EARLY MARCH
- Lift and divide herbaceous plants.
- Plant alpine and herbaceous plants.
- Lightly mow over the lawn.
- Prepare sites for new lawns.
- Prune rose bushes.
- Plant onion, garlic and shallot sets.
- Start Begonia and Gloxinia tubers into growth indoors.
- Buy seedlings or baby bedding plants to grow on at home.
MID MONTH
- Support all tall growing herbaceous plants from early in the season.
- Try growing some ornamental vegetables in the flower garden, e.g. red leafed lettuce.
- Sow hardy annual flowers like Eschscholzia, Godetia etc. direct in the garden borders.
- Treat moss, scarify and aerate lawns as well as feeding the grass.
- Prune late summer flowering shrubs, like buddleia and Caryopteris.
- Prune down hard shrubs with coloured stems like cornus, as well as hardy fuchsias.
- Trim over winter flowering heathers.
- Buy and plant pots of herbs. Sow seeds of hardy herbs in the garden, like parsley.
- Plant seed potatoes – but beware of frost once the shoots emerge from the soil.
- Vegetable seeds to sow now include: broad beans, lettuce, leeks, parsnips, peas, radish,
- Salad onions, spinach, Swiss chard, spinach beet.
- Sow summer bedding under glass: dahlias, impatiens, petunias, phlox drummondii, salvias, asters, tagetes, mesembryanthemums, alyssum, nicotiana, marigolds and zinnias.
- Plant lilies outdoors in borders and tubs.
- Lay out growing bags in the greenhouse to warm up the compost before planting.
- Sow fruit and vegetable plants for growing on in a heated greenhouse, e.g. tomatoes, aubergines, peppers, cucumbers, etc. or you could decide to buy plants later.
LATE MARCH
- Plant less robust hardy evergreen shrubs e.g. Hebe and Ceanothus.
- Lay turf or sow lawn seed.
- Start feeding pond fish.
- Vegetables to sow now include: Brussels sprouts, red cabbage, summer cabbage and summer cauliflower.
- Dwarf French beans can be sown under cloches.
- Watch out for the build up of pests and diseases.
- Treat pots against vine weevil attacks using Scotts Vine Weevil Killer. It protects your plants for four months.
By
Reg Moule