Garden care for March

From Living Earth

Building up to a great harvest

Apples, Pears & Quinces – In the final days to picking and eating make sure that the watering is deep and fairly regular. A good tip to test for ripeness is to pick up and cut open the windfalls to see what stage the fruit is at.

Verrucosis on citrus trees – Unsightly pustules in the leaves and scabbing of the skin (sounds delightful) are symptoms of citrus verrucosis. While this is not a serious disease, it is easily remedied by spraying the tree with copper two or three times a year.

Best fig forward – The nicely forming figs are going to become very attractive to birds in a month or so. Once they’re the size of a walnut consider covering the tree with bird-netting to save the crop.

Kiwifruit care – While they need excellent drainage it is absolutely vital that kiwifruit plants do not dry out now, especially the small cocktail kiwis.

In the garden – Hot orange & bright pink flowers

Rudbeckias (pictured) are a great flower for blending amongst autumn toned foliage.

Hibiscus offer brightest colours and a sense of the tropical in your garden.

Leonotis the Lion’s paw plant is one of the deepest orange tones in the garden in March. Perfect for attracting monarch butterflies.

Work, yes work, for the garden in March

Lawns – perfect time to fertilise your lawn, but follow instructions around watering when using fertilisers, to avoid burning the turf.

Hedges – trim them now and layer some compost around their roots.

Trimming back – plants such as lavenders, hebes and daisies respond well to a cutback which keeps them shapely!

Bulbs – planting time for anemones, ranunculus and species gladioli. But, when buying tulips, daffodils and hyacinths, take them home and put them in the fridge for 6 – 8 weeks. This breaks the dormancy of the bulb and let’s them ‘pop’ open when you plant them.

Question – why are my white flowering hydrangeas turning pink as they age? Normally due to the sun – in the height of summer even shady spots get to see a bit of sun!