Spring typically arrives in mid-March, and the frequent sunny days provide opportunities for a variety of gardening activities. The March garden is already awaiting preparation for new sowing, so get to work!
Here we have put together a useful to-do list of tasks for your flower garden:
- You can plant pansies, violas, lobelias, snapdragons and other cool-season flowers about six to eight weeks before the last average frost date in your area. They thrive in cool weather and tolerate frost well and do particularly well in pots.
- You can pick the seed heads from daffodils and other spring bulbs. However, allow the foliage to die back naturally.
- Prune the roses at the beginning of the month.
- Cut dogwood, willow, cotinus and paulownia back to the base to encourage vigorous new growth.
- You should also cut alpine plants at the beginning of the flowering period. Remove dead leaves and mulch with grit to keep foliage away from moist soil.
- You should plant out spent flower bulbs in the garden so that they will bloom next year.
- Plant lilies andother summer-flowering bulbsin pots and beds in your garden.
- Fertilize shrubs such as rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias and pieris.
- Clean your beds and remove established and newly germinating weeds.
- Mulch the beds generously with garden compost.
- Plant new roses and other shrubs and climbing plants.
- Sow wildflower seeds in trays to grow plants for your own mini meadow.
- Check tender new shoots for aphids and remove them before the infestation becomes rampant.
- Continue to defoliate spring flowers and any remaining winter beds to prevent them from going to seed.
Tasks for the fruit and vegetable garden
Of course you want a rich harvest in your fruit and vegetable garden this summer. So follow our tips!
- Avoid carrot root fly by sowing an early carrot crop under cloches or fleece.
- Sow tomatoes, chilies, peppers and eggplants in pots indoors in March.
- Plant Jerusalem artichoke tubers 10 to 15 cm deep and about 30 cm apart.
- Buy young herbs and plant them in pots in a spot in the garden where you can easily harvest them.
- In March you can already eat onions. They need fairly dry and warm soil. If you plant them in March, you can have a nice harvest in late summer or early fall.Plant bulbsand shallots 10 to 15 cm apart.
- Give the currant bushes a nitrogen-containing fertilization.
- Plant new potatoes in trenches on the vegetable patch orin large bucketswhen space is limited. Learn more about the different types of potatoes.
- Sow parsnips as soon as the ground has warmed, as they are slow to germinate and require a long growing season.
- Plant a fig tree in a large container to restrict its roots, which encourages fruit production and limits its overall size.
- Sow the first hardy vegetables such as spinach outdoors and cover them with cloches or fleece.
- Feed cabbage and other brassicas with nitrogen-rich fertilizer, such as: B. pelleted chicken manure.
- Plant bare-root asparagus crowns in well-drained soil or raised beds in an open, sunny location.
- Begin hoeing the vegetable beds as soon as the weather warms up as weeds germinate quickly.
- Plant strawberries in a hanging basket to prevent slugs from attacking the fruit.
What care is needed for the greenhouse?
Your greenhouse also needs to be in good condition for the new season, so take care of that too so your plants can thrive.
- Ensure the plants get off to a good startin your greenhouse,to plant them in the garden later, e.g. E.g. celeriac, celery, lettuce and parsley.
- Remove bubble insulation in the greenhouse when temperatures rise to allow in more light.
- Sow a selection of vibrant annual climbers, such as Spanish flag (Ipomoea lobata) and black-eyed Susanna (Thunbergia alata 'Arizona Glow')
- Buy young bedding plants that you can grow under glass or sow your own in a heated greenhouse.
- Sow dwarf beans in a large pot for an early harvest.
Also read:Caring for Thunbergia: Practical, undemanding and beautiful
- Plant prepared freesia bulbs in pots with rich, loamy soil for fragrant blooms this summer.
- Overwintering cannas should be potted in fresh compost, watered and then placed in a warm place to encourage growth.
- Sow sweet peas in deep pots and keep them frost-free in the greenhouse or on a sunny windowsill.
- Take cuttings from dahlia tubers to grow new plants.
- Protect greenhouse sowings of peas, sugar snap peas and snow peas from hungry mice.
- Take basal cuttings of perennials such as delphiniums and lupins and plant them in a pot.
- Watch out for pests in the greenhouse and on houseplants, such as: B. Mealybugs, and treat them immediately.
- On sunny days, open the greenhouse vents to prevent moisture from accumulating. Check out what else you can do to prepare your greenhouse for spring.
