growth of note.
So lawns might need a littlebit of a mow just from the point
of view of tidying, but interms of growth or growth volume
(15:17):
there hasn't been much of thatyet.
Anyone that's you know moss canbe troublesome at this stage of
the year if people don't like it.
Some people don't mind it atall, happy to leave it in their
lawns, others want it out ofthere.
But yeah, there's the likes ofmore.
Factors or bacterial basedproducts are good to apply at
(15:40):
this time of the year.
The only caveat there is thatany of those products that are
bacteria based, they reallydon't work until you get to
ground temperatures of 12 to 14degrees and then they'll start
to activate and start to startto work.
But that is when lawns or grassstarts to grow as well at those
type temperatures.
So you know there's, you willnotice, you can apply it, but
(16:03):
you won't get any great benefituntil after the temperatures
have come up to that sort oflevel.
So, yeah, there's loads to bedoing just in relation to ground
temperatures.
Again, just to sort of referenceback to your seed potatoes,
there's lots of talk all thetime about when you should set
seed potatoes, and traditionaldate here in in ireland is the
(16:23):
17th of march, which is saintpatrick's day, and you know
people are very adamant thatthey need to get their potatoes
into the ground at that stage.
And from my point of view, Idon't pay any attention to the
date it's always the groundtemperature that makes the
difference, including, you know,chitting.
I don't bother chittingpotatoes because I think you do
(16:47):
get a head start.
Don't bother chitting potatoesbecause I think you do get a
head start.
But, being realistic, if theground temperature is still not
warm enough, the chitting isactually going to be of no great
benefit.
So as soon as the groundtemperatures are ready, those
potatoes will grow and they'llgrow rapidly.
So I'm not saying there's nobenefit in chitting, but it's
less benefit than I think peoplethink it is.
(17:07):
So, yeah, for me I don't botherchitting once the ground
temperatures come up enough.
Then the potatoes go in andthen they will grow, because
once, once that temperaturecomes up, that's what they're
designed to do.
So, yeah, watch for that.
Ground temperature is theimportant thing, rather than the
sowing date.
And, to be fair, this is kindof true of all seeds.
Across, you know, across theedibles, across the ornamentals,
(17:30):
you're looking for temperature,temperature rather than date.
This gives us a guide as towhat we can do in the month, and
there's certainly a lot that wecan do and there's certainly a
lot that we will do, but you'realways guided by you know what's
what's happening outside aswell.
So, looks, looks promising.
At the moment we've had kind of10, 10 days, nearly two weeks
of dry weather, quite cold, butthat dry weather is really
(17:52):
welcome because it does, as Isaid, dry the place up and then,
when the temperatureseventually come, we're we're in
a position where we can actuallyget out and get a lot of work
done over that over that periodof time.
So yeah, hope that helps.
I know every month people reallylike these episodes.
I often wonder are they notgetting a bit repetitive at this
(18:14):
stage, because I have coveredthis episode more or less, you
know, every march for the lastcouple of years.
But people still seem to enjoyit, still seem to resonate with
it, and maybe the fact that it'syou know we're chatting about
the current weather conditionsand so on makes it, makes it
exactly relatable for forparticularly the Irish gardeners
listening.
So that's been this week'sepisode.
(18:34):
Thanks for listening and untilthe next time, happy gardening,
thank you.
how's it going, everybody, and welcome to
episode 266 of master, my gardenpodcast.
Now, this week's episode beingthe first friday of march, we're
doing the seed sowing guide forthe month of march and
typically these episodes provehugely popular.
It's kind of serves as a, Iguess, a reminder to people or a
prompt to people to you know,to highlight what they should
(00:33):
and can be sowing in the monthahead.
It prompts people and keepspeople going.
Since we did this last month, Isuppose a lot has changed.
We've seen the really obviouslengthening in the days and
that's vital.
I suppose it's vital for us aswell that we start to see some
longer days after quite a graywinter, and it's also really
(00:56):
important for germination.
So I said that in february thatlight levels are quite low, so
it's quite difficult to get goodyou'll get germination but to
get good growth because justyou're looking at short days uh,
the month, the month thatpassed, was quite wet until the
last kind of two weeks and we'veseen some beautiful sunshine,
dry days and a huge improvement,but still quite cold.
(01:17):
So as we go into march you knowthere's a whole month ahead of
us we're guaranteed longer days.
That means good sunlight, so itis a good time now to get
really sowing, or ramping up thesowing of, you know, of your
seeds.
I've started, done a small bitof sowing, not a huge amount, a
small bit, but definitely,definitely, from now on I'll be
(01:39):
ramping up.
As I say, it's still quite cold.
So there's, you know, as I say,it's still quite cold.
So there's, you know,proceeding with caution, as I
always say.
And yeah, there's a long listthat we can sow this month and,
again, depends on what you'regrowing or what you're looking
at.
So, a slight addition to thelist, I guess I'm going to chat
a little bit about sowingflowers as well.
(01:59):
So it has typically been.
This episode has typically beenfocused predominantly around
the edible garden and you knowthat's still going to be the
case.
But we're also going to talkabout flowers and the
ornamentals that you can be sown, and there's a huge amount of
those.
Probably won't be able to getthrough them all, but it'll give
(02:22):
you a flavor of what you can besown at this stage.
So March, as I say, busy month,lots month, lots, lots to be
done, lots that can be done.
Lengthening of days gives you abit of energy as well, so
you're able to get out and getmore done.
And you know it really is.
It really is an exciting monthand kind of hurls the kickoff of
of the season.
Now the fact that the days aregetting longer as well.
(02:43):
We're still seeing at thispoint in time we're still seeing
that cold.
So we are going to proceed withcaution and, yeah, just because
we're getting these longer daysdoesn't mean that we're in full
flight yet.
That'll be really when thetemperatures start to come up,
and that could be, it could bethis month, it could be in a
couple of weeks time.
It may not happen until, youknow, until next month, but when
(03:06):
we start to get temperatures,you know, up ground temperatures
, up 10, 12, 14 degrees, thenwe're really driving on at that
stage and getting lots, lots ofstuff into the ground.
A lot of the sowing that we'llbe doing this month.
You know you're still going toneed to be protecting them and
giving them a little bit of heatstarting off, and if you don't
have a greenhouse, potentiallyit could be sowing.
(03:27):
Somebody is still inside.
So yeah, it's, it's, it'snavigating though these first
few weeks and minding seedlingsduring these first few weeks.
So what can we sow?
I'm kind of going to batch themoff into, into into their
groupings as such.
Um, so we can start with prettymuch all of the calabrese or
(03:48):
all of the brassica families.
So we're looking at cabbage,we're looking at calabrese,
we're looking at cauliflower.
Typically, with cabbage andcauliflower, you're looking for
earlier varieties if possible,and you're going to sow them
into module trails, single cellor single seed to each cell, and
they're going to be plantedoutside, or maybe, if you have a
(04:08):
cooler polytunnel like myself,it's possibly some inside early
part of the season so you canget going with those at the
moment.
Then we're looking at, you know, some sprouting broccolis as
well can be can be sowed at thisstage.
And then we're looking at the,the onion family.
So we're looking at onionsthemselves, so red and white.
(04:29):
I'll be sowing them from seedin in the in the coming weeks
and I multi-sow onions.
So that means several seedsinto the same cell and I plant
them out as one bunch leeks.
I do the same multi,multi-sowing leeks and spring
onion as well, and spring onionwill become part of the
successional sewing.
So that's going to be onethat's going to be repeat pretty
(04:50):
much every month now to the endof the year.
And then we have some of the,the ones that are going to
require a nice bit of heat anddefinitely will require some
minding.
Things like peppers, chilipeppers the earlier that we can
do those, the better, becausethey're going to need a long
season, and obviously theearlier we can get them in, the
better, aubergine the same.
So these all need quite a bitof heat.
(05:11):
Starting off, you're lookingfor kind of 20 degrees, so
you're either putting them inyour house, in your windowsill,
in your conservatory, or you'reusing a heated propagator of
some sort.
For myself, I'll be using aseed tray with, and sitting that
seed tray onto a heatedpropagator with a lid on it.
So that's going to give thattemperature that I require and
(05:33):
that's vitally important forthese first few weeks.
They need that heat to reallyget going.
Tomatoes as well.
So they'll you know, a lot ofyou have your tomatoes sown at
this stage and you'll find thatthey probably have germinated,
probably are growing slightly,but they'll be stagnant enough
unless they're getting a goodbit of heat.
So hopefully the temperatureswill come up this month, but,
(05:55):
yeah, tomatoes can be sown thismonth as well.
Then, looking at some of thesalad leaves, we're looking at
lettuce, for example.
We're looking at spinaches thatcould be perpetual spinach, it
could be your annual spinach.
We're looking at the saladleaves such as rocket mizuna
even at this stage can still besown and chard now I've
(06:19):
mentioned before chard.
I'll just do kind of one sowingof that.
Maybe if I have four, five, sixplants that will kind of do me
for for the year.
Just harvest the leaves asrequired.
So I'll sow that this month aswell, and then Radish will
become pretty much like springonion, become a very regular
sowing.
(06:40):
Beetroot I'm going to do one bigsowing now this week.
That will be done in thepolytunnel, and then I'll do two
sowings in total and that willkind of give me what I'll
require in beetroot for thewhole year.
Carrots, then again an early ssewing directly into the
polytunnel, so that'll be one ofthe earlier varieties, like
(07:03):
early nonce or something likethat, and then later on I'll get
a, possibly in april time I'llget another sewing outside
parsnip that's more than likelyfor me anyway, going to be next
month before I do sowing it at.
Potentially you can sow inMarch, just typically I find
ground temperature is too coldand certainly at the moment it's
(07:24):
too cold for it.
But when I do it, it'll be onesowing only and, as I say,
likely to be April rather thanMarch for me, but you can sow
them in March.
Turnip as well I'll be doingtwo to be doing your, your, your
swede, or what we call turniphere in Ireland, but that's
typically a swede and I'll alsobe sowing a small amount of
(07:45):
Milan purple top.
So, yeah, do both of those thismonth, then onion sets can
still be planted and andpotatoes can still be planted.
So I I've missed some seeds,actually sorry.
So herbs, pretty much all ofyour herbs, with the exception
of some of the really hot oneslike basil you won't sow that
yet but coriander, dill, parsley, sage, thyme, you know those
(08:10):
type ones all of those can besown this month and you won't
need a lot of these.
Just remember that.
You know some of those time.
For example, is is is aperennial one, so that's going
to be there the whole time.
And then you're going to haveparsley, which is a biennial, so
you'll have that for this yearand next year, and then you'll
(08:31):
need to resew again, so you'realways.
You don't need it all the timeand you certainly don't need to
sew it at every sowing.
So it's kind of once a year thatI will sow my herbs, so I do a
nice sowing of those.
This month, coriander is theonly one that will kind of fall
in as a successional crop, sothat'll be pretty much sown on a
monthly, monthly basis.
That's going to be the annualone.
(08:52):
It runs the seed quite quickly,bolts quite quickly and it's
kind of hard to to get it right.
But I just continue to sow itand then once it starts to shoot
up, I just get rid of it.
So coriander is a good one, andthen you have some peas again.
I'll be doing that slowly, soin the next couple of weeks I'll
do that.
(09:13):
I might do it in the early partof the month.
Broad beans so now I alreadyhave some in, but I'll sow more.
And then celery and celeriac.
Now they need to get in earlyand celery and celeriac are
quite tricky to to growtypically.
Now if you're not you know, ifyou're not growing a lot of it
or you don't plan to grow a lotof it I'd nearly be inclined to
buy those as plug plants asopposed to trying to germinate
(09:35):
them.
This can be a little bitfrustrating.
They're difficult, but youleave the seeds uncovered and
you do need a consistent warmtemperature and that temperature
tends to be quite high.
So that means you really needsome sort of a propagation space
for them that keeps them at agood solid 22, 23 degrees.
So that can be the problem in apolytunnel you might be getting
(09:56):
fluctuations and that's whatwhy seeds can be slow to
germinate and a little bitsporadic.
So that's celeriac and celery.
Again, as I say, if you're onlygrowing a small amount of celery
, you might be just as well tobuy a good tray of it and and
stick it in.
And that's kind of your, your,your vegetables, your herbs for
(10:18):
the month, as I mentioned, onionsets, so red white onion sets,
spring planting, garlic andpretty much all of the potatoes
can get planted at some stagethis month.
For me I'll be doing charlotte,which is a salad potato.
I'll be doing that inpolytunnel.
I've been in british queens inthe polytunnel and I'll be doing
some.
I'll be doing British Queens inthe polytunnel and I'll be
(10:42):
doing some main crop potatoesoutside Variety, likely to be
Sarpomere or Sarpaxona, stillharvesting that from the ground,
so from last year.
So really, really surprised withthat in the end.
I was initially a little bitskeptical of it.
The taste wasn't wonderful but,as I said previously, the
(11:03):
longer it stayed in the groundthe better it got.
And yeah, the fact it has beenit has withstood any bit of
frost we had this year and I'mstill harvesting, but I will
finish them off very, very soon.
And yeah, onion sets, I'llprobably plant a few, but I'll
mostly be doing it from fromseed.
So yeah, that's kind of a broadlist of what you can do.
(11:24):
Still a little bit of time toget you know fruit trees in the
likes of you know any of yourbare root stuff your
strawberries, your raspberriestrees, pear apple plum, any of
those.
Still a bit of time on that.
And yeah, that's On top of that.
Then again flowers.
(11:45):
So flowers are a little bitlike some of the heated
vegetables that will be grown,so they're going to like
consistent warm temperatures.
So really, here these aregerminated in your house, your
windowsill, your conservatory,so long as it's warm.
They need to get as much lightas possible, but they definitely
need a consistent heat.
But they definitely need aconsistent heat.
(12:11):
And this is where you know the.
They will germinate fine solong as they get that good
temperature.
So, realistically speaking, ina polytunnel at the moment,
you're probably still looking atusing a heated mat underneath
them or a heated propagator inorder to get that good
germination and then to ensurethat they stay protected going
forward, because they willstruggle if it's if it's cold at
night, which it is inpolytunnels at the moment.
(12:32):
So what can you sell?
Pretty much all of the annualscan be sewn now, and so, like
you're looking at things likepoppy, nasturtiums, marigolds,
pansies, stock.
We're looking at sunflower,cosmos, sweet pea.
Some of the sweet, a lot ofsweet peas will have been sown
(12:53):
pre-christmas or even in theearlier part of the year january
and february but you can stillsow those now.
And you're looking at thingslike corn flowers.
You're looking at dahlias verygood one to be sowing from now
on.
Just be careful again withthose.
You're looking goodtemperatures, so they'll be.
They'll be a soup.
That's a super way of creatinga lot of flower, particularly
(13:13):
cosmos dahlias.
You're going to get such a hugemass of flowers from them in
this year.
And then, obviously, dahlias ifyou're willing to dig them up
and look after them, you canreplant them again next year.
So, yeah, that's a kind of a anoverview of the flowers.
A lot of the perennials can besowed now in springtime.
(13:33):
So talking about things likeverbenas, achilles, all of those
, so pretty much again, all ofthe perennials, the.
The thing with sowingperennials at this stage of the
year is that you're unlikely toget flower at any point this
year.
So you will get goodgermination, you'll grow good,
strong plants ready for plantingout in May and June, but you're
(13:54):
not likely to get much flower.
You will get a, you know, oneor two might might pop a flower
here and there, but generallyyou're looking at next year
before you're going to get goodflower on those, including in
that some of the things like the, the biennials, the likes of a
fox glove, for example.
All of those can be sowed now.
So again, a little bit like, asI said, with some of the tender
(14:15):
, the tender vegetables, there'sgoing to be a little bit of
minding on these at the start.
So they're going to need thatlittle bit of temperature.
You're going to watch, need towatch them for frost right
through to probably into maytime.
But if you're, if you're goingto do that, then you're going to
grow really, really successfulplants from from seed over the
month of March still loads ofother jobs that we can be at
(14:36):
this month, the.
We've just passed the, I suppose, the closing period for when
you can cut hedges here inIreland, so I raced to get all
of mine done before last weekend.
So all of that got done.
Everything's tidied up that way.
Then, like in terms of lawns,lawns are in quite bad condition
(14:56):
after the sort of long coldwinter and there has been no
growth whatsoever yet.
So while we've had a lot ofdrying over the last couple of
weeks, there hasn't been hardlyany growth of note.
So lawns might need a littlebit of a mow just from the point
of view of tidying, but interms of growth or growth volume
(15:17):
there hasn't been much of thatyet.
Anyone that's you know moss canbe troublesome at this stage of
the year if people don't like it.
Some people don't mind it atall, happy to leave it in their
lawns, others want it out ofthere.
But yeah, there's the likes ofmore.
Factors or bacterial basedproducts are good to apply at
(15:40):
this time of the year.
The only caveat there is thatany of those products that are
bacteria based, they reallydon't work until you get to
ground temperatures of 12 to 14degrees and then they'll start
to activate and start to startto work.
But that is when lawns or grassstarts to grow as well at those
type temperatures.
So you know there's, you willnotice, you can apply it, but
(16:03):
you won't get any great benefituntil after the temperatures
have come up to that sort oflevel.
So, yeah, there's loads to bedoing just in relation to ground
temperatures.
Again, just to sort of referenceback to your seed potatoes,
there's lots of talk all thetime about when you should set
seed potatoes, and traditionaldate here in in ireland is the
(16:23):
17th of march, which is saintpatrick's day, and you know
people are very adamant thatthey need to get their potatoes
into the ground at that stage.
And from my point of view, Idon't pay any attention to the
date it's always the groundtemperature that makes the
difference, including, you know,chitting.
I don't bother chittingpotatoes because I think you do
(16:47):
get a head start.
Don't bother chitting potatoesbecause I think you do get a
head start.
But, being realistic, if theground temperature is still not
warm enough, the chitting isactually going to be of no great
benefit.
So as soon as the groundtemperatures are ready, those
potatoes will grow and they'llgrow rapidly.
So I'm not saying there's nobenefit in chitting, but it's
less benefit than I think peoplethink it is.
(17:07):
So, yeah, for me I don't botherchitting once the ground
temperatures come up enough.
Then the potatoes go in andthen they will grow, because
once, once that temperaturecomes up, that's what they're
designed to do.
So, yeah, watch for that.
Ground temperature is theimportant thing, rather than the
sowing date.
And, to be fair, this is kindof true of all seeds.
Across, you know, across theedibles, across the ornamentals,
(17:30):
you're looking for temperature,temperature rather than date.
This gives us a guide as towhat we can do in the month, and
there's certainly a lot that wecan do and there's certainly a
lot that we will do, but you'realways guided by you know what's
what's happening outside aswell.
So, looks, looks promising.
At the moment we've had kind of10, 10 days, nearly two weeks
of dry weather, quite cold, butthat dry weather is really
(17:52):
welcome because it does, as Isaid, dry the place up and then,
when the temperatureseventually come, we're we're in
a position where we can actuallyget out and get a lot of work
done over that over that periodof time.
So yeah, hope that helps.
I know every month people reallylike these episodes.
I often wonder are they notgetting a bit repetitive at this
(18:14):
stage, because I have coveredthis episode more or less, you
know, every march for the lastcouple of years.
But people still seem to enjoyit, still seem to resonate with
it, and maybe the fact that it'syou know we're chatting about
the current weather conditionsand so on makes it, makes it
exactly relatable for forparticularly the Irish gardeners
listening.
So that's been this week'sepisode.
(18:34):
Thanks for listening and untilthe next time, happy gardening,
thank you.
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