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03

Early spring

What to plant in March

The soil warms. Daffodils trumpet the new season and the raised beds are suddenly busy with possibility.

Sow indoors

  • Tomatoes
  • Cucumbers
  • Courgettes (late month)
  • Cosmos
  • Cobaea scandens

Sow outdoors

  • Carrots
  • Parsnips
  • Beetroot
  • Spinach
  • Rocket
  • Radish
  • Peas
  • Broad beans

Flowers to plant

  • Cosmos
  • Nigella (love-in-a-mist)
  • Calendula
  • Cornflowers
  • Sweet peas

Herbs to grow

  • Parsley direct
  • Coriander
  • Chives (divide existing clumps)

Beginner tips

  • If the soil sticks to your boots, it's too wet. Wait a week.
  • Sow radishes — they're up in 5 days and prove you can do this.

Common mistakes

  • Sowing carrots into stony soil — split, forked carrots are the result.
  • Planting potatoes too deep — 10–15 cm is plenty.

Small garden & pot options

  • · A pot of mixed salad leaves
  • · Strawberry plants in a hanging basket

Raised bed suggestions

  • · First early potatoes in trenches
  • · Onion sets 15 cm apart
  • · Sow a row of radish as a marker crop

Plant this month

If you only do one thing in March

  • First early potatoes
  • Onion sets
  • Asparagus crowns
  • Strawberry runners

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