March is the very beginning of the growing season, so it’s an exciting time for our gardens! While it can still be a bit cold, you might have noticed daffodils, crocuses and even some early blossoms in your garden. It’s the perfect time to get out and get growing! Read our March gardening jobs for some ideas and inspiration on what you might need to do in your garden this month.
Lawn
Spring Treatment: You might have noticed that your grass is waking up from being dormant over winter. It’s the ideal time to book a spring treatment with Greensleeves. This gives your grass a formula of nutrients tailored specifically to its needs at this time of year.
Mowing: You should let your grass grow before your first mow, but if it needs it, mow it slightly longer than you might later in the year to ensure you don’t damage it in this key growing period.
Fruit and Vegetables
Compost: If you didn’t last month because the ground was too frozen, March is a great time to dig compost, green waste, or manure into your vegetable beds to prepare them for sowing. It is also a good idea to cover them with black plastic (or alternatives) to help raise the soil temperature in preparation for new seeds and plants.
Weeding: Weed vegetable beds to prepare them for planting.
Raspberry Canes: Autumn-fruiting raspberry canes need to be cut down to the ground to stimulate the growth of new shoots over spring and summer, which will fruit in the Autumn. Summer-fruiting raspberry plants that have grown above the tops of their support should be trimmed back — cut them just above the buds.
Protect new growth from slugs: Keep an eye out for slugs in your garden and try to protect new shoots from getting eaten. You can lift new plants up from the ground on upturned pots and periodically check under the pots and around for slugs and feed them to the birds! Encouraging birds in your garden is a great way to protect your plants from slugs. You could alternatively use your choice of slug repellant.
Seed Tomatoes: You can start seeding tomatoes at the very end of March, but keep them sheltered in a sunny spot protected from any potential frost and wind — a greenhouse or window ledge is perfect. Once they’re bigger, you can then put them outside to grow.
Seed salads: Seed salad plants, such as lettuce, at the end of March, again under covers such as in greenhouses or on window ledges. Once they’ve grown a bit bigger, you’ll be able to replant them outside.
Flowers
Roses: Feed roses with special rose feed and prune them to encourage new growth.
Daffodils and Hydrangeas: De-head daffodils and hydrangeas when the flowers start to die. Ensure you don’t cut any of the foliage though to encourage new growth and keep the plants healthy.
Prune clematis and winter-flowering jasmine: Prune early varieties of clematis once their flowers have finished and summer-flowering varieties before they start actively growing and prune winter-jasmine once the flowers have finished.
Shrubs: Fertilise shrubs by lightly forking slow-release fertiliser into the soil. It’s also a good time of year to plant native shrubs and hedges to encourage birds and other wildlife.
Other Gardening Jobs
Ventilate greenhouses: On warm days open the windows and doors of greenhouses to ventilate and freshen them up.
Clean Paths and Paving: Using a pressure washer or water and a clean brush, scrub dirt from paths and paving to get it looking great for spring.
Remove pond netting: Remove netting that protected your pond during autumn and winter.
Top up raised beds: with soil and compost ready for planting. You could even consider building new raised beds!
