Busy times in March’s garden!
Hello everyone and hope you are keeping well?
We’re home now from Australia and all settled back into normal life, albeit much cooler! I must admit it did take a week or two to acclimatise back to cooler temperatures, which wasn’t helped by the wet weather! Fortunately, the days are now lengthening and starting to warm up a little but for me spring doesn’t start until the 21st March!
In between my normal work, I’m trying to get on with work in the garden and have now cut back most of the perennials and herbaceous plants. My next priority is to lift turf to create a couple of new borders ready for spring planting. I’d made a start, but then the wet conditions called off play. I’m still confident (fingers crossed) everything will be ready for our NGS open day on 5th July. Talking of the NGS, I interviewed Dr Richard Claxton, the new chief executive recently for our Pots & Trowels podcast and had an interesting chat with him about the health benefits of gardening.
Work at the flower shows starts in April with the Harrogate Flower Show and ends at the Malvern Autumn show in September. In total we’re attending 14 events of which details can be found for 2026 on our website https://www.martinfish.com/events/ If you are planning to be at any of them, we love to see you.
Although I’ve mentioned this before I’d like to give a final mention of an event at Floral Media in Caunton, Nr Newark, NG23 6AQ. Jill & I are joining Paula & Steven Routledge on Sunday 22nd March for ‘Gardening on the Menu’.
I will talk about growing your own seasonal fruit & veg and Jill will cook a couple of tasty dishes. Steven will demonstrate how to grow your own cut flowers at home and Paula will create an amazing flower arrangement with seasonal flowers and foliage. There’ll also be a chance to ask your gardening questions. Sessions start at 10am-1pm and 2pm-5pm and cost £20 per person to include refreshments. You can book a place by emailing info@floralmedia.co.uk and pay on the day. Steven needs to know numbers so he can bake plenty of cakes!
It will be a great day with lots of fun to kick-start the gardening year!
Jobs for March
Early March is the ideal time to sow tomato and aubergine seeds to produce strong plants for growing in an unheated greenhouse or polytunnel. I sow around 6-8 seeds per 9cm pot of seed compost and lightly cover with vermiculite. Germinate them in a warm propagator set to around 18°c.
Snowdrops have more or less finished now and it’s a good time to lift crowded clumps and divide them into smaller clumps. This not only helps to spread them around the garden, it also invigorates tired clumps.
Roses can be given their spring prune. Some people suggest pruning in February but I prefer to wait until early to mid-March (Percy Thrower always waited until late March!). Start by removing any dead, diseased or damaged stems and they cut back by one-third to half to an outward facing bud if possible. Any very weak stems can be cut hard back. As a rule, the harder you prune, the more they will grow.
Cosmos and amaranthus make a colourful show in pots or the border and can be started off now by sowing in small pots or plug trays. In a propagator the seed with germinate in as little as 3-4 days with heat and develop into strong seeds for growing on.
The colourful stems of dogwood can be cut down to almost ground level from mid-March onwards. It looks drastic, but it will encourage strong new growth over summer with bright stems for the winter.
Once you’ve pruned in the borders, tickle over the soil with a fork and apply a mulch to improve the soil and moisture holding capacity in summer. Home-made compost, well- rotted manure or bagged mulch such as PlantGrow is ideal.
Lawns are now growing and can be given a gentle trim to tidy them up. It’s also a good time to apply a moss killer if you want to try and reduce the amount of moss in your lawn. Ours are full of moss after the wet winter.
Shallots can be planted directly into the garden. Plant the small bulbs approximately 15cm (6in) apart with the tip of the bulb just above soil level.
Lettuce, salad leaves and spinach can be sown in trays or pots in a cold greenhouse to give you a supply of fresh leaves later in spring.
For a weekly gardening fix you can watch or listen to our “Pots & Trowels” gardening videos and podcasts by visiting www.potsandtrowels.com or on YouTube.
Followers of Pots & Trowels can take advantage of the following discounts.
Kings seeds offer 10% discount on seeds purchased from their web site www.kingsseeds.com by quoting the code PT2026.
PlantGrow who make a range of organic mulches and compost offer 10% discount when ordering online www.plantgrow.co.uk or by calling 01953 525001 – just quote PT2026
Happy gardening