GUIDE TO GARDENING IN March

Spring is officially here, but with global warming you may not have noticed, and all plants in the garden are beginning to grow with renewed vigour. Our monthly column aims to help you enjoy your gardening while keeping costs down to a minimum & provide you with a reminder as to what is seasonally available. Complete all digging incorporating farm yard manure or mushroom compost (£25 a load from the mushroom farm). Clear plots and weeds from gardens by applying Weedol (80p a sachet) or Bio Glyphosate (350ml £4.90). Kill weeds on paths and drives with Pathclear (80p a sachet) Scatter slug killer from 30p.

THE VEG PLOT:- If it is still too wet to dig or rotovate get out right now and spend just an hour cleaning up your plot, clear away bean poles, weeds and brassicas so that you can make a start as soon as the weather conditions are right. Once cultivated rake 4oz sq. yd. Growmore (5kg £4), Blood, Fish & Bone (5kg £3), Rooster Pellets (20kg £8.90) or blended stable manure @ £3 a bag into soil prior to sowing or planting. Plant early seed potatoes, if you missed the seed scheme or need extra we have trays of 1^st & 2^nd earlys @£2.50, onion sets, asparagus & Jerusalem artichokes. Use fleece, 2m wide (from 30p) and 3.25m (from 40p) per meter cut to length, as frost protection or to warm the soil. Sow carrots, beetroot, Brussels sprouts, calabrese, parsnips, cauliflower, leek, salad onion, radish, peas and spinach. Sow the herb's fennel, dill, parsley, marjoram, rosemary, sage & thyme. We carry a limited range of vegetable seed @ 70p & £1-10 a packet to supplement our autumn seed scheme. Harvest broccoli, parsnips, radish & spinach.

FRUIT: - Plant grape vines, blackberries, black, red & white currents, gooseberries, raspberries & rhubarb. Feed established plants with potash (5kg £5) and mulch with peat, compost or manure. Spray fruit trees which are affected by mildew, apple scab, aphids or codling moth with Synthane (300ml £5.40) & feed with a general fertiliser. Pick  rhubarb ( £1 a bundle at the Hut most weekends).

FLOWERS:- Remove dead flower heads of daffodils and apply 2 oz of general feed to each clump (5kg £3.50). Lift and divide overgrown clumps of perennials. Plant rose bushes incorporating a large handful of bone-meal (5kg £3), prune and feed established plants with rose food (5kg £3.50). Prune hardy fuchsias. Sow hardy annuals. Plant autumn-sown sweet peas to grow up a frame of 6' canes (25p each) or 1.5m high bean net (30p per meter). Plant heather's and mulch with peat (200ltr £11) or chipped bark . Take cuttings of winter flowering begonias, dahlia & heliotrope.

GREENHOUSE:- Minimise heating costs by lining with bubble plastic (1.5m wide per meter £1.70) Sow French beans, peppers, tomatoes, sweet peas and half-hardy annuals ( Multi-purpose compost £4.50 for 75ltr, 25 kg Potting Grit £4.60, 6ltr Vermiculite £1.30, Perlite 50p (while stock lasts), John Innes Seed compost £3) Full size rigid trays @ £1 & half size flexi's @ 10p are available. Prick out into 15 or 40 plug tray inners (20p), 12 plug liners 10p or pots (from 3p) when large enough to handle. Protect seedlings from damping off & foot rot by treating with Copper Fungicide (40p a sachet). Feed geraniums, fuchsias and pot plants every ten days with liquid feed (£2.50 per ltr) or Phostrogen (1kg only £3.20) or Miracle Grow (1kg £4.80). Support plants with 2' canes (30p per 15). Control insects with a rtu insect gun (£2.40). Sow peas in a length of old guttering filled with compost and slide into shallow trench when plants are 1 ½” high. Sow broad beans in plugs and stand outside when 1 ½” high for a week or so and then plant out. Peas & Broad Beans just £1-10 a packet. Sow a few seeds in 10 plug strips of Spring Onions and Beetroot, do not thin out. Sow a few seeds in 10 plug strips of Lettuce, thin to one plant. Repeat fortnightly for the rest of the season. Plant out side when large enough. Sow Dwarf French beans or Climbing French Bean Hunter direct into a grow bag – punch 20 holes in the top of the bag using a cane, drop in the seed and water. Pick beans a whole month ahead of outside plants

LAWNS:- Re-seed worn areas (grass seed £3 per Kg.) For ease and to fill in larger holes premix grass seed with John Innis number 1 or seed and then spread. Aerate with a wire rake. On a fine, dry, day cut grass with the blades set high. Apply a lawn feed, 5kg treats 75sq mtrs (£4.50) and liquid feeds from £1.40, a selective weed killer (350ml £3.40) or Spot weed spray @ £2.60 and lawn sand, 5kg treats 36sq mtrs (£2) to control moss or spray with an Iron Sulphate (80p a kilo) solution of 30g per litre of water per 5sqm of lawn or use Phostrogen all in one Weed, Feed & Moss Killer at the bargain price of only £17 to treat 400sq m.

All horticultural items are available to our members from a range of quality products provided to meet basic gardening needs.

If you are buying seed from Thompson and Morgan click T and M icon at the bottom of this page. This will not cost  you any extra but your club will get some commission. (membership not necessary for this service)

All horticultural items are available to our members from a range of quality products provided to meet basic gardening needs. Membership is just £4 per annum.  You can join by visiting ‘The Hut’,  or click here to download  a membership application form.