gardening jobs for march

It's springtime, and there's plenty to do in the garden this March. The days are getting longer and warmer, and hopefully, the risk of frost will soon be over. This is the perfect time to start planting seeds, tending to the greenhouse, and taking care of the veggie patch. It's also a great time to plant roses and divide up perennial plants. Get ready to get your hands dirty and enjoy the outdoors.

cut flowers

In March, it's time to sow your hardy annual seeds under cover. You can use your greenhouse, windowsill, or under a light to sow almost everything in our range of hardy annual seeds. You can also sow some half-hardy annuals, but it's best to wait until the middle of the month when the light levels are better and the nights are less cold. Additionally, you can sow perennials.

To encourage sideshoots, pinch out tips of winter-sown sweet peas. Prepare flowerbed areas for direct sowing hardy annuals in later March through April.

At the end of the month, it's time for mass pricking out of annual seedlings. Transplant everything that has formed its true leaves into individual pots, taking care to lift the whole root out with a dibber or stiff label. Handle everything by its leaves, not stem, which bruises very easily.

You can also take chrysanthemum cuttings by following our chrysanthemum growing guide. Pot on rooted cuttings of tender perennial plants taken last summer and take cuttings of perennials such as basal cuttings of phlox, delphiniums, and other early-sprouting perennials.

garden greens

Get ready to roll up your sleeves and start growing your veggies! If you enjoy sowing seeds and playing around in the greenhouse or potting shed, this is the perfect time to do it.

Before it's too late, sow your fruiting half-hardy vegetables like tomatoes. For courgettes, leeks, peas, beetroot, and cucumbers, sow them indoors. You can also sow perennial vegetable seeds such as globe artichokes and plant asparagus crowns.

Direct sow broad beans outside and cover the soil with plastic to dry it out before direct sowing carrots, parsnips, and radishes.

Plant early potatoes and one onion set or garlic clove per cell in a modular tray. Once the roots show at the holes in the bottom of each cell, grow them somewhere cool and bright like a greenhouse. After about a month, they'll be ready for planting in the garden and will have a strong root system.

Thin your carrot seedlings in the evening when there are fewer carrot flies around to achieve decent-sized carrots.

garden herbs

It's time to sow salad leaves and hardy herbs like coriander, flat-leaf parsley 'Italian Giant', and garlic chives into gutters under cover. You can also sow dill, fennel, and French sorrel indoors and direct sow chervil, chives, and sage.

Plant up pots of mint, tarragon, thyme, and rosemary. Don't forget to divide your chives as well! Lift large clumps with a fork and divide into smaller clumps into soil that has been revitalised with organic matter.