In March there was a short break in the wet weather and my soil had dried out a bit. With a few dry days in a row, I had a false sense of security and thought the days of torrential rain were over. So I took advantage of this drier weather and spent some time weeding and clearing my veggie patch.

Off to the local market, I went to buy some lettuce and rocket seedlings. The searing heat of summer was over and I felt like the lettuces would be safe in the patch now. The seedling guy at the market warned me that the rain may not be finished and to plant the lettuces in pots just in case.

When I got home, did I listen? No, they went straight into the ground!

What happened the following week? More torrential rain… The lettuces did not like this. Not one little bit. Most of them shriveled up. My patch is also on a slight slope so the lettuces that were on the top of the slope survived but weren’t looking too healthy.

What about the rest of my veggie patch in March?

I had put some bush and climbing bean seeds in the ground. Being waterlogged didn’t do them any favours and they failed to germinate. I currently can see some of the coriander popping up, so they may have survived the wet weather. My beetroot is still in hiding and has not popped up yet.

I wanted to cover the broccoli with a micromesh tunnel but thought one day unprotected won’t hurt ’em… Well you can see the result! Needless to say, they are now covered up and recovering.

Luckily, I was still able to get a handful of beans from my veggie patch in March.

However, my tripod beans are starting to die and those handfuls won’t be around much longer, so I have sowed some climbing beans to climb up my trellis. The picture below shows them with just over a week’s growth.

After the lettuce debacle, I thought why not give some microgreens a go? We had some bamboo steamers that had gone a bit feral in the damp weather. After a scrub, they will be put to use growing mizuna and wild rocket microgreens.

The mizuna has started to sprout but I am still waiting on the wild rocket to sprout. I did accidentally leave the steamers in the sun, so I’m hoping the soil didn’t get too warm for the wild rocket. Needless to say, the microgreen steamers are in a shady spot now!

My mandarin tree has had its fruit dropping this month. I did some research on this because I thought the water had been pretty consistent and I knew that this could be a reason for fruit dropping. Through my research, I discovered that trees naturally drop a percentage of their fruit, as all that fruit will be too much weight for the tree… makes sense.

The kids have been picking the mandarin fruit this month and having a munch. I just need to make sure I pick it regularly and pop it in the compost, as the fallen fruit attracts flies and goes mouldy.

This month, I also bought some petunias and snapdragons to pop in the patch. I love the colour that they add! I put them in pots, having learned my lesson from the lettuce. They will go into the ground eventually.

I have been a bit more inspired this month and the weather was great for the last half of March. Autumn is a lovely time of the year to garden, don’t you think?

What are you currently growing in your patch? Please share your story below in the Comments section!

Would you love to grow some microgreens? Check out this informative post by The Micro Gardener.