READY STEADY GROW!
MARCH is the month to go mad in the garden – but not too crazy. A warm weekend in early spring can tempt gardeners to plant too early. But if the temperature drops to near freezing a few days later – perhaps for only an hour at night – young, tender plants curl up their toes and seeds rot in damp, chilly ground.
The time to plant is when warmer weather is more reliable, remembering that April is the month of fastest growth.
Despite this, there is plenty to prepare now to improve the chances of a flowery and fruitful summer.
PLANT shrubs and trees, also divide and plant perennial flowers which bloom in summer or autumn, such as red hot pokers, hardy late-flowering chrysanthemums and Michaelmas daisies, but not spring-blooming or fleshy-rooted types like peonies, lupins, day-lilies and irises, which are divided in autumn.
PRUNE shrubs which flower on this year’s new growth, such as roses, buddleia and hydrangeas. Reduce hybrid tea bush roses to 30cm (12in) in height, cutting out dead, weak and crossing stems, then pruning to outward pointing buds.
Prune mop-head hydrangeas, which may still have some of the old flower-heads which have protected the plant through winter. Remove weak growths to the ground, trim medium-thickness stems
about two-thirds of the way back to plump leaf buds, and prune really old stems to new buds near the ground.
Prune back shrubs which are starting to smother low-growing, sun-loving plants like spring bulbs or heathers.
Clematis, which bloom in summer or autumn, should be cut back to within a foot of the ground and fed with a high-potash feed. A rose or tomato fertiliser is suitable.
BUY young plug plants of half-hardy summer flowers for bedding or patio pots, such as petunias or pelargoniums (halfhardy geraniums), when they appear in garden centres. Transfer them individually to pots 10cm (3in) wide and keep them at 10C-15C (50F-60F) in a heated greenhouse or on a sunny windowsill.
Plant them out towards the end of May.
TIDY borders, removing dead leaves, stems and seedheads, thinning clumps of self-sown flowers like forget-me-nots. Split the roots of old perennial flowers and plant young sections from the edge of the root, each with one or two shoots and some root. Discard the old, woody central part of the clump.
FEED all beds and borders with a general fertiliser – National Growmore at 60g per square metre (2oz per square yard) or blood, fish and bonemeal.
FINALLY, if the lawn is mossy, spike it all over with a tool made for the job or a garden fork, spread horticultural sand and brush it into the spike-holes.
Then, a fortnight later during mild weather, apply spring fertiliser, mosskiller and selective weedkiller as necessary. Rake out dead moss once it has turned almost black with a powered scarifier or garden rake.