Jobs to do in March

Start sowing

Sowing pea seeds outdoorsMarch 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

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.

A gardener planting shallots at an allotmentPruning and training

Fruit

Prevention

Spring cabbages protected from pigeons with nettingGeneral care

Fruit

Mulching around a newly planted spindle apple tree
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.

Gardeners' calendar

Find out what to do this month with our gardeners' calendar

Advice from the RHS

Get involved

The Royal Horticultural Society is the UK’s leading gardening charity. We aim to enrich everyone’s life through plants, and make the UK a greener and more beautiful place.