Your garden in March

Spring is finally here! The essential gardening jobs for March

The warmer and sunnier days during March provide the opportunity for an increasing range of gardening tasks. It’s a great time of the year as new life bursts forth and the garden begins to transform. Preparation of seed beds and borders should be well under the way this month as well as cutting back winter shrubs and generally tidying up the mess that the winter has left behind.

Whether you’re preparing for shrubs and bedding plants or sowing seed for vegetables. Once all the tidying is done you’ll be in a better position to plan the seasons planting. Sow seeds and plant onion sets, shallots and potatoes. As the soil begins to warm you can start to sow broad beans, salads and sweet peas. If bad weather is forecast, be sure to cover seedlings with clothes to protect them. March is also the time to plant out onion and shallot sets – cover with fleece or netting to protect from birds. Early varieties of potato such as ‘Rocket’ and ‘swift’ , can be planted. If they have been kept in a light and frost-free environments, they should be ‘chitting’ (a slight sprouting from seed potato). Chitting before planting can encourage earlier and heavier cropping.

Feed

As the warmer weather promotes fresh growth, a general garden fertiliser should be applied to help boost roots, green foliage and encourage more fruits and flowers from your plants. It can be applied around the base of plants by scattering straight from the box and left to be watered in the rain. Unfortunately, the warm weather will also see weeds start to grow as well. Weeding isn’t the most popular of jobs but its best to pull any that start to appear while they are young to prevent spreading.

Scarify the lawn

Do some lawn preparations before the growing season gets well under way. Choose a dry day and give the lawn a rake to remove the remnants of winter before cutting with the mower blades set at the highest position. Then aerate with a garden fork or aeration machine. This helps drainage and gets oxygen to the roots. Finally, apply a top dressing of spring lawn feed to add nutrients.

Plant of the Month: Pansy/Viola

Why Should you plant them?

One of the most popular bedding plants, pansies and violas are hardy annuals that have a stunning array of colours to choose from. Bringing the joy of spring to your garden during the colder months, they grow happily in borders or containers as well as providing great ground cover.

How should you plant them?

Plant them in moist, well-drained soil in a spot with good sunlight to encourage flowering. tough little plants that are extremely hardy, they prefer cooler temperatures and need watering regularly. They are also very versatile - plant them in beds, borders, containers and hanging baskets