This is one of the busiest months for gardeners. Bareroot hedging plants such as beech, hawthorn, hornbeam and privet have to be planted by the end of March and so, too, do raspberry canes. If existing shrubs and conifers are to be dug up and moved, the operation must be done before the sap starts to rise. Although most plants on sale in the garden centre are container-grown and can be planted throughout the year, the sooner they are planted the longer they have to grow. After the long winter the lawns look a little tired and should be spiked and aerated and fed with a good turf fertilizer. Lawn treatments such as Evergreen Complete include a weedkiller and mosskiller. Once the grass starts to grow it is time to mow the lawns, but not too short. New areas of lawn can be seeded or turved now. It is time to lift and divide herbaceous perennials and to plant out new ones. Rose bushes, climbing plants and trees can be planted. Add a little bonemeal when planting but in the case of camellias, rhododendrons and azaleas use an ericaceous fertilizer. In the greenhouse it is time to sow cucumbers, tomatoes, aubergines, French beans and peppers. Flowers such as busy lizzie, petunias, marigolds and lobelia should be sown under glass and plug plants will need to be potted up as soon as possible. In the kitchen garden it is time to start to plant early seed potatoes and onion sets and shallots should go in. Sow broad beans and peas, beet, spinach, turnips, parsnips, carrots, summer cabbage and salads such as radish. In the flower border it is time to sow achillea, clarkia, eschscholzia, godetia, larkspur, nasturtium and nigella straight into the ground where they are to stay. Pansies, primroses, Canterbury bells and sweet williams can still be planted. Summer flowering bulbs such as gladioli should be planted. After the daffodils have flowered this month they should be dead headed and fertilizer added to feed the bulbs. Prune late flowering clematis, buddleias and roses this month. Feed roses and shrubs with Toprose fertilizer or Vitax Q4. Birds will be nesting so leave hedge cutting until later in the year.
Chipperfield Horticultural Society held their AGM on 4 February and members thanked retiring show secretary, Roger Pigg, for many years of service to the society. A new series of gardening demonstrations was announced and the first of these will take place on 29 March in the Small Hall when Maria Coote will show how to do seed sowing. The Spring Flower Show will take place in the Village Hall on 20 March.
Tickets are on sale for the Malvern Spring Gardening Show which takes place 6-9 May – tel 01684 584924, and for the Chelsea Flower Show which is 25-29 May – tel 0844 209 1373 or www.rhs.org.uk/chelsea. Note that tickets for the first day of the Malvern Show and all the days of the Chelsea Flower Show are not on sale at the gate; they must be purchased in advance as soon as possible.
Terry Simmonds