| Twenty third edition - March 2003
The days are really lengthening now, gardens have taken on a fresh,
Spring-like appearance and are full of promise of things to come. Birds and other wildlife
are feverishly building nests and choosing mates, whilst gardeners are venturing outside
to start getting the garden into shape for the summer. A busy time of year...
Despite the continuing snow, frost and rain in my part of the country,
there have been plenty of opportunities to get out in the garden and start tidying borders
and pruning shrubs. On a couple of rainy days, I have cleaned and tidied the greenhouse
and shed..
It is also a time of year to evaluate certain shrubs that perhaps could do
with moving, either because they have become too big for their space, or because they
would do better in a different aspect. Choose a time when the earth is not frozen, make
sure you get plenty of rootball when digging up the shrubs, re-plant them with plenty of
compost incorporated and keep them watered until established. If a shrub that is to be
moved is large, prune it down to a manageable size, which will make handling easier and
give the shrub less stress to cope with..
Our garden is four years old now and many plants have grown enormous, due
I am sure, to the copious amounts of compost I have incorporated into the ground. We have
dug in four lorry loads of mushroom compost apart from my own mixings. The drawback is
that now I need to have a serious pruning and moving session. Oh that I were a little
younger and stronger..
Jobs for the month - March
Garden furniture
 Give wooden furniture a coat of paint to freshen it up. I love
the job so much that I tend to get carried away and will paint almost anything in sight!
(see the summerhouse on the left.) I find that heavy terracotta pots are too heavy for me
to lift, so I buy the cheap plastic ones and paint them with the same paint. My favourite
tubs cost £1.99 and are filled with Japanese grass, which comes up year after year. (See
picture on the left and notice the painted trellis too!)
Lawns
 If the weather is warm enough and dry enough, now
would be a good time to start raking out the dead stuff, either with a lawn rake or an
electric scarifier. If you have suffered with lawn subsidence and have a few bumps or
hollows, now is the time to repair them, before the seasons growth starts. Cut out the
square of lawn surrounding the part to be repaired, then either level off a mound or fill
in the hollow with soil, finally replacing the turf and watering it in.
Herbaceous and shrub borders
Pull out any persistent weeds that remain from last year,
prune and tidy up any straggly or frost-blackened shrubs and rake over the compost to give
it a fresher look. If there are any perennials starting to come up, such as Delphiniums or
Phlox, you could put supports in place now, so they can start to grow through them. I use
the metal ones that can be raised higher as the plants grow. Take care not to disturb any
seedlings that may have self-sown from last year. Any that are in the way may be potted
up, or moved.
 Trees and shrubs
Most trees and shrubs will start into growth this month,
giving an overall fresher look to the garden. Watch out for an early invasion of aphids in
a warm spell. They will very quickly inhabit tender new shoots of shrubs, but be very
careful not to kill off any ladybirds if you are using a spray to eliminate them.
Wildlife
 The birds are really noisy now, especially the
sparrows who seem to awaken long before the sun is up. They will all need to have a
constant supply of fresh water and if you have been feeding the birds in your garden over
winter, don`t stop now...It has been such a damp winter that it may be worth examining the
peanuts and other food that has been left out for the birds, to ensure it has not gone
mouldy. If it has, give the containers a thorough wash before re-filling them..
Plug plants
Garden centres and supermarkets have been selling trays of
plug plants since the first week in February. I think four months is too long to house
these tiny fragile plants whilst `growing them on` and prefer to wait until late April or
May before getting mine. If you do buy them early, make sure they are potted up into
bigger pots straight away, so the roots don`t get entwined and pot-bound. Keep them in as
light a situation as you can, making sure, too that they have warmth, so they don`t dampen
off.
Some favourite RHS flower shows (Dates
taken from their website)
| RHS Plant Roadshow at Bournemouth |
- |
11 - 13 April 2003 |
| The Spring Gardening Show Malvern |
- |
9 - 11 May 2003 |
| Hampton Court Palace Flower
Show |
- |
8 - 13 July 2003 |
Charity Gala Preview of
the
Hampton Court Palace Flower Show |
- |
7 July 2003 |
| RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park |
- |
23 - 27 July 2003 |
| Malvern Autumn Garden & Country
Show |
- |
27 - 28 Sept 2003 |
| RHS London Flower Shows |
- |
Monthly |
| Wisley Shows |
-
|
April, June and August |
And some places to visit...
www.edenproject.com 
The
living theatre of plants and people
The Eden Project is a gateway into the world of plants and people. A meeting place for
all to discover how we depend on plants and how we can help to manage and conserve them
for our mutual survival.
Kew Gardens two locations:-
http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/
Tel: 020 8332 5655 (24 hr)
Fax: 020 8332 5197Royal Botanic Gardens
Kew
Richmond
Surrey
TW9 3AB |
Tel: 01444 894066 (24 hr)
Fax: 01444 894069 Royal Botanic Gardens
Wakehurst Place
Ardingly
Nr Haywards Heath
West Sussex
RH17 6TN |
The National Botanic Gardens of Scotland comprise:
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
Scotland's Premier Garden
Benmore Botanic
Garden, Argyll
Argyll's Magnificent Mountainside Garden
Dawyck Botanic
Garden, Borders
Wonderful Woodland Garden
Logan Botanic
Garden, Galloway
Scotland's Most Exotic Garden
 The National Botanic Garden of Wales
www.gardenofwales.org.uk
The star attraction here is the 91 metre long domed glasshouse, that
houses landscapes normally found in the Mediterranean. This would be a super place to
visit on a chilly day...
Keep the e-mails with
your gardening problems coming
Have a look at previous
editions of Gardener`s Diary
Some websites of interest to gardeners:-
www.alantitchmarsh.co.uk
Alan Titchmarsh MBE, TV gardener, writer, broadcaster and thoroughly nice person.
Just a few choice words to describe the peoples` favourite TV gardener. See his
website....
 Thompson and Morgan:
A growing
resource for gardeners worldwide. The site includes the international online seed
catalogues, the young plants catalogue (UK only), the wholesale seeds catalogue, together
with the award winning Germination Times and a host of other useful information.
www.carryongardening.co.uk
 Gardening is an important part of many people's lives. You don't have to
give up gardening because of accident or illness, the onset of disability or the problems
associated with growing older. The information on their website is designed to provide you
with the information to Carry on Gardening.
Carry on
Gardening was initiated by the horticultural charity Thrive
and is funded by the National Lottery Charities
Board. It brings together information on easy ways of gardening gathered over 23
years by Thrive and research carried out since the early 1970s by Mary Marlborough Centre,
Oxford, on tools and equipment for disabled and older people.
The founder
of www.maple-landscapes.com
is my eldest son.. give him a call if you live in the Leicester area of the UK and have
need of his services..
Good reading:-
"The Yellow Book" contains information of
all Gardens of England and Wales open for charity, and can be bought priced £5 from
National Gardens Scheme www.ngs.org.uk
National Trust Gardens Handbook is £6.99 and
the new edition is out in May Telephone 01394 389 950 or see their website www.nationaltrust.org.uk
RHS Garden Finder is £12.99 from Dorling
Kindersley www.dk.com
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