Gardening

B’grove Sporting F.C

Get ready for a busy month in the garden

We can breathe a sigh of relief as spring is once again upon us. The garden has survived yet another winter and days are getting longer.

This is by far one of the busiest months of the gardening year so dust off those tools and shake off your gardening gloves. It is time to sow seed and cut back winter shrubs before they awaken.

The brightly coloured stems of cornus (dogwood) have helped brighten the dull winter days and are available in reds and golds. Just a little attention now and this will produce a stunning display for next winter. Your secateurs should be clean and sharp; you can afford to cut the shrub back hard.

Now is the time to think about your summer displays and plant summer bulbs. There are so many to choose from that are ideal for growing in pots, such as alliums, lilies, freesias and agapanthus. They will perform best when the soil is beginning to warm up.

Some tips for success:

Use a mix of three parts multi-purpose compost with one part grit for good drainage. Plant at three times their depth and one bulb width apart. Water bulbs once after planting then regularly when in active growth, you can reduce watering once the leaves start to die down. To promote good flowering next year, feed the bulbs weekly with a liquid tomato feed. Begin feeding as soon as shoots appear, and stop feeding once the foliage starts to die down at the end of the season. Get ready to roll your sleeves up and take advantage of a free aerobic workout this month both in the garden or on your plot, but most of all enjoy the rebirth of spring.

By Suzi M, garden lover and plotter at Roundhill Allotments

Jobs in the garden for March

Lift and divide overgrown clumps of perennials, share extra plants with friends. Prune bush and climbing roses and give them a good feed to help promote the forthcoming blooms. Protect the tender shoots from slugs with the use of beer traps or copperbands, apparently slugs don’t like copper! Plant your chitted (sprouted) seed potatoes at the end of the month. Prepare a bean trough by digging a trench and gradually filling it over the next couple of months with your kitchen scraps (loosely cover whilst filling takes place). When “full” cover with soil until you are ready to plant your beans. This will rot down and feed your beans throughout the season and also compost your peelings. If the lawn shows signs of growth, mow, ensuring that the mower blades are on their highest settings and tidy the edges. In late March apply a lawn feed to encourage strong growth and give the lawn the boost it needs after the dormancy of winter. Disperse worm casts with a hard brush.

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