What to plant in the kitchen garden in March

Whether your kitchen garden is an allotment, a bed or just a few pots on your windowsill, March is a busy time for veg growers! As spring arrives and the days get lighter, now’s the perfect time to start sowing seeds and planting crops, ready for a great harvest in the months ahead. Here’s what to sow and grow in your kitchen garden in March. 

Vegetables to sow indoors in March

Tender crops that need a long growing season should be sown indoors now so that they are big enough to take full advantage of the summer sunshine when it arrives. A greenhouse is ideal for these crops, but you can also sow them in a heated propagator or pots on a sunny windowsill. Fast-growing crops like lettuce can be sown and grown indoors this month to keep you supplied with fresh salad leaves. Sow these crops indoors now:

• Tomatoes
• Sweet peppers
• Cucumbers
• Lettuce
• Celery
• Aubergines

Vegetables to sow outdoors in March

Several hardy crops can be sown directly outdoors in March, especially in milder areas of the country. It’s good to warm the soil before sowing by covering it with black plastic sheeting for a few weeks or putting cloches down over the areas where seeds will be sown. Sow these crops outdoors now:

• Broad beans
• Spinach
• Carrots
• Parsnips
• Beetroot
• Peas
• Onions 
• Radish
• Leeks
• Chard

Vegetables to plant outdoors in March

Shallot and onion sets and garlic cloves can be planted outdoors in March. Towards the end of the month, you can also plant first early potatoes – don’t forget to ‘chit’ them first by leaving them for a few weeks in a bright, frost-free spot to produce shoots.

Companion plants for kitchen gardens

It’s always good to include some flowering plants in your kitchen garden. As well as adding colour, they’ll attract pollinating insects, and some can even help protect your plants from pests. Here are a few to sow this month:

• French marigolds (Tagetes patula). This is one of the traditional companion plants for tomatoes. The flowers are very popular with bees and other pollinators, and their scent helps deter blackfly.
• Poached egg plant (Limnanthes douglasii). This easy annual with its striking yellow and white flowers is big fun for children to grow, and it’s a favourite for pollinators.
• Nasturtiums (Tropaeolum majus). As well as having vibrant flowers that look great around the edges of a bed, these trailing plants will act as a sacrificial plant, attracting aphids away from your vegetables. Infested plants can be pulled up and disposed of.

Our centre has a fantastic range of vegetable and herb seeds and seedlings, so visit us today and get your kitchen garden off to a sensational start this year!