March

This is an important month for planting your winter vegetable garden. However, make sure to take some time out and enjoy the warm sunny days and cool starry nights.

Edible gardens need to be prepared before planting with compost, Tui General Fertiliser and Tui Lime if necessary.

Don’t overlook flowers for the bees and plant lavender hedge. Keep autumn crops well watered. Fold over leaves to protect cauliflowers from the sun.

Protect seedlings from slugs and snails with Tui Quash. Watch for white butterfly caterpillars and whitefly on seedlings.

Save some tomato seeds for next year. Remove from the fruit and smear on absorbent paper. Dry for two to three weeks before storing in a sealed plastic bag.

Protect celery plants from upcoming cold weather.

Sow
Start your winter crops now. Sow seeds of carrots, parsnips, radish, lettuce, beetroot (mild climates only), swede and turnip directly into the garden. These will need thinning later.

Sow spinach and silver beet seeds into the ground directly this month, too. Remember to put down a good rotted manure and compost and nitrogenous fertiliser.

Seeds of broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts are best sown in trays for planting out later.

Sow calendula seeds, ready for winter colour.

Sow chervil seeds, yarrow seeds and angelica.

Transplant
Seedlings of beetroot, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, spinach and silver beet.

Make sure the ground is wet and well-soaked. If the rain is warm, get busy with soil preparation and planting.

Divide roots of herbs such as tarragon, yarrow and horseradish.

Fertilise
Dig in to lettuce beds some compost and a sprinkling of a Tui Nitrophoska Blue fertiliser. Leave to settle for two weeks or so before you plant anything. Any area of the vegetable garden not to be used for vegetables this winter can be planted with a green manure cover crop. This will be dug in later to enrich the soil and add masses of carbon goodness to the soil for spring and summer crops. Blue lupin, mustard, rye, vetch or oats are good options. Make sure the mature crops will not shade vegetable plantings, but they will help protect surrounding edible plants from the elements.

Harvest
Potatoes and kumara can be harvested.

Shallots planted in the spring should be ready now.

Pick any rogue tomatoes that are left on the vines, especially before the cold snap sneaks up on them. Green ones can be ripened on a sunny window ledge.

Pick any late-spring sowings of broccoli, cabbages, cauliflower and sweetcorn. The last of the summer squash are also ready to pick.
Check all maturing vegetable crops regularly to ensure you pick at the optimal time.