Mid March and it all starts happening from here. At home I have transplanted chili seedlings into pots and done the same for the first four lettuce plants of the year. On the plot we have dug up the remaining parsnips and been quite pleased with the results, especially as I was really wanting to do this a month ago. The broad beans have done well against the recent strong winds and some now have flowers on them.

We tidied bits up, hoeing the strawberries and raspberries. Tom pruned the currant bushes and cleared the failed swede bed. On the main job was to prep the ground where the cabbage had been. We used our own compost to cover the ground, hoed and raked it flat. The compost has done well again this year and it is nice to be able to use your own. We probably have enough to do a quarter of the plot, the rest will come from the manure pile near Arundel, if we get round to it. Just shows how much compost you need if you plan to make your own to cover everything, we won’t ever be getting to that stage.

We put in six rows of onions, two of them red, and covered to stop the birds from trying to peck them out before they have rooted. Once they start growing I shall cover them with insect netting to stop allium leaf miner.

We came home with:

• parsnips
• daffadills

We could had picked our first lot of rhubarb but thought I would leave that until next week.