Garden work for March.

Flower garden

Our heavy clay soil is great for retaining moisture, but it is easily compacted, especially in wet weather.  So try to use short boards of about i.5 metres (5’) length to stand on when digging the soil in preparation for all the growing that will come.

March is the time to start laying the basis for a good lawn through the season.  First lightly rake the grass to get rid of all the debris.  Do a first cut when it has dried out a bit, but remember to set the mower blades high.  Cut the edges with a half-moon cutter, or use edging shears.

It is a good time in March to increase your stock of perennials like delphiniums, pulmonarias, dahlias and chrysanthemums.  The way to do it is to look for shoots of about 5cm long, take them as cuttings using a sharp knife to remove the shoot at root level.  Pot them up individually in small pots using a mixture of 7 parts compost and 3 parts vermiculite.  Put them in a cold frame, or an unheated greenhouse and they should root in about 10 days.  Once they are rooted, repot in larger pots of compost (perhaps John Innes No.2).

Half-hardy annuals like marigold, sweet alyssum, annual phlox, ten-week stocks, asters and zinnias should be sown in seed trays and kept under cover towards the end of the month.  They will benefit from a bit of gentle heat (around 10ºC) to start them off.

Ornamental grasses that have been left to show their form over the winter should be cut back in March to encourage new growth.  Hybrid tea roses should be pruned in March.  Cut them back to 30 cm above ground.  Remove all disease or damaged stems.  Side shoots of floribunda rose should be pruned to about 15 cm.

Protect the new shoots from established plants (like hosta, delphinium and clematis) from slugs and snails with an appropriate treatment.

Vegetables

An old rhyme to think of when sowing your peas is as follows:  “One for the mouse, One for the crow, One to rot, And one to grow.”

Start leeks under glass for pricking out and transplanting at the end of the month.  Salad crops such as lettuce can be started for transplanting once they have established themselves.  Put them into the soil that you have warmed up under cloches or fleece.

In order to give the best germination of any seeds that you want to start, make sure that the soil, or seed compost, you use is as warm as possible.  So put out cloches over the area in the garden where you intend to start early crops.  Do this at least a week or so before sowing in order to warm the ground.  Equally, if you are using a seed compost, bring it in to a shed or greenhouse before making up the pots or seed trays so that it has been thoroughly warmed through.  Most seeds need a soil temperature of at least 10ºC (50ºF), and do better if it is about 15ºC.  This is a very general rule of thumb*, and there are many differences for different species, but it is true for a lot of the plants we grow.

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Garden work for February.

Flower garden

Towards the end of the month dogwoods that have the lovely wood stems in brilliant reds and yellows should be coppiced, to encourage new growth for the next winter show.  Usually I am cautious and only cut about one-third to one half, but if you are brave, have a go and do the whole bush.

If you sow sweet peas in mid-February (in a greenhouse) they will produce plants to flower later in the summer.

Purple Buddleia davidii should be pruned towards the end of the month.  You will be well rewarded provided you prune quite severely, but always leave at least 3 or 4 buds for the fresh growth, in case there are late frosts.

Keep an eye out for slug and snail damage on emerging plants, as this will cause severe damage.  Use appropriate control measures.  Delphiniums are especially prone to attack.

It is important to practice good hygiene, crop rotation and ensure that a minor infestation does not become a plague by taking early action.  One action that can be taken by rose growers is to make sure that all dead leaves from the previous year are taken off and removed to be burnt.  Do not put them on the compost heap as this will only continue the cycle of black spot.

Consider starting some annual flowering plants such as larkspur, cornflower, godetia, clarkia and calendula under cloches.  With care, they could be in bloom early and provide those lovely cut flowers in June.

Trim back winter flowering heathers as the blooms fade, with shears to prevent them from getting overgrown and straggly.

Vegetables

As the buds on the gooseberry bushes begin to swell, they will become ever more attractive to bullfinches and other birds, so give them some protection.  Ideally, they should be protected by a fruit cage.  Alternatively use the old trick of straining black cotton thread from branch to branch over the bushes.

Any seedbeds that have been protected under cloches or garden fleece can be started to be sown with hardy vegetables such as parsnips.  You can also start to consider sowing some early cabbage and brussel sprouts.  Divide and replant chives towards the end of the month.

In sheltered areas, crops such as onions, peas, lettuce and radish can be sown with suitable protection – either under cloches or heavyweight fleece.

Rhubarb clumps should be lifted and divided in February.  Tomato seed should be sown in greenhouses with appropriate heat to get them germinated.

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Garden work for January.

Flower garden

Lord Carrington once advised all gardeners ‘Never go into your garden without your secateurs’ – so if you do, have a safe place to keep them as they are expensive to replace.  After all the feasting, it is a good idea to get out into the garden and clear the head by having a look around and seeing how it will all develop in the coming season.

This is the time of year when houseplants are most appreciated.  Azaleas, cineraria and cyclamen will all help to cheer things up.  Do not over water, and most of these plants like cool conditions.

Have a good look at the structure of your garden and decide where to put the plants that give height and substance to the overall shape of the garden.

Make sure that your bulbs that are in pots do not get waterlogged, and keep an eye out for any predators that may be about, such as squirrels, slugs and snails.

Towards the middle of the month start is a good time to make preparations for taking chrysanthemum cuttings.  If you have a cold frame make sure it is ready and make up the necessary soil.  A good mixture is two parts loam, one part peat, and one part sand to ensure good drainage.  Any pots or boxes should be cleaned and the chrysanthemum stools brought in to start them growing sturdy cuttings.

Towards the end of January prune fuchsias.  Cut back all side growth hard, to about 2 mm from the stem.

Vegetables

Rhubarb can be forced using an upturned bucket or tub.  This should be covered with garden fleece to keep off any frost.

When seed potatoes arrive, keep them in a frost-free place and stand the tubers, eye-end uppermost, in shallow boxes.  If you can get large egg trays these are ideal for keeping the tubers upright and just separated to prevent any infection spreading.

To get the best onions start the first sowings this month, and you should give a good dressing of wood ash on the site of the bed that you will use, since onions really do well with a good level of potash.

Why not try some different culinary herbs, for example Basil Lime (Ocimum americanum) which adds a twist of lime flavour to any dish.  It can be grown on the window sill.  Then there is Dill (Antheum gravolens), Oregano (Origanum vulgare) as well as Hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis) which is an evergreen and Myrrh (Myrrhis odorate).  All can be grown relatively easily from seed.

Clear away the stems and roots of savoy and other green crops that have finished and push on with the winter cultivation whenever this is possible.

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For Sale – Broad Bean plants

Four strips of ten broad bean plants ready for planting out. Fully hardened off.
£2.00 per strip. All proceeds to Capel Horticultural Society.

Collect from Chris Coke, 01306 711098

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This Saturday 8 April we are organising a Litter Pick throughout the village.  Do please consider joining us, put on appropriate footwear, bring a pair of gloves and we shall provide rubbish sacks and litter pickers.  Starting at 10 a.m. in the Memorial Hall Car Park, followed but a well deserved (free) coffee and cake in the Parish Hall.  We plan to be finished by 12 noon.

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