Jobs to do in March

March is your last chance to prune apples and pears before the buds burst. As the soil warms and weeds begin to grow, this is a sign that it’s also the time to make the first outdoor sowings – cabbages, broccoli, cauliflowers, kale, corn salad, land cress, peas, broad beans, maincrop onions, parsnips and turnips can all be sown this month.

Sowing and planting

Fruit

• Last chance to plant bare-root fruit trees.

• Look out for potted soft fruit bushes such as currants, gooseberries and raspberries for planting now.
• Plant cold-stored strawberry runners and sow seeds of alpine strawberries.

Vegetables

• Plant onions, shallots and garlic sets.

• Plant Jerusalem artichoke tubers.

• Chit early and maincrop potatoes.

• Plant asparagus crowns.

• Sow seed outdoors in mild areas with light soil, eg: broad beans, carrots, parsnips, beetroot, onions, lettuces, radish, peas, spinach, summer cabbage, salad leaves, leeks, Swiss chard, kohl rabi, turnip and summer cauliflower. Be guided by the weather, and sow only if conditions are suitable.

• Sow seed indoors of sweet peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines, celery, salads and globe artichokes.

Pruning and training

Fruit

• Carry out formative pruning of newly planted fruit trees if the weather is dry.

• Prune blueberries.

• Untie canes of blackberries and hybrid berries that have been bundled together for the winter, and train into arches before the buds burst.

• Never prune grape vines after late winter to avoid sap bleeding, otherwise vines can be seriously weakened.

Prevention

• Protect early outdoor seed sowings from slugs with biological controls.

• Protect brassicas from pigeons.

• Look out for grey mould and brassica downy mildew on brassicas.

• Consider hoeing or pulling out weeds that may smother emerging seedlings and crops.

General care

Fruit

• Protect fruit blossom from frost, but make sure insects can access the flowers or else hand pollinate them.

• Mulch raspberries with homemade compost to suppress weeds and improve the soil.

• Apply sulphur chips to beds of blueberries and lingonberries if needed.

• Apply a mulch around fruit trees, nuts, and bushes as long as the ground isn’t frozen.

• Repot or top dress container-grown fruit if needed.

• Switch to a summer feed for all citrus trees.

• Increase the watering of citrus as growth resumes.

• ​Pollinate strawberry flowers under glass by brushing over them with your hands.

Vegetables

• Prepare seedbeds ready for sowing as the soil warms up by ensuring they are weed-free and raked to a fine tilth.

• Protect early outdoor sowings with cloches, mini-tunnels or re-used old fleece.

• Continue to force chicory.

• Put supports in place for peas.

• Start preparing runner bean supports and trenches for sowing (in May) or planting out (in June).

• Prepare celery trenches.

• Try to avoid digging in wet weather, but if gardening on wet soil, work from a plank of wood, to avoid treading on the bed and compacting the soil.