For most of us March is the start of the gardening year.
It’s a month of digging and sowing and a time to get busy preparing seed beds, cutting back winter shrubs and generally tidying up around the garden.
In addition to getting vegetable and flower seeds started in the greenhouse or undercover, you can also sow hardy seeds outside into their final positions … depending on where you live in the UK.
Your garden’s climatic conditions will affect when you sow and plant out. In the south that’s going to be March, but the further north you live it will be early or even late April, dependent on frost.
So, thrifty tip for the month is … make seed sowing your garden mantra this year. Seeds are cheap, or free if you harvest your own, and once you have mastered seed sowing you can create a glorious floral or veg haven for almost nothing. A packet containing about 100 seeds can cost a fraction of the price of one plant and will keep you going for a couple of years as it’s unlikely you will use them all in one go.
Many seeds can be sowed straight into the ground either in rows or simply scattered, but some prefer to start off life in seed trays under cover and then be planted out once seedlings are robust enough for the outdoor environment.
You can recycle plastic food trays for growing seeds inside or in a greenhouse – just make a few holes in the bottom for drainage.
Always read the seed packet for sowing instructions and if you can get hold of some seed compost that can make a difference to your success rate.
And don’t forget to label.
If sowing in rows straight into the ground, break up large clods of soil, remove stones and rake over then using a taught string line as a guide make a shallow trench. Sprinkle seeds carefully and evenly along the row so that they fall to the bottom of the trench.
Cover seeds with a layer of soil then gently water using a watering can with sprinkler head.
Sow seeds to the depth recommended on the packet.
Annuals are prime candidates for scatter sowing, and you can easily fill a bare border or space with a riot of colour in just a couple of months. From mid-spring to early summer simply scatter your flower seeds directly onto finely raked garden soil in a sunny spot, rake them in and water well but gently. No nonsense easy annuals to grow from seed include nasturtiums, sweet peas, cosmos, nigella, marigolds, californian poppies and cornflowers.
Spring flowers such as daffodils are now coming to the end of their flowering period. Advice from the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) is that March is a time to think about deadheading daffodils as a little care now will keep bulbs healthy. Let the leaves yellow and wither naturally, so they return nutrients to the bulb. If the weather turns dry, they will benefit from watering, and if they are growing in pots, feed weekly with a potassium-rich fertiliser such as tomato feed. Favourite varieties include Narcissus ‘February Gold’ that has early bright-yellow flowers in February; Narcissus ‘Fragrant Rose’ with a scented, soft pink daffodil flower that appears in April; and Narcissus ‘Tete-a-Tete’ the much loved miniature with bright yellow trumpet flowers that show in March and April.
The RHS Gardener’s Checklist for March …
Plant onions, shallots and potatoes
Chit early and main potatoes
Plant out strawberries
Plant summer flowering bulbs
Lift and divide large clumps of perennials
Top dress containers with fresh compost
Mow lawn on dry days if needed
Hoe and mulch weeds to keep them under control
Start feeding pond fish
Protect new spring shoots from slugs
