Jobs for the yard in March

caterpillars, as they can destroy your seedlings overnight.

• At the start of the month, put spring flowering bulbs, such as freesia, anemone, ranunculus and daffodil, in the fridge veggie crisper and plant out at the end of the month.

• Plant strawberry runners towards the end of the month into well-mulched beds with lots of compost and manure.

• Prepare the soil for winter veggies (such as broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower) by digging in loads of compost and manures.

• If you haven’t done so, prune back your geraniums hard to stimulate fresh new growth. The trimmings can be used to propagate new plants.

It’s when I start sowing my winter vegetable seeds into punnets – broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower – to start planting into the garden in late March.

It’s also the time when you are still battling grasshoppers and pests, so you have to remain vigilant.

It’s also the end of the storm season so heavy rains could still cause havoc and cyclones are a real possibility.

But the cooler autumn months are on the way… something to look forward to.

• Wait until the rain eases a bit before giving your gardens a fertiliser boost coming into autumn, or else it’ll just wash away and be wasted.

• At the start of the month, put spring flowering bulbs in the fridge veggie crisper and plant out at the end of the month.

for cut worms. This soil borne pest chews through the seedling stem at ground level. At the first sign, spray with Carbaryl or Success.

• Try not to plan any work in the backyard which needs heavy machinery or vehicles, until the soil dries and firms up. Otherwise you risk compacting the ground and churning up soggy soil – not a good practice.

• White cedar caterpillars are on the move. Wrap a hessian bag around the trunk and check underneath for the damaging insects as they’ll congregate there during the day. Squash or spray them with a pyrethrum spray.

• Start planting broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower seeds so you have seedlings for late March. Watch out for little green

• If you haven’t done so yet, fertilise bananas, citrus, macadamia, mango, avocado, custard apple, carambola and pawpaw with a quality fruit tree fertiliser.

Vegetables

Plant carrot, leeks, beans, cauliflower, lettuce, silver beet, spring onion, radish,

Flowers

Plant alyssum, petunia, marigolds, sweet pea, ageratum, aurora daisy, nigella, calendula, cyclamen, delphinium, impatiens, dianthus, salvia, everlasting daisy, forgetme-not, gaillardia, foxglove, linaria, lobelia, lupin, nasturtium, polyanthus, schizanthus, Iceland poppy, primula, snapdragon, cleome, strawflower, verbena, cineraria, phlox, cornflower, pansy, statice, stock and viola.