As March approaches, gardeners need to start thinking about planning for summer, as well as tending to over-wintered plants.
- Plan your summer bedding displays
- Order your ready-grown plant plugs from a nursery or catalogue
- Sow annual seeds undercover to avoid risk of frost damage
- If the soil isn’t frozen or waterlogged, dig in 5-10cms of well-rotted manure to improve the soil, then add pelleted chicken manure or fish, blood, and bone to feed the soil
- Feed shrubs and trees with a slow-release fertilizer
- Plant summer flowering bulbs such as gladiolus and lilies
- Plant snowdrops in grassland so that they will be ready for flowering next year
- Lift and divide herbaceous perennials e.g. aster, geranium, campanile to create more plants and rejuvenate old clumps
- Plant herbaceous perennials
- Prune roses and feed with a specialist rose fertilizer