March was a mix of both ups and downs in my garden, so I thought I’d write about what has gone well and what hasn’t, even if its just a personal reference for myself to look back on in the month of March of the future.

Failures

A fact of gardening is that there will always be failures in the garden, and for many reasons. What is important is that you learn from them and try something different next time.

I will start with my random cucurbit that was found in one of my pots that I hadn’t tidied up. It was growing really well. Then it got powdery mildew that would not leave the plant alone, no matter how many leaves I removed! I refuse to use any chemicals on the plants in my garden, especially those that I plan on eating. It got to the point where I had to remove the plant, unfortunately. What can I do differently next time? Instead of having the plant growing along the floor, I am going to find a suitable trellis for my cucurbits (pumpkins, melons, cucumbers, etc) to grow up-this allows more airflow through the plant and will hopefully reduce the chances of them getting this annoying fungal disease.

The next two are probably related. Three of my tiny Brussels sprouts seedlings and my two lupin seedlings disappeared through getting eaten by something out in the garden. Considering I have seen a fair few caterpillars over the past couple of weeks I imagine that they had some involvement in this. Thankfully, I have some sprouts still growing, along with other things like cauliflower and broccoli. What can I change here for next autumn? The main thing is to probably wait a little longer so that the weather cools down a bit before sowing my seeds. Cooler weather usually means less pest activity in the garden. While seed sowing is an exciting job to do, waiting a little longer can have benefits too.

Successes

The tomatoes that I am growing, with the seeds being sown far later than I wanted, are growing well and flowering. Now, in the second week of April, there are several small tomatoes developing now, which is a good thing.

My peas, beans and sweet peas are all growing really well too, but these plants do have the ability to grow amazingly quick-sometimes, they seem to be bigger after blinking! I should hopefully get some good crops from these plants this year.

Plans for the winter

I will still aim for a mix of flowers as well as vegetables in my garden, as I love having flowers around as well as home-grown veg. As a longer term plan, I want to be able to have at least something home-grown every single day of the year-even if it’s a single cherry tomato! This will take a bit of planning and effort over time, but it is something to work towards.

For now though, there are a few things I want to aim for in April that will help with the long-term goals, including:

• Spend time out in my garden everyday having a good look around at my plants, to see how my plants are doing, remove any weeds, watering where needed. This can just be five minutes after work, but a little longer if needed.
• Sow some more seeds-I’ll try more lupins, leeks and kale. Maybe some more brassicas too, depending on how much space I have.
• This one depends on how much time I have around life in general, but I want to do some reading and research into other peoples experiences with growing veg in pots and on balconies or in small spaces. My space is limited and it would be nice to see what can be done.
• Finally, I do need to remind myself that it is not just a job to be done but a process to be enjoyed! I forget this sometimes.

Weather stats for March

All my weather stats are from my own weather station, which is my favourite gadget, and yes I am a bit of a geek!

We had 172.8mm of rain I’m March, which is higher than in the previous three years (according to the Bureau of Meteorology). We had a maximum temperature of 35.1 degrees Celsius, while the minimum temperature we had was 13.7 degrees Celsius.

That was my March in gardening. It was a mixed month, but one that I can learn from too.