March has been a very busy month on the farm, with plenty of dry, sunny days enabling us to work in the fields.
This year’s vegetable ground has all been ploughed and then worked soon after ploughing in great conditions. Cultivating soon after ploughing keeps the moisture in the soil, so that if there’s a prolonged dry spell, the ground doesn’t dry out too much. It also means that weeds can germinate now and then be mechanically checked back when the ground is cultivated again prior to planting/seeding.
All of our onion sets and almost all of our potatoes are planted. We have transplanted some early kale and lettuce in the fields as well as planting lettuce, endive and parsley into a poytunnel and a glasshouse. And the first sowings of salad and spinach have been made direct into the field.
The seeding glasshouse is full, we’ve now finished our leek seeding and have started another sowing of chard and spinach so there are plenty of baby plants to look after and they need watering daily on sunny days. Courgette and squash seeding will start soon.
The ‘Hungry Gap’ has definitely started, the time of year in the UK when last season’s stored produce and over-wintered greens, leeks, cabbages etc are almost finished but before the new season’s crops are ready to harvest.
