Index

Welcome to Seasonal Gardening

Seasonal Gardening provides a month by month account of tasks that need to be done in the garden. Our free online guide is packed with hints, tips, helpful projects and useful gardening ideas for every season.

Covering the whole of the UK (Great Britain, England, Scotland & Wales).

What to do this month

Taking care of lawns & borders

Getting the best from fruit & veg

propagating your own plants

March Gardening Tasks

Rake lawns to remove winter debris and feed with a feed-and-weed mixture. Spring prune trees and shrubs such as roses. Sow seeds of biennial and perennial plants. Lift and divide clump forming perennials, such as Geum, hardy geraniums and Phlox. Get a head start by take cuttings of Dahlias and fuchsias in a heated propagator at the end of the month.

Start sowing early vegetables such as lettuce, leeks, parsnips, early carrots, broad beans and peas as soon as the soil is warm and workable. Plant early potatoes at the end of the month in warm areas.

Mothering Sunday

Don't forget Mother's Day this month. An ideal opportunity to treat your mother to a lovely bunch of spring flowers.

Have your plants survived the winter months?

Temperatures in some parts of the UK have been very cold this month, especially in the north.

The cold snap may have done serious damage to many less hardy species such as tree ferns, palms, yuccas, cordylines and semi-tender shrubs. So how can you tell if plants have survived? this can be difficult especially with woody shrubs. Plants that produce growth from a crown such as palms are unlikely to regrow if the tip has gone soft and mushy. The rootstock of many tender plants and shrubs can still regenerate even if the top growth has withered, so give them until mid-summer to be sure before digging them up. You can check shrubs by scrapping of a little of the bark, if its green then the heart wood is fine. If brown, then the plant is likely to be dead. Some shrubs can even bud from old wood but if there is no sign of life by late summer it is most likely they have perished.

It is also very likely, due to the very wet conditions this year, that tender bulbs and corms left in the ground over-winter, such as dahlias, gladioli and agapanthus, may have suffered from water logging, which can cause the bulbs to rot.