With Terry Simmonds
How quickly the seasons come and go! This month Spring begins officially and that means we are coming up to the busiest time of the year in the garden. The grass is growing now and will need regular cutting so it is important to keep the mower running well. Do not cut the grass too short at this stage but do spike or aerate it. Now is the time to start putting down lawn fertilizer (with weed and moss killer if necessary). After moss has been killed it turns black and the dead stuff will need to be raked out or scarified.
Although there is no longer a hosepipe ban, don’t be tempted to water the lawn, even in dry weather. Keep the lawn sprinkler for newly seeded areas and when laying new turf. We shall have to be sparing in our use of water and any rainwater that can be saved is a good thing. Vegetables do need regular watering but the use of landscape fabric and mulches of organic compost or bark certainly help to keep ornamental plants from drying out.
After a wet start to the year, we did have a nice dry spell in February when it was possible to get the digging finished. Now we can start to plant the early seed potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, onion sets and shallots and get the herb garden under way. Salad crops can be sown regularly, a few seeds at a time, so that a succession is produced throughout the year. Root crops such as parsnips, beetroot and turnips should be sown on ground that has not been manured. Broad beans and peas can be sown this month and these, with most leafy vegetables, do like to be grown on well-manured soil.
Bare-root plants such as hedging and raspberry canes must be planted by the end of March and this is a good time to plant shrubs and roses, conifers, climbing plants and trees.
Hardy bedding plants such as pansies, forget-me-nots, and Canterbury bells and most herbaceous perennials can also be planted now. Established herbaceous perennials can be cut back and divided. Rhododendrons and azaleas will need feeding with an ericaceous fertilizer and most other perennials will benefit from an application of Toprose fertilizer.
This is the month to prune roses, autumn-fruiting raspberries and shrubs such as buddleia.
Have you thought about joining the Royal Horticultural Society? Members receive a monthly magazine, free entry to RHS gardens and reduced prices to the Chelsea show and events such as Gardeners World Live and the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. Details are available at The Garden Centre. For just £2 you can join our own Chipperfield Horticultural Society and what a bargain that is! The first show of the year in Chipperfield is on Saturday 24 March. Sarratt have their show on Saturday 31 March and Bovingdon hold their’s on Saturday 7 April. Our horticultural society has arranged another talk, which takes place on Friday 20 April in the Parish Room. See the display advert on this page. Tickets are on sale now.