March Garden Tips – Keep ahead of those gardening jobs to keep your garden looking great!
Splitting up Pond Iris
March Garden Tips – Those of you with garden ponds and plants know that pond plants can be vigorous and need to be controlled. Clumps of Yellow Flag Iris (Iris Pseudacorus Variegata grow rampantly. Now is a good time to trim these back to size before Spring arrives properly, with fish laying eggs and frogs spawning.
If your pond Irises are being grown in a large aquatic planting basket, this could simply be lifted out. However, if you Irises are very large then get a couple of people to help you drag the clump out on to your lawn. Roughly chop the Iris clump into sections with a spade. This will not damage the plant. The healthy, smaller, outer portions can then be replaced in the mud underwater. They may need weighing down with bricks, or you could plant them in the baskets lowered into the pond. If you do this now you’ll be rewarded with bright yellow Iris flowers this Summer.
March Garden Tips – Prune two types of roses
Late February and early March is the ideal time to prune hybrid tea and floribunda roses. If you pruned them in the Autumn, or even last month (times often advocated by gardening pundits), you may find that some of the worst frosts of the Winter have caused damage to young shoots.
This is why Green Onion Landscaping leaves its pruning until now. It is unlikely that new growth will appear until spring gets underway, and then they will grow away unhindered.
Start by removing dead diseased and crossing stems. Hybrid teas can be cut back to 15 – 30 cm (6-12 inches) from the ground, while floribundas should be left a little taller at about 23 – 38 cm (9 – 15 inches). Cut to a bud, making the cut about 6mm (1/4 inch) above the bud.
Combine this with weeding, raking the ground, and removing fallen leaves and give a mulch of rotted manure or compost.
Pruning of Fruit
Prune established spur-bearing apple and pear trees. This will encourage strong new growths lower down, which can be Summer pruned to encourage fruit. Lightly prune tip bearing apples to remove congested branches.
Fruit trees planted in the grass will benefit from a dressing of nitrogen to help stimulate growth.
Greenhouse – March Garden Tips
Sow a few exotic foliage ‘dot plants’ such as Ricinus communis (poisonous) and Eucalyptus globus, in a warm propagator (20-25c)
Increase the amount of water you give to pot plants as temperatures rise and growth quickens.
Vegetables
Sow broad beans in the open, if soil and weather conditions are suitable. Plant rhubarb crowns and Jerusalem artichokes.
Test soil for lime and nutrients using one of the easy-to-use soil testing kits. This is particularly important in new plots.
Lettuce sown in October can now be planted under cloches, or in a cold frame, to provide useful early lettuce crops.
