What To Sow or Plant This Month

If you live in a temperate climate like I do and you haven’t already, March is the month to sow seeds for the winter garden.

Photo courtesy of Louisjos via Pixabay

There is still time to plant out basil and amaranth before the weather gets too cold. It’s also the time to plant out garlic cloves and chickory, horseradish, and Chinese (Wombok) Cabbage. Plant leek seedlings now as well.

You can sow burdock, carrots, corn salad (Lamb’s ear or mache), radish, rocket, shallots, and turnips directly in the garden.

Seeds that need to be sown in pots or seedling trays are members of the brassica family such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kale, pak choy, mizuna, mustard greens, swedes. Broad beans, chives, coriander, dill, endive, fennel, lettuce, New Zealand spinach, parsley, peas, silver beet (Swiss chard), spinach, and spring onions can all be sown now as well.   

This year, I’m keeping things simple and sticking to some of my tried and true favorites. If you’re looking to plant something reliable and delicious, you might want to consider these:

Broccoli: A fantastic source of vitamins and super versatile in the kitchen.

Snow Peas & Sugar Snap Peas: Perfect for snacking straight from the vine! They are perfect in a stir fry and add a sweet crunch to a salad. 

Carrots: I can’t imagine my vegetable garden without them. They never disappoint! Plus, there’s something so satisfying about pulling fresh carrots from the ground. 

Garlic, Onions, Shallots, and Leeks: Garlic is an essential ingredient for me; it’s my go-to aromatic. While I’m not a fan of onions due to their strong flavor, my daughter and son-in-law are currently living with me and use onions in nearly every meal. As a result, I will be planting some this year. Although I don’t enjoy onions, I do appreciate the flavors that leeks and shallots add to a dish, so I will find space for them in my garden as well.

Lettuce: The cooler months are the only time I can grow lettuce, so I take full advantage of having it in my garden.

Are you thinking about starting a winter vegetable garden this year? If so, what do you have planned? Are you excited to try out varieties that you've never grown before?

Until next time, happy gardening.

Janette.

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Growing Asparagus

Asparagus is easily one of my favourite vegetables, and the best thing is that it is also one of the easiest veggies to grow and will supply you with delicious spears for twenty years or more if properly cared for.  

Bare rooted asparagus crowns can be bought from most garden centres or nurseries, as well as online and are usually planted out during winter through to early spring. Choose a sunny position with well draining soil that  has been enriched with plenty of organic matter, well rotted horse manure would be a good choice if you can get hold of some, plant crowns at least 10cm deep and between 35 - 40cm apart.  

During the first year of growth it is very important that the spears are not harvested as this will weaken the plant, a light harvest can be made in the second year, and in the years to follow the spears can be harvested every two to three days (they grow very quickly) over a six week period. Any spears that appear after that time should be left to grow into fronds. Pick only those spears that are at least as thick as a finger, and 15 - 20cm tall, any spears smaller than that should be left to grow. Keep your asparagus well watered during spring and summer and fertilise with pelletised chicken manure once harvesting has been completed.

Asparagus can also be grown from seed, but it will be three years before any spears will be able to be harvested.  

Asparagus fronds will start to turn yellow during the winter and this is when they will need to be cut down to ground level and the asparagus bed covered in a good thick layer of compost or manure, followed by a layer of straw, this will give them a good start when they start to grow again in spring.

Asparagus fronds ready to be cut down.

See, easy, the hardest part is waiting until you can harvest, but it is definitely worth the wait.

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The Great Pumpkin Harvest

Well, maybe great is a bit of an exaggeration, but compared to last years harvest of one minuscule butternut,

this years harvest was indeed great.

10.4kg of Butternut and 4.8kg of an unknown volunteer.

As you can see in the photo one of the pumpkins has split, I have since found out that it is an indication that the fruit had been left on the vine too long.  It was the second one to have done it, my own fault, but I wanted to make sure they were fully ripened before I picked them. I was worried that they might have gone mouldy or started to rot inside, but when I cut them open they were just fine and the pumpkin soup that was made with them was absolutely delicious.

There are still three more Butternut pumpkins on the vine that should be ready to pick on the weekend, I will be making sure those are not left too long.

Did you grow pumpkins this year? How did they go?

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Broad Beans

I had never grown broad beans before this year, I had tried them once many years ago and didn't like them so I never bothered with them.  

Since becoming a vegetarian earlier this year I found I needed to expand the variety of vegetables I eat so I decided to give them another go and I'm glad 😊 I did. Apart from the fact that they are easy to grow, and the flowers have the most amazing fragrance and the bees love them, they are delicious! What's not to like?

There are several varieties that you can grow, the type I grew this year was Early Long Pod and despite the fact that I didn't sow until July they still did exceptionally well. 

Next year as well as growing the Early Long Pod again I want to grow the Crimson Flowered variety too if for no other reason then the  gorgeous flowers.

Have you grown broad beans before? What was your experience with them?

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