What to plant and do in the Melbourne garden this month
Ahh March, time to launch a full scale (whoa back, also a well planned) attack on your veggie patch! Planting, mulching and tugging out weeds are all good tasks to get stuck into while it is still a little warm.
What to plant
- Veggies: We might be harvesting tonnes of tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers and pumpkins and all our summer veggies, but don’t get complacent — it’s time to get those winter veggies going from seed! Plant out in trays for broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, kale, silver beet, and cabbages. Direct in the ground you can sow asian greens, lettuce, rocket, spring onions, spinach, beetroot, and celery.
- Companions: It’s a great time to pop some lovely flowering stuff in. We recommend cornflower, calendula, dianthus, pansies, viola, snapdragons, stock, nasturtium, verbena and marigolds. They look great and attract pollinators and beneficial insects too.
- Herbs: More of our herb friends will be able to go into your patch now: parsley, coriander (try a slow bolting variety if it’s still pretty warm), rosemary, marjoram and thyme. You could give mint and lemon balm a go as well, but be careful to contain these quick-spreading tasties!
Other tasks
- Fruit trees: It’s peak harvest time for apples, pears, late peaches, quinces, figs, pomegranates, persimmons and others. Although the harvest is over for many trees, some say a good autumn watering makes for more fruit the next year. Clean up any diseased fruit or branches to help break the pest cycles. With mature deciduous trees, which are already at a good size (or bigger!) once you’ve harvested the fruit it’s time to give them a prune.
- Checking your mulch level as this is especially important for weed suppression at this time of year. Mulch after watering the patch, to a depth of about 5cm.
- Don’t be shy about feeding your plants in March. Seaweed teas and liquid fertilisers are great, especially for newly-planted seedlings. Apply to the soil early in the morning.
- Keep watering first thing in the morning. Remember a nice, deep drink a couple of times a week is far more beneficial than a quick watering.
Plan your future garden
If you want to grow food but haven’t got your own garden yet, now is a great time to install and plant a garden. Not sure where to start? We can help you with customised DIY sustainable timber raised garden bed and wicking bed kits to suit your garden, or we can install any of these options for you.
Photo by Zoe Schaeffer.
