March garden advice

March garden advice and maintenance

march-this-month-gardening

General gardening

  • Plant shallots, onion sets and early potatoes
  • Sow tomato seeds indoors, lettuce, parsley and radish
  • Top dress containers with fresh compost
  • Sprinkle a general fertiliser around trees and shrubs such as Growmore or Blood, Fish and Bone
  • Treat or repair fences before climbers start to grow over them
  • Prune roses, making sure you apply a thick layer of compost and rake up leaves from the ground to avoid black spot
  • Protect new spring shoots from slugs
  • Lift and divide overgrown clumps of perennials
  • Cut back Cornus (dogwood) and Salix (willow) left from winter
  • Deal with weeds early before they get out of hand later in the season
  • Plant rhubarb crowns

Lawn Care

  • As a result of the heavy rain and flooding vital nutrients have been leached out of the lawn and it will need some help to recover
  • Feed the lawn to increase vigour and help prevent weeds
  • Spring is the time to remedy lawn moss problems.
  • Use lawn sand or a complete feed and mosskiller
  • Over-seed any areas damaged during the winter

In the greenhouse

  • Do not over water your plants, water only when the compost is dry
  • Check regularly for moulds & fungus on your plants
  • Ventilate only on warm days

Wildlife gardening

  • Put up nesting boxes for birds
  • Top up bird feeders and put food out on the ground and bird table
  • Avoid chunky foods that might cause young fledglings to choke i.e whole peanuts
  • Keep the bird bath topped up and clean
  • Put out log, twig and/or rock piles to create shelter for wildlife