March Ramblings
Welcoming the month of March with spring flowers, longer days, and sunny, warmer weather. The air has been a bit on the chilly side, the wind down right cool, but the sunshine make it all feel just fine.
Bulbs are popping through as roses and plum trees begin to leaf out.
Yard and Garden tasks..
Start with veggie bed clean up, making sure to remove any weeds and top dressing garden beds with manure or compost, some kind of organic matter, if you did not get to it last fall.
Still time to prune your fruit trees. When pruning, never remove more than 1/3 of the tree per year, no matter how over-grown or out of hand it may be. Pruning too much at one time will stress out the tree and cause suckering and water sprouts.
Rake up the soggy messes last year's perennials left as they died down to the ground, toss these bits into the compost.
Prune your (summer fruiting) raspberries now, too. Take out the grey stalks that fruited last year, leaving in the brown ones. If some stems are very skinny and puny, remove those as well, leaving in just nice, strong, healthy looking brown stems.
Move winter mulch away from the crown of your plants, including your garlic if you mulched it in!
Cut back ornamental grasses. Take off the dead tops of your sedums, it is easier to do now before the new growth gets too tall.
Feed your trees and shrubs… Add a ring of manure or compost at the drip line of your fruiting and ornamental trees, and around the base of your shrubs, perennials, and roses, too. This is an organic feed that is super easy to do annually; it slowly works itself down to the roost system with the help of the spring rains and earthworms.
Even better than just manure… Fill your wheelbarrow with some manure (or compost), add lots of shredded leaves, pine needles, leaf mould (I rake up the goodies from the 'floor of my wee wooded area'), add a couple handfuls of blood meal for nitrogen and bonemeal for phosphorous, or an organic, all-purpose fertiliser. Shovel this organic goodness around your blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and the fruit trees, too. Everything! This is really feeding the soil life, your shrubs will thank you for it with a lot of new growth and fruits/flowers, or berries.
Cut back your roses by 1/3 to 1/2 in height. Remove dead, broken, or criss-crossing branches now, too. Pruning now will help them flush out beautifully this spring.
Seed potatoes…
Regardless of the rain and cold, buy your seed potatoes this month and put them out to chit. It is not essential to chit your spuds, so if you do not get to it, do not fret, they will grow fine nevertheless!
Chitting is simply setting out your spuds to sprout a few weeks before planting for an earlier harvest. Take your seed potatoes out of the bag or box and place on a tray, or in a low shoe box, or in an egg carton. Set out in a warm and bright place (though not in direct sunlight) for two or three weeks. The eyes will soon begin to grow little nubs. Once these nubs or sprouts are about an inch long, carefully plant the potatoes out in the garden.
I plant my potatoes in the potager mid to late April but if you want to do them in pots, tubs, or laundry baskets, this is a great time to get them going.
To help you feel like spring...
Buy some potted up, blooming tulips, daffs, primulas, etc... and pop into your tired winter planters for a quick pop of colour…. or a pre-made spring planter! Pop them in your urns or planters for instant spring.
Veggies
Peppers
Eggplants
Tomatoes (mid to end month)
Broccoli and Broccoli Raab (my fave!)
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Celery
Onions and leeks
Herbs
Chives
Parsley
Borage
Chamomile
Flowers
Campanula
Gaillardia
Asters
Sweet Peas
Be careful if you are starting Zinnia's indoors to grow on as transplants. They are difficult to grow as they often get root rot, stem rot, or mould. They must be kept on the dry side, have good lighting and air flow. I direct sow my zinnia seeds straight into the garden beds in early to mid April, depending on the weather.
Direct sow these seeds out into the garden in the latter part of this month ...
Leeks Peas
Lettuces, greens, spinach
Radishes
Turnips and Rutabagas
Swiss Chard
Carrots
Beets (for greens)
Onion seeds
Sweet Peas ( I prefer to direct sow in the garden rather than pre-starting but you can do either) Larkspur Calendula
Poppies
I have mentioned this before but it bears repeating… if you chose to sow or plant nothing this month and waited till April to do it all, you would lose out on nothing. Everything will just take off that much faster in the warmer soil and longer days. So, if you do not feel like messing about while it is so cool outside, just leave it for a few weeks longer. I do 95% of my own planting and sowing in April. The only things I make sure to get in the garden this month is a bit of peas and leeks, if I am doing them from seed. I will also toss in flower seeds as they take no work at all.
Plant some lovely asparagus roots. They can be planted as soon as ground can be worked. Do not start from seed, unless you have the patience of a saint. It takes 5 years to go from seed to harvest. The how-to instructions to grow a great and successful asparagus patch can be found HERE!
Garlic is coming up nicely... do not do anything, all is fine, let them grow. If you feel like yours need a boost, side dress with a bit of manure and bone meal.
This would probably be a good time for me to remind you NOT to roto-till your soil ... ever! Rototilling compacts soil, destroys healthy soil structure, kills off earth worms, micro-organisms, and healthy bacteria, plus promotes weed growth in your garden.
If you have 200 lb mastiffs lying around in your raised beds all winter, compacting the soil, simply use a broad fork or a garden fork to lift and gently loosen, plus aerate, the soil.
If you do not have a mastiff problem, you do not have to lift, loosen, or aerate your soil : ) Remember to top dress your beds with manure, compost, and/or organic matter once or twice a year, then let the earth worms and Mother Nature take care of the rest.
Spring is nearly here!
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