March is the month when allotments and vegetable patches across the country come alive. Longer daylight hours create better conditions.

All seeds need is moisture, warmth and light; nature will do the rest. So start sowing your own easy varieties this month.

Seeds come in many sizes. Fine seeds, like tomatoes, can be thinly scattered straight from the packet. Also, you can mix them with dry sand in your hand before sprinkling them onto the seed tray.

As they have lower germination rates than larger seeds, your chances of success are improved.

Large seeds, like cucumbers and pumpkins, have a flat seed structure and are sown on their sides. This enables the first shoot to conserve energy and grow straight towards the surface. For precise seed sowing like this, sow them one at a time.

Kids particularly like sowing large, easy-to-hold sunflower seeds.

Sowing seeds indoors is ideal for some tender plants. First, sow your seeds individually into seed trays, making it much easier to pot on once they’re big enough to move. Use some specialist seed-sowing peat-free compost. The finely milled structure allows young roots to grow easily. 

Cover your newly sown containers with clear polythene to retain warmth and moisture. Then, pop in a bright, warm position. Misting regularly will keep the compost moist without damaging the delicate shoots. You can find out more about some recycling tips for seed sowing at my YouTube channel @daviddomoney.

Once all danger of frost has passed, transition your tender plants outside by introducing them to outside temperatures gradually. This is called ‘hardening off’. Pop them out in a shady, sheltered spot for a couple of hours to start with. Then slowly ramp up the exposure over a couple of weeks. This allows leaves to develop a thicker outer coating protecting them from the great outdoors.

Seedlings growing together in groups need pricking out to separate them into individual pots. For this, gently pot them and plant them into 9cm pots when they’ve got four to six leaves.

Seeds sown individually can be left until their roots fill their pots before potting into a bigger pot. A hand tool called a dibber can be used to loosen the compost around the roots.

If you don’t have a dibber, use a pencil. This helps to prevent damage to the seedlings’ stems as you tease them from the soil.

Sowing straight outdoors is handy for people who don’t have space to grow seeds indoors. However, you’re best to wait until mid-spring. 

Once the weather’s warm enough, get your seedbed prepared. It needs to be weed-free and have a crumbly texture to allow young roots to push through easily. Simply dig over the soil so that it’s loose to a spade’s depth. Rake over to smooth the surface and give it a few days to settle before getting started.

Start sowing your seeds this month so you can grow all your plants from scratch.

Now is the perfect time to plant gladioli, so you can enjoy their brilliant spikes of flowers throughout the summer. Often known as sword lilies because of their distinctive, pointed leaves, they have grown in popularity in recent years. Available in a bright array of colours including red, white, yellow, purple, orange and more, you’re sure to find a shade to suit your garden.

This month, you can plant gladioli in containers in a greenhouse to get them started. Alternatively, you can wait until May and plant the corms directly into the ground. For an extended display all summer long, plant a few each week or grow from March onwards.

To plant the bulbs, position the bulbs 15cm deep in moist but well-draining soil. Make sure they’re watered well and prepare to position stakes before the blooms emerge to give them extra support.

There are a few different varieties to choose from to best suit your preferences and your garden. Less hardy garden hybrids like Gladiolus mureliae will just need lifting I late summer to store over the winter. Hardier types like Gladiolus communis subsp. byzantinus are great for sunny locations and can be left in the ground all year.

To find out more about gladioli, head to my YouTube channel @daviddomoney.

1. March is the perfect time to plant shallot sets in the garden. Shallots can be started from seed, but more often they are grown from sets (immature bulbs). Sets are more reliable, easier, and quicker to grow. Plus, these are the better option if you’re in colder regions of the UK. Plant sets into fertile, and well-drained soil, which is either neutral or alkaline. Plant them from mid-March to mid-April 2cm deep, between 15 and 20cm apart, in rows between 30 and 45cm apart.

2. Spring is the best time to give your buddleias a hard prune. You can prune in late spring if you would prefer a show of flowers in later summer. Prune by trimming back the top growth by half. Then cut through the thick woody stems until their length is about 30cm or 60cm from the ground, aiming for just above a bud. The height depends on how tall you ultimately want it to grow. Remove any dead stubs or branches and keep an eye out for branches which may cross. You should be left with five to six main branches.

3. As the weather starts to slightly warm this month, it’s ideal to prepare indoor-sown plants for outdoor temperatures. This early in spring, only do so for hardy plants, as it may still be too cold for tender plants sown indoors. The process takes about two to three weeks, although hardier plants require less time. Place your plant in a cold greenhouse or cold frame if you have one. For cold frames, leave the lid open in the day, and closed at night. You could also use a cloche, or place plants in a sheltered position covered in a couple of layers of horticultural fleece during the day.

4. If you have a heated greenhouse, you can get your cucumber seeds sown now. From mid-February to mid-March is suitable, then unheated greenhouses from early April. If you don’t have a heated greenhouse, a sunny windowsill is perfectly suitable to get these plants started. In 10cm pots, add seed compost and one seed per pot, sown on their side to prevent rotting. Seedlings should appear within one to two weeks.

5. A great idea now before your garden flowering gets completely underway is to consider what areas of your garden will need support. Heavy-flowering plants like peonies and delphiniums are great ones to target. By getting a head-start now, you can ensure your supports look intentional and even attractive. Plus, they’re much easier to establish now than once the plants are in flower. Consider whether arched supports, canes, or flat and horizontal supports are needed, and get them positioned now. Find out more about making your own growing supports on my YouTube channel @daviddomoney.