Garden To-Do List March
- D R Home and Garden
- Mar 1, 2017
- 6 min read
Welcome to the third installment of twelve monthly blogs that will cover some of the many key tasks that will need to be undertaken throughout the year.
Spring is coming! Spring usually arrives by mid-March and the often sunny days provide the opportunity to complete a wide range of tasks. some examples would include -preparing seed beds, sowing seeds, cutting back those winter shrubs and generally tidying up around the garden.
Job list:
Mow the lawn on dry days (if needed)
Protect shoots from slugs
Prune roses
Divide overgrown perennial clumps
Plant summer flowering bulbs
Mowing Lawns
The best time to start mowing is normally between March and October. Mowing is the most frequent, and most important, task when it comes to maintaining healthily lawns. Insuring the cutting height and mowing frequency is right will make a huge difference to your lawns appearance.
When to mow
Over summer: Mow twice weekly, dropping to once a week during very dry weather.
Over spring and autumn:
Mow once a week.
Over winter: Mowing is not usually necessary, unless the weather is mild and the grass is still growing. If this is the case then mow occasionally with a highest cut setting selected .
Do not attempt to mow your lawn if the ground conditions are very soft, frozen, or during spells of cold, drying winds.
How to mow The mowing itself is pretty straight forward. It's usually the height settings on your mower that usually cause problems.
Follow these simple tips to help you get the right height:
For the first mowing in spring, set the cutting height to the highest setting. Thereafter, gradually reduce the height of cut until the perfect height is reached.
For fine lawns
The best height will be 6-13mm (¼-½in). For ordinary ornamental lawns 13-25mm (½-1in) in summer and up to 40mm (1.5in) during spring and autumn.
Avoid excessively close mowing! It may initially look good but this will weaken your grass and encourage shallow roots, making the lawn more vulnerable to droughts, weeds and moss.
Close-mowed lawns need more feeding and watering. Extremely low mowing will scalp your lawn and leave bare patches on top of uneven ground or tree roots. It is good to note that lawns cut often on a high setting can also suffer with loose and weak growth.
Top Tip-
If you don't know what height to use, the general guideline is to never remove more than one-third of the leaf shoots in any one mow.
Slugs
95% of the slugs in your garden can be found underground. Slugs can cause a lot of damage throughout the year on a wide range of plants, but it's the seedlings and new shoots of spring that are most at risk.
control
Slugs are so overabundant in gardens that some damage will have to be tolerated. It's impossible to completely eradicate these pests but controlling them is essential. Fortunately there are measures that can be taken to help protect your most vulnerable plants and minimize the damage caused by these pests.
Non-chemical control
Biological control options such as 'Nemaslug' are specific to slugs and snails and have no adverse effects on other animals. This product contains microscopic worms that work by entering a slugs body and infecting it with a bacteria that causes disease and then death. All you need to apply this option is a watering can with a course rose attachment.
Other preventive measures include:
encourage predators into your garden, these include -birds, frogs, toads, hedgehogs, slow-worms and ground beetles.
Place 'Slug Traps'.
Place copper tape around pots
Regularly rake the soil and remove fallen leaves in winter to enable birds to eat the exposed slug eggs.
Rose pruning
Tips
The following tips will help to improve the health and lifespan of your rose.
How to prune:
(These tips are suitable for all roses.)
Cut no more than 5mm (¼ in) above a bud and slope your cut away from it, this prevents the water from collecting on the bud. Do this with all cuts, whether you are deadheading, removing dead wood or doing your annual prune.
Keep cuts clean and keep your secateurs sharp. Use loppers for larger stems.
Cut out dead, spindly and crossing stems. Well-spaced stems will allow air to freely flow.
On established roses, Remove old wood as well as any old stubs that have failed to produce new shoots.
Prune all newly planted roses hard to encourage vigorous shoots (Not suitable for climbing or shrub roses.)
Climber or rambler
If your rose is very tall and requires supports to hold it up then it's more than likely a climbing or rambling rose.
If your rose only has one thick old stem going into the soil then it is important to not cut back too hard as the rose may not be able to regenerate. In this case the best practice is to instead remove between a third and a half.
For roses with many stems try to remove one or two of the older stems as close to the base as possible.
Shrub or bushes
Identifying your rose:
Prune two or three stems as close to the ground as you can.
Shorten remaining stems by a third and a half
If your rose responds next season with lots of vigorous regrowth & plenty of flowers then the chances are you have a floribunda or hybrid tea bush.
If this is not the case then it's more likely a shrub type rose
All pruned roses should be fed with either a general purpose or rose fertilizer mulched with garden compost or manure during spring.
Perennials
Dividing
Regularly dividing perennials will ensure healthy and vigorous plant growth that will continue to bloom year after year. It also gives you the chance to multiply your plants.
Most perennials will benefit from being divided every two - three years, dividing perennials will help maintain the health and vigor of your plant.
Examples of plants that can be divided
Agapanthus, Anemone, Aster, Bergenia (elephant’s ears), Convallaria (lily-of-the-valley) Crocosmia, Dierama, Delphinium, Epimedium, Eryngium (sea holly), Euphorbia, Gentiana (gentian) Geranium, Helianthus, Hemerocallis (daylily), Hosta, Iris, Lychnis, Lysichiton, Lysimachia, ornamental grasses, Primula (primrose) Ranunculus (buttercup), Salvia, Sedum, Verbena, Zantedeschia (arum lily).
When to divide
Divide summer-flowering plants in spring or autumn when the soil is dry enough to work. In wet autumns, delay until spring. Spring is also better suited for more delicate plants.
Many spring-flowering plants, are best divided in the summer months when they produce new roots.
It is possible to successfully divide plants at almost any time of the year, as long as they're kept well-watered afterwards.
However, for the best chance of division success, it is advised to wait until they are not in active growth.
How to divide perennials
Here are some simple tips for dividing your perennials.
Lift gently with garden fork, working outwards from the center to reduce root damage. Shake off any excess soil to make the roots clearly visible
Some plants e.g the Ajuga (bugle), will produce individual plantlets that can simply be replanted.
Small, fibrous-rooted plants such as Epimedium , Hosta and the Heuchera can be pulled gently apart to create small clumps for planting.
Large, fibrous-rooted plants e.g the Hemerocallis (daylily), will need two garden forks inserted into the centre back-to-back. You can then use these as levers to loosen or break the roots into two sections. These can be divided more than once.
Aftercare
Make sure you plant your divided plants asap and water them well. Make sure they don't dry out while they get established, it is also advised to use slug and snail control during this process.
(Click image below to purchase Nemaslug from Amazon.co.uk)
Bulbs and planting
Bulbs make great displays when planted in containers or borders, especially daffodils, snowdrops and tulips. They are one of the easiest and rewarding plants to grow.
Bulbs are perfect for adding a splash of colour during the spring months.
Summer-flowering bulbs like lilies or gladioli will give your garden a dramatic and tall bloom with a lovely scent.
Autumn-flowering bulbs, like nerines, can brighten up the late season with unexpectedly colourful displays.
Other bulbs, like snowdrops and scillas, are some of the earliest flowering plants in the garden, brightening up the short days of very early spring.
When To Plant Bulbs
Autumn
Spring-flowering bulbs, such as crocus, daffodils & hyacinths, should be planted by the end of September, Tulips can be planted in November.
Hardy summer-flowering bulbs, like lilies, crocosmia and alliums , in September and October
Spring
Tender summer-flowering bulbs, should be planted in early springPlant
Summer
Autumn-flowering bulbs, like nerines, should be planted by late summer.
Missed planting your bulbs ?
It's really easy to forget about those lost bulbs at the back of the shed. If you have found yourself missing out then the best thing you can do is get them in the ground or potted up asap.
If you leave them for the correct time then they will simply have deteriorated.
Discard any soft or rotten bulbs first. Some bulbs are able to store longer than others (tulip compared to daffodil, for instance) so this may be a bit hit and miss.
You might find that they don't perform as well as expected in their first year but if they're a type of bulb that bloom year after year then they should get better the second or third time around.
Adding a well-balanced fertilizer during planting will help them recover.
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