I think there may have been a couple of those classic dry, sunny, warm days since I last sat down to write one of these. The kind of days when it is a pleasure to be in the garden and it really feels like spring might have sprung. It\u2019s worth casting your mind back to this time last year when winter was still firmly in charge and there seemed to be no end to the freezing conditions and biting cold. If global warming is causing greater extremes of weather, and nothing can be concluded from just two years, then I guess \u2018swings and roundabouts\u2019 year-on-year variations are something we need to get used to.<\/p>\n
When walking the dog in the woods it\u2019s lovely to see that the bluebells already have a couple of inches of growth on them, a sure sign that it\u2019s been an unusually mild winter. It\u2019s a bit of\u00a0 a worry, if we do have a very cold March, as severe frost can damage newly emerged shoots and buds but native plants can generally cope and just go back into suspended animation until temperatures creep above 6 or 7 degrees centigrade again.<\/p>\n
I probably get the majority of rose pruning done this month as it\u2019s when the conditions allow. It also means that any growth, promoted by the pruning process, stands a better chance of surviving undamaged as the worst of the winter weather should have passed (famous last words!).<\/p>\n
Lawns may require their first cut this month, especially as the warm, wet, weather has allowed them to continue growing in the winter, so make sure your mower has sharp blades. Set them a notch or two higher than their summer setting and cut the lawn whenever it is dry enough. If the very wet weather has resulted in lots of worm casts, lumps and bumps, then roll these first (assuming you have a garden roller) because rough ground and loose soil will quickly blunt your blades. At some point, early in the growing season, it\u2019s worth spreading a \u2018weed and feed\u2019 product but I think I\u2019d hold off on this for a bit to ensure the grass really is in active growth before adding extra nutrients.<\/p>\n
What I am keen on feeding right now is all the spring bulbs which are either already in flower or coming up to flowering. The blooms appearing now were actually instigated last year and their quantity and quality rely on the parent bulbs growing strongly the preceding season. They are only able to utilise added nutrients when in leaf, and therefore photosynthesising, so a little \u2018fish, blood and bone\u2019 gently forked around them now will pay dividends next year. In containers liquid feeding is beneficial as they are even more likely to run short of plant food when not in open ground.<\/p>\n
Last year the prolonged cold meant that hedge cutting and planting of bare-root stock could continue beyond the usual cut-off point of the end of March. This year the relative warmth means that time is running out for these activities. If waterlogged land has prevented you from doing this any sooner then now\u2019s the time to be completing these tasks which rely on the subjects being dormant.<\/p>\n
The same goes for shrub pruning; shrubs which flower on this year\u2019s growth (generally later flowering specimens) can have the oldest stems cut right back, even to the ground on established plants, to keep them healthy and vigorous. Early flowering, spring blooming, shrubs flower on growth from last year so these should be left and reduced in size immediately after they have flowered.<\/p>\n
I tend not to grow \u2018heat hungry\u2019 bedding plants from seed as keeping them happy, at the elevated temperatures required for germination and successful establishment, means that I\u2019d rather buy them as plug or \u2018young\u2019 plants, by mail order or from \u2018Groves\u2019. As mentioned last week I am planning to grow cut flowers from seed this year and my inspiration for this endeavour, Jane Corbett, sent me an email with a few pearls of hard-won wisdom :-<\/p>\n
\u201cI sow them all in seed trays in greenhouse as from last week in March, 1st week in April – (Its grim up North you could get away with couple of weeks before!) This works best for me as can transplant into my garden of Eden without having to thin out and waste a load) Usually takes 4 weeks before I release them into the wild – Then I continue to stagger sowings \u2018til as late as August so you will have a continual crop of blooms.\u201c<\/p>\n
As for suitable subjects (I asked for idiot-proof examples) she recommended stuff like; \u2018Love in a mist\u2019, Larkspur \u2018Sublime Mix\u2019, Clary \u2018Monarch Mixed\u2019, Cosmos \u2018Day Dream\u2019, Cornflower \u2018BlueBoy\u2019, Scabiosa \u2018Stellata Pingpong\u2019,\u00a0 Ammi majus<\/em> \u2018Graceland\u2019, Calendula \u2018Orange King\u2019 and \u201cfor a bit of late colour Zinnias make a much cheaper alternative to Dahlia tubers\u201d.<\/p>\n I may have got my Latin and common names a bit mixed up there, cutting and pasting is a blunt tool, but you get the drift. I\u2019ll also be digging out unopened seed packets from the last couple of years, I get sent random \u2018Press Samples\u2019, to see what else might fit the bill. In addition Jane recommended raiding hedgerows and herbaceous perennials like Alchemilla and Astrantia which have a similar look to the hardy annuals grown from seed. I\u2019ll also throw some sweet peas into the mix to add scent to my bouquets! No idea where I\u2019m going to plant them yet but I\u2019ll cross that bridge once I\u2019ve erected some more rabbit proof fencing…<\/p>\n Looks like I\u2019m going to have my work cut out so time to start praying for good weather and NO MORE RAIN. Happy gardening to you all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I think there may have been a couple of those classic dry, sunny, warm days since I last sat down to write one of these. The kind of days when it is a pleasure to be in the garden and it really feels like spring might have sprung. It\u2019s worth casting your mind back to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-1983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-gardening","tag-russell-jordan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1983\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}