March into, plant out and feed up your cottage garden
The bright faces of Pansies accompany the soft buttons of cheery Bellis, which make for a medley of patchwork colour underneath nodding golden Narcissi. Additionally, herbaceous late spring and summer flowering perennials unfurl their new growth with amazing vibrancy.
Some of the deciduous shrubs have an equally important role to play this month. Forsythias soon become clad in their bright yellow florets, dazzling in spells of strong early spring sunshine. In contrast, flowering blackcurrants display pendant chains of pink blossom all up and down their stout stems.
Woodland areas boast dainty Pulmonarias in shades of pink and blue, while Omphalodes open the first of their rich blue flower clusters. And English Hellebores start to display their slightly greenish white cups, sitting well above the new leaves of bluebells.
This really is the time to finish planting new roses and soft fruit, whilst seed sowing of hardy summer-flowering annuals begins in succession over the coming weeks. Feeding is another important job, as we take a look a slow release organic fertilisers and their differing uses and roles around the garden.
Enjoy the sur-plus points
Although many perennials are grown for their seasonal flower uses, a good number also sprout up surprises, as they awaken.
Many Peonies have luscious rosy pink or red shoots as they emerge, and add a warm glow to borders. Other plants, such as Phlox, Astilbe, Echinacea, and some Geraniums also provide colourful new growth. Many Roses do so too, along with a few Clematis varieties and most famously, Spiraeas.
They’re an Aqui-red taste
May and June are usually the months that this most enchanting cottage plant graces our gardens. But now is a superb time to nip out to the garden centre, where many varieties of young healthy plants should be available, if you are tempted by any of these varieties:
'Nora Barlow' has wonderful double rose and white heads.
'Canadensis' has those simple, classic soft red and yellow single drooping flowers.
The 'McKana Hybrids' offer a mixed colours with large spurs on tall stems, reaching up to 100 cm in height.
Rockery varieties are also available:
'Bertolonii' grows to about 15cm, and has wonderful rich blue flowers, and 'Winky Rose' has lovely salmon-pink blooms on similar height stems.
'Aquilegias' can also be easily raised from seed, sown in spring or late summer, in trays of home-made potting compost in a sheltered spot.
The plants can be transplanted into a semi-shaded position when they are a couple of months old, in any reasonable soil.
It won’t really be Hell...
Cut away the old foliage from Hellebores to tidy them up, allowing the new shoots and blooms to be shown off. A general organic or home-made fertiliser can be applied to the soil around them.
Witch Hazel - now finished flowering, can be lightly pruned to induce bushiness. Don’t be afraid to take wayward stems quite far back. A general fertiliser will also do them good.
Use old items to introduce new plants
Recycle old containers - by using them to grow small vegetables from seed such as carrots, cos lettuce and radishes. Buckets, sinks, bins, plastic boxes and even old car tyres can be used!
Ensure you don’t prune too soon
Prune Autumn raspberries hardback to near ground level as they fruit on this year’s growth. Don’t prune summer varieties though, as these crop on the thick straight growths that you have now.
I guess you could call it long-term division
Divide your Hostas before they start sprouting. This is an excellent way to increase your stock and will provide fine ground cover to any woodland patch that has a rather heavy moist soil.
Forever green, and sometimes blue
CEANOTHUS ‘Italian Skies’ produces masses of fluffy blue flowers in May. This wonderful evergreen grows well against a dry, sunny cottage wall and requires little pruning or feeding.
Now is a great time to introduce one of these to the border or container near the house - then just wait, and watch!
Time for a jumble soil
A BORDER or beds packed with the likes of roses and delphiniums epitomise the cottage garden scene, as around 80 per cent are typically perennials.
However, a small sunny plot which is lying vacant could always be dedicated to growing a jumble of annuals. These are grown from seed, sown directly into the ground - as soon as it is warm enough (normally in late March or April).
Now is the time to prepare the ground by digging over the soil and breaking the clods down to provide fine ‘tilth’. Heavy soils can be improved by adding sand and compost.
Apart from a light application of organic fertiliser, about a week before sowing, no further feeding is usually necessary as annuals often prefer rather poor soils.
The seeds can be sown thinly into clumps or drifts, the peripheries marked with sand.
Good cottage favourites to try are: Nigellas, Larkspurs, Poppies, Candytuft, annual Chrysanthemums and, for shade, Nasturtiums.
Woodland it be nice?
ARUM Italicum us a herbaceous perennial, grown for its marbled variegated silvery-white flecked rather pointed green leaves. The shoots emerge in November, growing very slowly during winter which enables them to look at their best in March and April.
At this time, established clumps produce very pale green flower spathes. These are followed by small clusters of berries, held on short four to six inch stems as the foliage dies down for summer.
From July onwards, the poisonous berries turn bright glossy red. It is an ideal woodland plant for semi-shade, and needs moist soil at all times.
The joy of Sax
PLANT mossy Saxifragas in crevices between rocks and stones and their dainty abundance of pink, red and white will soon show.
That laurel is hardy
AS THE soil warms, evergreens such as Aucuba (spotted laurel) can be moved as necessary. These shrubs provide useful greenery in the shadiest spots.
Three of a kind for your cottage:
PRUNUS Persica is a superb slow-growing deciduous tree that produces lavender-pink blossom in abundance in early spring. If you can set this tree into a sheltered position of the garden, preferably near a south-west or west facing wall, it could well reward you with delicious small peaches. Planting this tree in any east facing area would run the risk of the blossom being ruined by rapid thawing of overnight frosts. Eventually this small tree would reach up to around 15 feet in height. Peaches need a rich free-draining soil with ample watering during hot spells.
FORSYTHIAS open their golden tussocks as soon as the sun gains some spring-like strength. Within days, all of a sudden, bare branches are transformed into a mass of yellow bloom. This cheerful shrub is easy to care for and will grow almost anywhere in sun or partial shade. For best flowering results, this plant can be pruned really quite severely after flowering as the leafy shoots grow in April. The result will be masses of thick straight stems, produced during spring and summer that will not only be clad with bloom next spring, but will also produce larger, much more colourful autumn leaves.
IN VERY mild winter spells, Anemone Blanda can be seen flowering fully as early as
mid-January. However, March is the usual month of flowering. Any hint of strong sunshine will bring these flowers up out from bare soil within a matter of hours, or a day at the most. These bulbous plants thrive best in full sun, but in a fairly sheltered position - preferably where the soil is shaded during summer (from deciduous shrubs). Otherwise, they are not fussy, and are best left undisturbed to spread as they choose.
Too cold to March outdoors
MARCH will begin with a wintry sting with bitter winds and some snow and penetrating frosts. The second week looks distinctly milder, but windy with a risk of gales.
Mid-month should be somewhat quieter with a few gloriously sunny spring-like days and the potential for night-frosts.
Towards the end of the March, significant rainfall ends the long dry winter. But, generally milder southerly wind flow types will allow the warmth of sunny intervals to be felt.
