Garden Ready For St Patricks Day!
With St Patricks Weekend looming our guest blogger Darragh Connolly Garden Care is back sharing his top tips for getting Garden Ready this Spring!
March in the Garden
The first month of spring, at last.March is one of the busiest months for gardeners as rising temperatures bring the garden alive. It’s definitely time to shake the cobwebs off the gardening tools (and yourself!) and get outside. But it can be a tricky month weather wise, with mild sunshine one day & hard frost the next
Jobs in the garden for March
Prune rose bushes to within six inches from soil level, remove all dead wood and feed with Sudden Impact rose fertiliser once a month.
Summer flowering climbing roses and Clematis can now be planted on trellis or garden arches. These plants work very well together. Summer flowering Clematis can be pruned now.
Plant hedging plants including hardy green Laurel, green or copper Beech, cone shaped Thuja, evergreen Etna and green or golden Privet.
Summer Bedding Ideas
Pot up a selection of summer flowering bedding plants such as Marigolds, Busy Lizzies, Begonias, Petunias and Antirrhinums.
Tomatoes, peppers and chillies are now available as baby plants for growing on a bright warm window sill in pots.
Kill lawn moss now with a dressing of moss remover. Simply apply to the entire lawn area and your lawn will be a rich green colour about two weeks after treatment.
Plant Sweet Pea plants now out of doors into a well prepared bed adding organic farmyard manure to the planting hole.
Prune summer flowering shrubs including Hydrangeas, Spirea, Hypericiums, Roses and Fuchsia. Remember when you prune you need to feed your shrubs with a good tree and shrub fertiliser.
GIY Tips
- Plant onion sets, garlic, shallots, horseradish and rhubarb now in well prepared soil.
- Sow cabbage and lettuce plants from seed into moist compost. Cover with cling film and place on a warm bright window sill. The young plants can be planted out of doors in early April.
- Plant blight resistant potatoes now. Choose great varieties including Sarpo Mira, Sentata, Orla and Colleen for trouble free potatoes this summer.
- Feed your lawn with lawn fertiliser now.
- Vegetable plants including Swiss Chard, spinach, leeks, kohl rabi, beans and peas can now be planted out of doors.
- Plant female cucumbers in late March. The variety Pepenex is particularly good and produces masses of great tasting cucumbers all summer. Feed cucumbers with tomato fertiliser from mid May every two weeks.
- Cabbages can now be planted out of doors. Plant a selection of different varieties for flavour and to extend the cutting period. Varieties like Hispi will be ready by early May with Marathon and Duncan cropping later.
- Sow sweet night scented Stock from seed. Simply sow the seed directly out of doors in lightly raked soil.
- Apply moss killer to tarmac, patios and driveways to kill moss quickly and help restore the natural colour.
Other jobs to consider
- Mulch bare soil in beds & borders
- Move evergreen shrubs if required
- Prune bush & shrub roses
- Prune winter interest shrubs
- Take cuttings of perennials from new shoots
- Lift & divide overgrown clumps of perennials
- Split polyanthus after flowering
- Take cuttings from dahlias
- Keep beds & borders weed free
- Rake out gravel
- Sow sweet pea outdoors, or plant out young plants raised under cover
- Sow hardy annuals where they are to flower
- Reseed bare patches in lawn
- Start mowing lawns regularly
- Apply moss killer to lawns, scarify & aerate depending on the weather
- Sow vegetables outside
- Plant early potatoes & asparagus
- Protect fruit blossom against frost
- Sow half hardy annuals under cover
- Water indoor plants
- Finish off planting bare root & root ball trees 7 shrubs
- Plant snowdrops
- Put stakes in to support new growth before it really starts
Star plants in March
- Doronicum x excelsum
- Muscari
- Salix caprea
- Fritillaria imperalis
- Pulmonaria augustifolia
- Iris danfordiae
- Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’
- Daphne mezereum
- Narcissus
- Anemone blanda
- Hyacinth mix
- Chinodoxa
- Prunus sargentii
- Lysichiton americanus
- Iris
- Caltha palustris
- Primula
- Chaenomeles
- Scilla siberica
- Crocus
- Tuilps
- Forsthia x intermedia
And if that doesn't keep you busy.... ;)