At the end of February, we were doing well at the allotment. We felt all ready for a good start to the season when spring arrived in March. However, it didn’t happen. March turned out to be a rather poor month, especially in so far as gardening was concerned.

The first week or more was on the cold side both by day and by night. A couple of snowy days brought the cold spell to an end and it also brought to an end the dry spell which had stretched from the beginning of February. Since the dry spell broke we’ve had some rain most days although not in any great quantity but enough to keep everywhere wet.

We’ve been lucky enough to have a few nice sunny days just to let us know how nice it can be in March but they’ve been few and far between. They’ve done enough to ensure that the average temperature for March was around average for the month. Rainfall on the other hand has been slightly above average.

Whilst we haven’t managed to do much at the allotment, I don’t think we are that much behind provided that we get some better weather over the next few weeks. Although it’s not been fit to do much outside, I have managed to get some seeds sown in the greenhouse and some inside under our grow light.

It’s about time to start sowing some of the more tender seeds of tomatoes and peppers. These will be germinated inside under our grow lights so hopefully by the time they have germinated the weather will have improved enough for them to move into the greenhouse.

This year we decided not to buy in any early brassica plants due to the steep rise in the cost of the plants. Given the way energy costs have increased, I can understand why they are so expensive. I’m happy that our own grown early plants are doing quite well and I don’t think they will be too far behind the plants we have previously bought in. 

To finish off a summary of this March the following two tables show the temperature and rainfall records from my weather station for March since 2010.