Planting between seasons in March | In Your Patch

For me, March represents a between seasons month.

Yes, we have moved into Autumn on the calendar, but in practice, the weather doesn’t always follow suit.

I find I’m often looking to plant late summer crops that are quick to reach maturity, to squeeze them in to the last of the warmer weather, or early winter crops that like a burst of heat and warmer soil temperatures to get them going. Either work.

We recently planted a somewhat late corn crop in the school garden.

I consulted my gardening app and saw that it was successful last year, so thought we’d risk it again.

We went for seedlings that had a few extra weeks growth already on them, rather than directly planting corn kernels as we would normally do.

Lettuce is still a winner for shadier spots, as are rainbow chard and silverbeet.

We will start our brassica seed trays at TAFE and at the school, choosing green and red cabbages, caulies, broccoli, Asian greens like bok and pak choi, and several types of kale.

I only started using seed trays myself relatively late in my gardening journey and to be honest I’m not entirely sure why I was so hesitant.

I think it may have had something to do with feeling like shop bought punnet seedlings were more robust and simply easier to grow, but of course – they cost!

Seed trays are highly rewarding. It’s a pretty good feeling to see the little shoots start to emerge from the soil just a week or two after planting.

And like most gardening pursuits, you get a lot of bang for your buck, with some seed packets claiming to have up to 500 seeds in one packet.

Yes, yes, I can hear you now – what on earth would you do with 500 seedlings?

Good question.

Perhaps don’t germinate them all, as seeds have a decent shelf life and even on expired seed packets, consistently give good germination rates, almost at 100 percent if the expiry isn’t too far gone and even 50 percent on packets years past expiry.

Perhaps gift on to neighbours and friends.

Or as is popular since Covid, set up a small honesty stall outside your house and offer them to your community. Don’t let it stop you from trying!

Planting in March

Now is the time to prep your beds for garlic planting. I do believe that some people have already planted in the south west.

I tend to plant in April but one never knows, sometimes a change is as good as a holiday as they say.

Try something new! It may prove more successful than your usual planting time.

Other veggie planting possibilities for March include early flat white onions, peas, and some of the root veggies like potatoes.

Direct sow carrots, swedes, radishes, turnips and parsnips, also direct seed coriander, and it’s time for either seed trays of Asian greens as we will do in March, or if the weather looks mild, you could try planting seedlings.

It is a beautiful time of the year as things start to cool off, the wind drops, and temperatures on the whole are milder (but expect a few very high max daytime temps to still occur – it’s not over yet!).

Keep an eye out for brassica seedlings on the Roadside Honesty Stall in March and April – not even our large school garden is going to need 500 cabbages!

Terri Sharpe is Coordinator and Garden Specialist of the Margaret River Primary School Kitchen Garden Program.