What to do in your garden in March

Well hello and welcome to March, despite that very cold wind, it’s a month full of promise for the garden.

A few of these tasks done now will make a big difference to your garden over the next few months.

Plant hardy annuals:

a couple of packets of seeds planted directly into the garden this month will give masses of plants and flowers for a small amount of effort.

Prune rose bushes:

cutting out dead diseased and dying branches for a healthy plant and to get the maximum number of flowers.

Prune shrubs with colourful stems:

like Cornus (dogwoods) and Salix (willow), cut them back to 4in/10cm above ground level making room for the new growth that”lashing out during the summer, and more importantly next winter. If you don’t feel brave enough to cut back the whole shrub, or it’s relatively young, cut out a third of the stems.

Cut buddlias back to 6in/15cm above ground to get loads of flowers and happy butterflies in the garden.

Cut back hardy perennials:

hopefully these have added structure and shape to the garden over winter and provided food for birds, but it’s time to cut them down to the ground now to give light and space to the new growth. If the leaves are green, like Sedum, just cut the old flowering stems, if the whole lot is brown, like Eupatorium (joe pyeweed) cut it all down. All the old stems can go on the compost bin and eventually be recycled into compost.

Start weeding:

this month and catch them in their prime before they take off.

Put out food and water for birds:

as you can imagine they’re starting to get busy and need all the help they can get, encourage them into your garden and they’ll repay you by eating pests, talking of pests…

Order biological slug control:

from specialist suppliers, marvellous stuff that means you don’t have to use those slug pellets that can harm birds and pets.

Find out about pruning here and planting hardy annuals here.

Happy gardening

Jill