Starting the new gardening year

I've come to regard March 1st as the start of the new gardening year when I can start sowing seeds.  I've tried sowing seeds before March in previous years but they didn't come to much.  The sight of gorgeous drifts of daffs around the village and down in Cornwall (where the little one and I ventured in the week) gets me thinking about sowing seeds.

The weather has been a bit grey and drizzly today but I did get the main job of the week done - turning the contents of one of my compost bins over to the other.  A couple of weeks ago, I managed to empty one of them onto the two beds in the front garden.  The compost was lovely with just a few egg shells showing.  The hellebores and snowdrops look happy for it.  The other compost bin was mostly full of the turf I'd removed from the front garden to make the second bed (with added veg waste from the kitchen).

Just before the harder rain set in just now, I managed to sow some tomato and chilli seeds.  I think this may be the earliest I've sown tomatoes for a while (will need to look back) so fingers crossed I'll get a crop before the blight.

I've sown Moneymaker and Harbinger tomatoes and Serrano (free from a Wahaca restaurant but not stored terribly well subsequently in various handbags - oops), Iranian (from seed saved a few years ago), Westlandse (ditto) and Lemon Drop.  I wasn't successful with Lemon Drop at all last year so I'm giving them one last chance.  The tomatoes are on an upstairs windowsill while the chillies are covered with a carrier bag and sitting in the airing cupboard for some extra warmth.

My plan over March, aside from tidying the gardens up after winter and sowing more seeds, is to lift up some turf in the back garden to give me some space to put pots out on the sunnier side of it.  I may also plant some flowers too in yellows and oranges.  This is why I had to get the compost bins turned - I'll be filling one up with turf again.