Advice
Jobs for March
By mid-March the long wait for spring is usually over and, as the warmer weather arrives, there are lots of jobs to be getting on with in the garden:
- get a head start by hoeing weeds as they appear in the borders
- order seeds and make a plan for sowing
- watch out for slug damage on fresh new growth and take measures to control them, especially on your newly emerging delphiniums
- dig up and divide perennials
- prune bush and climbing roses and feed with a special rose fertiliser
- top dress container plants by removing the top 2.5cm of soil and replenishing with new compost
- plant summer flowering bulbs
- feed your beds with well-rotted manure or compost when the soil is workable. Now is also a good time to apply a general-purpose fertiliser
- feed trees, hedges and shrubs
- cut back cornus and salix cultivars grown for their winter colour
- remove old leaves from hellebores
- prune winter-flowering jasmine by cutting back last year’s growth to 5cm from old wood
- cut back perennials and ornamental grasses
- plant onions and shallots in the vegetable patch
- cut autumn fruiting raspberry canes to the ground
- remove the tips of summer flowering raspberry canes
- protect the blossoms on apricot, nectarines and peaches from frost
- mulch raspberries, fruit trees and rhubarb
- feed blueberries with an ericaceous fertiliser
Blog post written by Jo Chamberlain
