VEGETABLE PATCH : The First Quarter arrives at 12:27 (UTC) today, marking a turning point — before that moment, the ascending moon still favours root work, so get your hands into the soil early. Sow parsnip (‘Gladiator’, ‘Tender and True’) directly in deep, stone-free drills 1 cm deep and 30 cm apart; parsnip needs a long season and resents transplanting, so direct sowing now, even under a cloche, gives it the head start it deserves / Sow beetroot (‘Boltardy’, ‘Chioggia’) in module trays filled with a fine seed compost, two seeds per cell at 2 cm depth, thinning to one seedling once germinated — ‘Boltardy’ is particularly bolt-resistant, a real advantage for early sowings / Celeriac (‘Monarch’, ‘Prinz’) can go into a heated propagator at 18–20 °C now: press seeds onto the surface of moist compost without covering, as light aids germination / After 12:27 (UTC), the quarter moon shifts the energy upward — a natural pause from root work; use the afternoon to top-dress overwintered leeks and kale with a thin layer of well-rotted manure (3–4 cm), which will slowly feed the soil ahead of spring growth.
INDOORS : A handful of root cuttings started last month may already be showing their first tentative shoots — check pots of dahlia (‘Bishop of Llandaff’, ‘Karma Choc’) and Japanese anemone tubers stored in barely moist compost; if pale shoots are visible, move them closer to a bright window to green up without etiolating / Sow tomato (‘Tigerella’, ‘Ailsa Craig’) and aubergine (‘Violetta di Firenze’) seeds in 7 cm pots at 5 mm depth, placing on a propagator set to 20–22 °C — aubergine is slower to germinate than tomato and benefits from consistent bottom heat / In milder regions or under glass, pot on overwintered geranium (Pelargonium zonale) cuttings rooted in autumn into 10 cm pots with a loam-based compost; a pinch of slow-release granular fertiliser (5 g per pot) at this stage supports the first flush of spring growth.