GLORIOUS GARDEN GUIDE
This year, make your garden a joy, not a chore. Get outside, feel the sun on your face, listen to the birdsong and really live in the moment. Our time-saving plan will take you there… ready, steady, grow!
Save time with our month-by-month planner
MARCH
■ Preparation is the key. Now’s the time to give your borders a helping hand, enriching thin, hungry soils or improving the drainage of heavy clay soils by digging in lots of organic matter, such as composted bark, mushroom compost or stable manure. Your efforts will be repaid one-hundredfold.
■ If you find it therapeutic to weed every day, don’t mulch. But if you want to cut down on weeding and watering for the rest of the year, the simplest way is to weed now, then spread a good, thick layer of mulch (at least 5cm) over your borders. This will make them look instantly tidier – but be careful not to pile the mulch up around the plant stems.
■ You CAN run over your roses with a hedge-trimmer before they start back into growth – it won’t do them the least bit of harm. But there’s something very calming in the old-fashioned way of pruning, patiently removing any spindly or crossing stems and anything dead, diseased or damaged. While the secateurs are out, you can also cut back summer-flowering shrubs like fuchsias and buddleias, and tackle overgrown honeysuckle. As the stems come into bud, you can see which are alive and cut out ugly dead wood.
■ Snap off any seed heads you see forming on daffodils, but leave the foliage to die back naturally. If you also feed the bulbs as they fade, that will be a bonus, but leaving the foliage on should be enough to ensure good flowering next year.
■ Tidy up your ornamental grasses, cutting back deciduous varieties that have been standing all winter to make way for new growth. For evergreen grasses, put on a stout pair of gloves and comb through them with your fingers. You will dislodge all kinds of dead leaves and rubbish from the base - and probably a snail or two.