It feels like Spring has been a very long time coming but she’s finally here, and March in the garden marks the true start of the gardener’s year. The splashes of colour I mentioned in February’s post are still around (despite the recent snow) and are multiplying fast! Alas, I have to confess I didn’t get around to any seed sowing in February so I need to get cracking now.
Seeds to sow this month
At the beginning of March, Flora and I sowed our tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peas, honeywort, cornflowers, and dill. These are all indoor sown, for bringing on inside the house on the window ledges before planting out at the end of May, when all the frosts are over. And as of today, they are all sprouting happily. I always think of March as the month when all our inside window ledges fulfil their true destiny – although I’m not sure my husband would agree with me.
There’s nothing like the flavour of home-grown tomatoes and cucumbers – sweet and crunchy, once you’ve tried them you’ll always grow them. And that’s true of sweet peas too, their fragrance is heavenly, and the more you pick, the more they grow. Cornflowers are a must for any posy, and dill is so versatile – you can use it in cooking or floral arrangements. This is my first time growing honeywort, so I have no expectations – I’ll have to report back later in the year! Unfortunately, I haven’t sown my broad beans outside yet, but I’m going to plead the recent inclement weather, and vow to do this before Easter instead.
Other seeds that we need to sow before the beginning of April are: stocks, sunflowers, lavender, cosmos, astrantia, petunias, malope, and cobea. With the exception of the perennial astrantia, (which I’m hoping will brighten up a shady corner), and the biennial stocks, all the others are annual flowers, meaning they need to be re-sown afresh each year. It might seem a bit of a faff but when I look at my garden in full bloom each summer it’s all worth it. And the majority of these flowers can’t be bought in the shops – at least I’ve never seen cosmos, petunias, malope, or cobea for sale anyway. There’s something so very satisfying about picking your own flowers (the feeling of YASS, I GREW THAT, never goes away!)
Planting anemones and dahlias
This time last year I was planting anemone corms outside and dahlia tubers in pots for the greenhouse. I’m not doing that again this year because I want to wait and see what’s survived the winter and what needs replacing first. You need to soak the anemone corms overnight to soften them, and then you can plant them directly outside where you want them to grow. I didn’t do this the first year and nothing came up, so lesson learned 🙂
Despite what I’ve just said about no more dahlias, I will probably weaken and buy a Bishop of Canterbury tuber to plant up – I mean, just look at that gorgeous colour? How could anyone resist? (Tubers look a little like potatoes, they’re a kind of bulb but in a class of their own). When it gets here, I’ll plant up the tuber into a 2-litre pot, let it start sprouting, but wait until the end of May to plant it out in the garden.
Pruning and perennials
March is the time when you need to remove any remaining old, dead leaves and growth from your perennials, including seedheads, to allow in light and air for all the new spring shoots. Don’t throw your seedheads away though, leave them in a pile for the birds to pick through. Birds are very busy starting to build their nests this time of year and need plenty of energy, but food is still pretty thin on the ground.
Wildlife
Which leads me neatly onto wildlife. Who would believe we would have had so much snow in March? MARCH. So please do keep your bird feeders topped up and keep breaking any ice on your ponds and bird baths as necessary.
Ideally, you want to remove any old pond debris (leaves, dead plants) and leave it in heaps by the edge to allow any small water creatures to crawl out and back into the water. This is so the debris doesn’t decompose and reduce oxygen levels in the water. Note, I said “ideally”. I fear we may have missed the boat for our two little ponds already though. We have at least 13 frogs and two newts living in them, and the top pond has already got six huge piles of frogspawn in it. If we get the same amount in our bottom pond, I think Flora will be in for a bumper summer of tadpole catching! It just shows what nature is capable of, if given only a little help.
So this is my March in the garden – a really busy time, especially with an early Easter this year. I know I probably say this about every month, but I do love this time of year. It feels full of optimism and hope with the lighter evenings starting and British Summertime due at the end of the month. And I can’t wait to start getting my hands dirty on a more regular basis again 🙂
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Oh wow! These are beautiful flowers! You always have some awesome gardening tips, I can only imagine how your backyard and greenhouse look 🙂 I bet it gets Flora extra excited…It’s been snowing so much so many places and all of my friends are super surprise, lol I wish I could get some of that snow on this little island to cool down, don’t mind our temp drops weirdly sometimes. And look at those HUGE froggies lol, my goodness.
xx Lena
Aw, thank you! All those back breaking autumn bulb planting sessions in previous years seem to have paid off, we have masses of daffodils which is so lovely to see. TBH, Flora isn’t that wild about the planting but she does enjoy picking the fruits of our labours, haha, and she just LOVES our frogs! xx
I love the seasons when it turns to march; when it’s not quite Spring, just coming out of Winter… Sadly, it looks as if it is going to be snowing where I live, though. I was struck by the beauty of a patch of early snowdrops (about three weeks ago) and Daffodils..
I’ve just seen our forecast and sadly it looks like we might get some more snow again this weekend, BOO. I know it’s not that common in the UK but I’ve had enough of it, my poor previously-pruned plants keep putting out new shoots that the extreme cold then zaps 🙁 xx
Lovely post as always Lisa! I have some bulbs in my flower bed from last year that should be flowering again soon. And I’ve seen sooo many frogs in our pond too! I love that you get Flora involved in your garden and growing of veg – so nice to see xx
Rebecca
Aw, thank you, Rebecca. I adore bulbs, they are so cheap and so effective, and they usually come back bigger and better every year too. It’s such an easy way to add colour to any garden, whether in pots or in the ground. I don’t know what’s with all these frogs though, we’ve never had so many before, I’m slightly concerned we’ll end up with more frogspawn than water in our ponds, haha. Flora does prefer the harvesting to the sowing but she’s come to realise you don’t get one without the other so she’s gradually becoming more enthusiastic! xx
I remember as a kid, I used to love picking up the frogs in our garden and taking them to visit my older sisters who weren’t fans at all.. ? Your daffodils are beautiful, I’m excited to see your garden grow over the next few months! ?
Haha, I can just picture you and your sisters with the frogs! Flora absolutely adores the tadpoles, she usually takes some in to school for show and tell, luckily her friends are all fans too. And thank you, I can’t remember everything I planted or where so I’m due a few surprises over the coming months! 🙂 xx
This blog post really made me smile babe. I cannot wait to spend time in my own garden and start making it more floral and Spring-like. Thank you for sharing ?✨
With love, Alisha Valerie x | http://www.alishavalerie.com
Thank you! I can’t wait for Spring proper to get here, I’ve just found out we might be getting more snow AGAIN this weekend – nooooooooooo! xx
I wish I grew my own vegetables! They taste so much nicer than the shop bought ones! I also wish I grew more in general! I love flowers, but rarely plant any as I forget! ?
Ciara | teatimewithciara.com
Well, we don’t grow that many vegetables, just cucumbers and beans, and mostly fruit (raspberries, apples, blueberries, cherries, plums, tomotoes) but I am a HUGE fan of growing my own flowers for cutting. I just love being able to pick things that you can’t buy in the shops, plus I save a fortune on buying bouquets for the house and for friends! xx
I love knowing that summer is just around the corner too, I hate dark mornings/nights quite a bit so am excited for it to be light again. Your photos are so beautiful, and I can’t wait to see the results of all your planned tasks for this month ?
Amy xx
I. Can’t. Wait. for British Summertime, I’m so fed up with dark evenings. Aw, thank you so much, hopefully if everything we’ve sowed to date (and that we’re due to sow this weekend) grow I’ll be able to take some lovely photos later this year! xx
I love homegrown fruit and veg! They always taste so much better and it’s so rewarding! Such cute froggies too! Thanks for sharing I’m super excited for Spring! – https://sophhearts.com x
They really do, there’s nothing like eating raspberries or plums fresh from the bushes and tree. Or tomatoes and cucumbers. In fact sometimes we even eat our french beans raw becuase they’re so tender. We are very lucky! xx
Such beautiful flowers. We need inspiration as we are giving our garden an over haul this year to make it baby friendly!! I wish we had space for a pond though, those frogs are too cute!
Keeley – http://www.vibeslifeus.com
Oh, good luck with the garden makeover! When Flora was a baby we got a sandpit and that was a godsend, she loved it and spent nearly all her time in it. The bonus was that in winter, we could use the sand to scatter over and dig into the lawn to prevent moss spreading too. You could make a really small pond – even an old laundry tin or baby bath would do, or half a barrel butt. Frogs are pretty easy going and tadpoles are great for kids 🙂 xx
Such a fantastic informative post ? I’m ashamed to say our garden is pretty barren as neither of us are particularly green fingered! The grass gets mown and the hedge is kept tidy but that’s about it! I do love beautiful gardens and love reading your tips on gardening so keep them coming! Perhaps they may inspire me to try again with ours!
Melanie | http://www.frasersfunhouse.com
Oh, thank you! I’m self-taught, I don’t know that much really, I just watch Gardeners World and read lots of books, hehe. But I do love trying things. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t, but that’s one of the things I love about gardening. It’s fun, and that’s how it should be 🙂 xx
Wow! Lisa you have so much knowledge about gardening. Thanks for sharing. Planting your own veggies and flowers is so dreamy. You make me want to buy a home with a backyard where I can also do some gardening hehe. 🙂
Thank you, Via, I don’t really, I just read lots of books, watch Gardener’s World, and do a lot of trial and error, haha! Growing our own is so satisfying but I do believe gardening should be fun first and foremost, otherwise what’s the point? Thank you for reading xx
Gotta admit, the frogs made me panic a bit. I’m terrified of frogs and toads so I couldn’t have a pond in my garden I don’t think! I hope all the snow hasn’t affected your garden and plants too much! Looking forward to the coming posts about it when it does get a bit warmer and the flowers come out! xxx
Aw, Jenny, how can you not like frogs? They are so cute 🙂 I’m hoping all the recent snow won’t have knocked out the frogspawn, that would be such a shame, but the frogs have been so flipping active. I’ve never seen so many in such a small pond! I think – fingers crossed – most plants will recover fine from the snow (it’s more of an insulater than, say, a hard frost) but time will tell. I’m just irritated that my seed sowing schedule is so behind, haha! xx
For all stuff and products, being natural always stays on top. It feels good having a touch of nature from time to time. These are stuff that makes me think about spring already.
Thank you – this is exactly why I love gardening, there’s something about getting my hands muddy and seeing my seeds sprout that puts everything else into perspective! 🙂