Poppy Okotcha's top six jobs to do outside and in your indoor garden this month

Livingetc's gardens columnist Poppy Okotcha shares her advice for what to do in the garden now, both inside and out

Poppy Okotcha in her garden
(Image credit: Poppy Okotcha)
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This is my first spring in the new garden. Last summer my partner and I moved from our canal boat in London to a garden (and cottage) in Devon. To say I’m excited is an understatement. I’m entering spring with plans (that I probably won’t stick to) produced while cosily shut up indoors on wet winter days. This month I’ve created a couple of no dig gardening beds ready for veg, a makeshift germination station and piles of well rotted manure. An army of seedlings (chillis, tomatoes, kale and more) that are marching towards adolescence and will be clamouring to be planted out before I know it. To me the pillars of a growing space are compost, water harvest, seed saving and social space.

Things to do this month in the garden

gardening jobs seed sowing

(Image credit: Alamy)
  •  Create a schedule for your seed sowing to avoid getting in a muddle. 
  • Prepare a  veg patch, my no dig expert tips will be helpful. Select the spot, pull up perennial weeds, put down a 7cm layer of manure or compost on a layer of cardboard, weigh down. Weeds will be smothered while the soil is fed. 
  • Prick out seedlings planted in trays or modules as they get bigger and move them on to larger pots of their own

Things to do this month in your indoor garden

gardening jobs seedlings

(Image credit: Alamy)
  • Give your houseplants a rinse to remove any dust accumulated on their leaves over the winter months.
  • Sow tender plants like tomatoes, courgette, cucumber, aubergine and pumpkin – they like to be warm with lots
    of light. Keep them on your windowsill. 
  • Once germinated, in good weather, take your tender seedlings out for the day but bring them back inside before it gets chilly.
Poppy Okotcha
Poppy Okotcha
Gardening Expert

Poppy Okotcha is Livingetc's gardening columnist, and a trained horticulturalist living in Devon. She has appeared on Gardener's World and is also a presenter on Channel 4's The Great Garden Revolution. She specialises in regenerative growing, and studied with the RHS at Regent's Park in London. She once lived on a houseboat, growing herbs and vegetables in flowers in containers, before moving to take on a bigger plot of land.