-EP266 What Vegetables, Herbs & Flowers To Sow In The Garden This March!!

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!

Chapters

• 16:06 March Seed Sowing Guide
• 44:07 Ideal Conditions for Germination
• 3:20:01 Must

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:12

how's it going, everybody, and welcome to episode 266 of master, my garden podcast. Now, this week's episode being the first friday of march, we're doing the seed sowing guide for the month of march and typically these episodes prove hugely popular. It's kind of serves as a, I guess, a reminder to people or a prompt to people to you know, to highlight what they should and can be sowing in the month ahead. It prompts people and keeps people going. Since we did this last month, I suppose a lot has changed. We've seen the really obvious lengthening in the days and that's vital. I suppose it's vital for us as well that we start to see some longer days after quite a gray winter, and it's also really important for germination. So I said that in february that light levels are quite low, so it's quite difficult to get good you'll get germination but to get good growth because just you're looking at short days uh, the month, the month that passed, was quite wet until the last kind of two weeks and we've seen some beautiful sunshine, dry days and a huge improvement, but still quite cold. So as we go into march you know there's a whole month ahead of us we're guaranteed longer days. That means good sunlight, so it is a good time now to get really sowing, or ramping up the sowing of, you know, of your seeds. I've started, done a small bit of sowing, not a huge amount, a small bit, but definitely, definitely, from now on I'll be 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 list that we can sow this month and, again, depends on what you're growing or what you're looking at. So, a slight addition to the list, I guess I'm going to chat a little bit about sowing flowers as well. So it has typically been. This episode has typically been focused predominantly around the edible garden and you know that's still going to be the case. But we're also going to talk about flowers and the ornamentals that you can be sown, and there's a huge amount of those. Probably won't be able to get through them all, but it'll give you a flavor of what you can be sown at this stage.

Speaker 1: 2:24

So March, as I say, busy month, lots month, lots, lots to be done, lots that can be done. Lengthening of days gives you a bit of energy as well, so you're able to get out and get more done. And you know it really is. It really is an exciting month and kind of hurls the kickoff of of the season. Now the fact that the days are getting longer as well. We're still seeing at this point in time we're still seeing that cold. So we are going to proceed with caution and, yeah, just because we're getting these longer days doesn't mean that we're in full flight yet. That'll be really when the temperatures start to come up, and that could be, it could be this month, it could be in a couple of weeks time. It may not happen until, you know, until next month, but when we start to get temperatures, you know, up ground temperatures, up 10, 12, 14 degrees, then we're really driving on at that stage and getting lots, lots of stuff into the ground.

Speaker 1: 3:19

A lot of the sowing that we'll be doing this month. You know you're still going to need to be protecting them and giving them a little bit of heat starting off, and if you don't have a greenhouse, potentially it could be sowing. Somebody is still inside. So yeah, it's, it's, it's navigating though these first few weeks and minding seedlings during these first few weeks. So what can we sow? I'm kind of going to batch them off into, into into their groupings as such. Um, so we can start with pretty much all of the calabrese or all of the brassica families. So we're looking at cabbage, we're looking at calabrese, we're looking at cauliflower. Typically, with cabbage and cauliflower, you're looking for earlier varieties if possible, and you're going to sow them into module trails, single cell or single seed to each cell, and they're going to be planted outside, or maybe, if you have a cooler polytunnel like myself, it's possibly some inside early part of the season so you can get going with those at the moment. Then we're looking at, you know, some sprouting broccolis as well can be can be sowed at this stage. And then we're looking at the, the onion family. So we're looking at onions themselves, so red and white. I'll be sowing them from seed in in the in the coming weeks and I multi-sow onions. So that means several seeds into 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 onion will become part of the successional sewing. So that's going to be one that's going to be repeat pretty much every month now to the end of the year.

Speaker 1: 4:53

And then we have some of the, the ones that are going to require a nice bit of heat and definitely will require some minding. Things like peppers, chili peppers the earlier that we can do those, the better, because they're going to need a long season, and obviously the earlier we can get them in, the better, aubergine the same. So these all need quite a bit of heat. Starting off, you're looking for kind of 20 degrees, so you're either putting them in your house, in your windowsill, in your conservatory, or you're using a heated propagator of some sort. For myself, I'll be using a seed tray with, and sitting that seed tray onto a heated propagator with a lid on it. So that's going to give that temperature that I require and that's vitally important for these first few weeks. They need that heat to really get going.

Speaker 1: 5:38

Tomatoes as well. So they'll you know, a lot of you have your tomatoes sown at this stage and you'll find that they probably have germinated, probably are growing slightly, but they'll be stagnant enough unless they're getting a good bit of heat. So hopefully the temperatures will come up this month, but, yeah, tomatoes can be sown this month as well. Then, looking at some of the salad leaves, we're looking at lettuce, for example. We're looking at spinaches that could be perpetual spinach, it could be your annual spinach. We're looking at the salad leaves such as rocket mizuna even at this stage can still be sown and chard now I've mentioned before chard.

Speaker 1: 6:20

I'll just do kind of one sowing of that. Maybe if I have four, five, six plants that will kind of do me for for the year. Just harvest the leaves as required. So I'll sow that this month as well, and then Radish will become pretty much like spring onion, become a very regular sowing.

Speaker 1: 6:40

Beetroot I'm going to do one big sowing now this week. That will be done in the polytunnel, and then I'll do two sowings in total and that will kind of give me what I'll require in beetroot for the whole year. Carrots, then again an early s sewing directly into the polytunnel, so that'll be one of the earlier varieties, like early nonce or something like that, and then later on I'll get a, possibly in april time I'll get another sewing outside parsnip that's more than likely for me anyway, going to be next month before I do sowing it at. Potentially you can sow in March, just typically I find ground temperature is too cold and certainly at the moment it's too cold for it. But when I do it, it'll be one sowing only and, as I say, likely to be April rather than March for me, but you can sow them in March. Turnip as well I'll be doing two to be doing your, your, your swede, or what we call turnip here in Ireland, but that's typically a swede and I'll also be sowing a small amount of Milan purple top. So, yeah, do both of those this month, then onion sets can still be planted and and potatoes can still be planted. So I I've missed some seeds, actually sorry.

Speaker 1: 7:59

So herbs, pretty much all of your herbs, with the exception of some of the really hot ones like basil you won't sow that yet but coriander, dill, parsley, sage, thyme, you know those type ones all of those can be sown 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 a perennial one, so that's going to be there the whole time. And then you're going to have parsley, which is a biennial, so you'll have that for this year and next year, and then you'll need to resew again, so you're always. You don't need it all the time and you certainly don't need to sew it at every sowing.

Speaker 1: 8:38

So it's kind of once a year that I will sow my herbs, so I do a nice sowing of those. This month, coriander is the only one that will kind of fall in as a successional crop, so that'll be pretty much sown on a monthly, monthly basis. That's going to be the annual one. 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 it and then once it starts to shoot up, I just get rid of it. So coriander is a good one, and then you have some peas again. I'll be doing that slowly, so in the next couple of weeks I'll do that. I might do it in the early part of the month. Broad beans so now I already have some in, but I'll sow more.

Speaker 1: 9:19

And then celery and celeriac. Now they need to get in early and celery and celeriac are quite tricky to to grow typically. Now if you're not you know, if you're not growing a lot of it or you don't plan to grow a lot of it I'd nearly be inclined to buy those as plug plants as opposed to trying to germinate them. This can be a little bit frustrating. They're difficult, but you leave the seeds uncovered and you do need a consistent warm temperature and that temperature tends to be quite high. So that means you really need some sort of a propagation space for them that keeps them at a good solid 22, 23 degrees. So that can be the problem in a polytunnel you might be getting fluctuations and that's what why seeds can be slow to germinate and a little bit sporadic. So that's celeriac and celery.

Speaker 1: 10:07

Again, as I say, if you're only growing a small amount of celery, you might be just as well to buy a good tray of it and and stick it in. And that's kind of your, your, your vegetables, your herbs for the month, as I mentioned, onion sets, so red white onion sets, spring planting, garlic and pretty much all of the potatoes can get planted at some stage this month. For me I'll be doing charlotte, which is a salad potato. I'll be doing that in polytunnel. I've been in british queens in the polytunnel and I'll be doing some. I'll be doing British Queens in the polytunnel and I'll be doing some main crop potatoes outside Variety, likely to be Sarpomere or Sarpaxona, still harvesting that from the ground, so from last year.

Speaker 1: 10:50

So really, really surprised with that in the end. I was initially a little bit skeptical of it. The taste wasn't wonderful but, as I said previously, the longer it stayed in the ground the better it got. And yeah, the fact it has been it has withstood any bit of frost we had this year and I'm still harvesting, but I will finish them off very, very soon. And yeah, onion sets, I'll probably plant a few, but I'll mostly be doing it from from seed. So yeah, that's kind of a broad list of what you can do. Still a little bit of time to get you know fruit trees in the likes of you know any of your bare root stuff your strawberries, your raspberries trees, pear apple plum, any of those. Still a bit of time on that. And yeah, that's On top of that.

Speaker 1: 11:43

Then again flowers. So flowers are a little bit like some of the heated vegetables that will be grown, so they're going to like consistent warm temperatures. So really, here these are germinated in your house, your windowsill, your conservatory, so long as it's warm. They need to get as much light as possible, but they definitely need a consistent heat. But they definitely need a consistent heat. And this is where you know the. They will germinate fine so long as they get that good temperature. So, realistically speaking, in a polytunnel at the moment, you're probably still looking at using a heated mat underneath them or a heated propagator in order to get that good germination and then to ensure that they stay protected going forward, because they will struggle if it's if it's cold at night, which it is in polytunnels at the moment.

Speaker 1: 12:32

So what can you sell? Pretty much all of the annuals can be sewn now, and so, like you're looking at things like poppy, nasturtiums, marigolds, pansies, stock. We're looking at sunflower, cosmos, sweet pea. Some of the sweet, a lot of sweet peas will have been sown pre-christmas or even in the earlier part of the year january and february but you can still sow those now. And you're looking at things like corn flowers. You're looking at dahlias very good one to be sowing from now on. Just be careful again with those. You're looking good temperatures, so they'll be. They'll be a soup. That's a super way of creating a lot of flower, particularly cosmos dahlias. You're going to get such a huge mass of flowers from them in this year. And then, obviously, dahlias if you're willing to dig them up and look after them, you can replant them again next year. So, yeah, that's a kind of a an overview of the flowers.

Speaker 1: 13:31

A lot of the perennials can be sowed now in springtime. So talking about things like verbenas, achilles, all of those, so pretty much again, all of the perennials, the. The thing with sowing perennials at this stage of the year is that you're unlikely to get flower at any point this year. So you will get good germination, you'll grow good, strong plants ready for planting out in May and June, but you're not likely to get much flower. You will get a, you know, one or two might might pop a flower here and there, but generally you're looking at next year before you're going to get good flower 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, as I said, with some of the tender, the tender vegetables, there's going to be a little bit of minding on these at the start. So they're going to need that little bit of temperature. You're going to watch, need to watch them for frost right through to probably into may time. But if you're, if you're going to do that, then you're going to grow really, really successful plants from from seed over the month of March still loads of other jobs that we can be at this month, the.

Speaker 1: 14:37

We've just passed the, I suppose, the closing period for when you can cut hedges here in Ireland, 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 after the sort of long cold winter and there has been no growth whatsoever yet. So while we've had a lot of drying over the last couple of weeks, there hasn't been hardly any growth of note. So lawns might need a little bit of a mow just from the point of view of tidying, but in terms of growth or growth volume there hasn't been much of that yet.

Speaker 1: 15:21

Anyone that's you know moss can be troublesome at this stage of the year if people don't like it. Some people don't mind it at all, happy to leave it in their lawns, others want it out of there. But yeah, there's the likes of more. Factors or bacterial based products are good to apply at this time of the year. The only caveat there is that any of those products that are bacteria based, they really don't work until you get to ground temperatures of 12 to 14 degrees and then they'll start to activate and start to start to work. But that is when lawns or grass starts to grow as well at those type temperatures. So you know there's, you will notice, you can apply it, but you won't get any great benefit until after the temperatures have come up to that sort of level. So, yeah, there's loads to be doing just in relation to ground temperatures.

Speaker 1: 16:12

Again, just to sort of reference back to your seed potatoes, there's lots of talk all the time about when you should set seed potatoes, and traditional date here in in ireland is the 17th of march, which is saint patrick's day, and you know people are very adamant that they need to get their potatoes into the ground at that stage. And from my point of view, I don't pay any attention to the date it's always the ground temperature that makes the difference, including, you know, chitting. I don't bother chitting potatoes because I think you do get a head start. Don't bother chitting potatoes because I think you do get a head start. But, being realistic, if the ground temperature is still not warm enough, the chitting is actually going to be of no great benefit. So as soon as the ground temperatures are ready, those potatoes will grow and they'll grow rapidly. So I'm not saying there's no benefit in chitting, but it's less benefit than I think people think it is. So, yeah, for me I don't bother chitting once the ground temperatures come up enough. Then the potatoes go in and then they will grow, because once, once that temperature comes up, that's what they're designed to do. So, yeah, watch for that.

Speaker 1: 17:20

Ground temperature is the important thing, rather than the sowing date. And, to be fair, this is kind of true of all seeds. Across, you know, across the edibles, across the ornamentals, you're looking for temperature, temperature rather than date. This gives us a guide as to what we can do in the month, and there's certainly a lot that we can do and there's certainly a lot that we will do, but you're always guided by you know what's what's happening outside as well. So, looks, looks promising. At the moment we've had kind of 10, 10 days, nearly two weeks of dry weather, quite cold, but that dry weather is really welcome because it does, as I said, dry the place up and then, when the temperatures eventually come, we're we're in a position where we can actually get out and get a lot of work done over that over that period of time. So yeah, hope that helps.

Speaker 1: 18:06

I know every month people really like these episodes. I often wonder are they not getting a bit repetitive at this stage, because I have covered this episode more or less, you know, every march for the last couple of years. But people still seem to enjoy it, still seem to resonate with it, and maybe the fact that it's you know we're chatting about the current weather conditions and so on makes it, makes it exactly relatable for for particularly the Irish gardeners listening. So that's been this week's episode. Thanks for listening and until the next time, happy gardening, thank you.