Grow your own veg with Pippa Greenwood: March

More people are growing their own food, but it's tricky to get it right first time. ‘If the first crop fails, people can lose heart and stop growing, which is a shame,' says Pippa Greenwood from BBC Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time.  To help you have a successful crop right from the start, follow Pippa's tips in House Beautiful every month, and online too.

 

If you need more help, Pippa's produced a special package of top quality, garden ready vegetable plants and seeds. You can choose from a wide range of vegetables including calabrese, sweetcorn, sweet and chilli peppers, squash, courgettes, sweetcorn, climbing French beans, sugarsnap peas, lettuces, beetroot, cucumbers, and tomatoes.  Just select the size of package to suit your plot and your budget. 

 

‘I'll then send you weekly emails about the crops you've chosen with advice on what you should be doing next,' says Pippa. ‘It'll be almost as if I'm there with you in the garden.'

 

For more information, to buy a pack or a gift voucher for a friend or relative visit www.pippagreenwood.com

 

Pippa's tips for March

● Get seed potatoes ‘chitted' or sprouting by placing them in a cool but frost-free, well-lit spot.  Plant by the end of the month, or sooner for first early varieties.

 

● Fork over soil in beds and raised beds, removing weeds, debris and large stones and incorporating some well-rotted manure or compost.

 

● Before they come in to leaf, cut twiggy sticks around 90cm long from hedges and shrubs for pea-sticks.

 

● Sow seeds of aubergines, chilli and sweet peppers or, if you have a greenhouse, order plants for delivery in May, so you can get ahead.

 

● Sow seeds of marrows, cucumbers and courgettes under cover.

 

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