PHOTO: NEIL HEPWORTH
The start of March has to be one of the best moments for a gardener. It is the milestone that I use as a green light to start the season and begin sowing vegetables. On our exposed plot in Yorkshire, spring can come about a month later than down south but by March nature shows signs of the weather changing, with daffodils flowering and frogs spawning in our wildlife pond.
The majority of vegetables can be sown this month, which can make it a very busy time indeed! I keep the hassle down by spreading sowing over a few weeks, though you may prefer to do it all in one go. It’s still too cold and wet where we are to sow outside until next month, so I do most of the sowing in pots in our polytunnel or on windowsills inside. We’re often hit by hard frosts and even snow well into April, so there’s little to be gained by sowing any earlier. That said, with the spring equinox – the point at which day and night are of equal length – being on 20 March, longer and warmer days are very close now.