March is when we can indulge the romance of preserving produce.
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At this time of year, along with jars of tomato paste, passata and sauce, jams and marmalades and preserved stone fruits, you can fill your larder with hanging garlic and sacks of potatoes, with pumpkins and apples to follow.
There's still plenty to pick and sow in the garden during March and early autumn, so keep harvesting crops like beans, peas, cucumbers, marrows and zucchini to encourage cropping to continue into autumn.
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If you haven't been under some of the recent storms, keep the water up to your vegies so things keep growing.
Also harvest raspberries, medlars, crabapples, figs, apples pears and quinces.
There's still time before winter for short season-quick turnover crops in the vegie garden. Sow lettuce, mizuna, rocket, carrot and spring onion for salads.
Spring onions are versatile vegies that take up very little space in a vegie patch. For a constant supply, aim to plant a new row every four or five weeks.
Sow seeds directly into position in full sun and where they will be well drained. Cover lightly with soil, water in well and keep the soil moist until they germinate which will take about 10-14 days.
When the seedlings are 5-10cm tall, thin them to about 5 cm apart. They will be ready to harvest in 8-10 weeks.
Harvest by pulling them out completely, roots and all, holding the plant at the base of the stem near the ground.
You can also harvest the green tops at any time of their growth, leaving the bulb intact and the spring onions will continue to grow and re-sprout more green tops.
Brassica crops do best when they get established before the very cold weather, so you should have your plans for planting broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale and cauliflower underway by now.
Sow seeds undercover so you can get the seedlings well-established before planting out so you can get them as big as possible by the time winter sets in.
Remember to rotate your crops and don't plant this year's brassica crops in the same location you planted them last year. Brassicas are heavy feeders so do well where the most recent crop was a legume, which adds nitrogen to the soil.
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