Barnsdale Gardens, home to Britain’s most extensive collection of individually designed gardens in the East Midlands, is delighted to share valuable March gardening tips, a pivotal time in preparing for the main growing season. The team’s insights aim to assist you in nurturing your garden to its full potential.
Cover Stone Fruit:
Protect early-flowering, fan-trained peaches, nectarines, and apricots from spring frosts by laying fleece over them. This simple measure safeguards the delicate blooms, ensuring a bountiful summer crop.
Chit First Early Potatoes:
If you haven’t already, chit your first early potatoes during the first part of March. Place them in an egg box or modular tray with eyes pointing upwards, ensuring they remain frost-free. A greenhouse staging or windowsill both serve as suitable locations for this crucial early-stage preparation.
Sow Perennials:
Reap the rewards of summer and autumn seed collection from perennials. Fill a seed tray, firm the soil, water well, and sow the seeds as you would for vegetables or annuals. If staying indoors, cover with a thin layer of compost; if outside, use horticultural grit for protection.
Turn Compost:
Take advantage of the warming weather by revitalizing your compost heap. Empty the bin, mix the materials thoroughly, and return them. This simple step helps aerate the compost, reinvigorating the decomposition process.
Plant Sweet Peas:
For gardening enthusiasts who sowed sweet peas in November or January, it’s time to plant them out. After planting, pinch out the growing tip to encourage more shoots and, subsequently, more flowers.
Get Multi-sown Crops Started:
Optimize limited space and expedite harvests by multi-sowing crops. Follow these steps:
- Fill a module tray with seed and cuttings or multipurpose compost.
- Settle the compost by tapping down the tray on your bench, then level it.
- Create small indentations.
- Sow 5-7 seeds per cell.
- Cover the seeds with compost or vermiculite.
- Label and water in.
Once germinated, these are planted out as a clump, grown on, and harvested as a clump. The duration from sowing to harvest varies between 6-10 weeks, depending on the crop variety. This method is suitable for beetroot, turnips, kohlrabi, carrots, onions, and leeks.
The Barnsdale Gardens team encourages you to embrace these tips, enhancing your gardening experience and promoting a flourishing garden. Happy gardening!
Photo credit Steve Hamilton
