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This is the first of our newsletters and aims to deliver value and quality gardening tips to your inbox. We want this to get to as many people as possible, so please do forward this email on to anyone you think might be interested and get them to sign-up via our page on World Radio Gardening.com.
I am always pleased to get into March as I feel spring is on the way, bulbs are up and rearing to go, snowdrops have flowered all through last month and daffodils are out and, with different varieties of Narcissus, will flower beyond Easter, - something to remember in autumn when ordering.
So, what should we be getting on with? Dahlias.
It’s time to start them off and when the new shoots appear these can be used as cuttings. The late Jack Kinns that great dahlia grower who named many Waterlilly type dahlia with the prefix Abridge where he grew them at my nursery. He used to lay them in a bed of seed compost or vermiculite on a bench in the greenhouse, yes a heated greenhouse. Just damp them not wet and as they start to grow, take these shoots about 1.5 to 2 inches long neatly and cleanly with a knife and then popped into compost having dipped into hormone liquid either several to a pot or line them out into a deep seed tray.
Fuchsias as well, if you have kept them frost free through winter it’s a great time to start them into growth for cuttings to be taken in a shed on the bench by the window. Gently, lightly water and put in the warm to get them moving and then the new shoots can be used as cuttings. Make them about 2 inches long take off bottom leaves, dip into hormone powder or liquid and pop four round a three inch pot just like the dahlias. Bottom heat will help but if you do not have a greenhouse try them on a warm windowsill indoors. Let me know how you get on, and don’t forget for more advice e mail us: post@WorldRadioGardening.com
This month I like to start my begonia corms, whether you have bought them or kept yours from last year and for interest I always opted to keeping mine in old sweet jars with broken up polystyrene. Place corm with the indent to the top in your pots with a good quality multi purpose compost (Yes, peat-free!) and they will need some heat. It could even work by popping on the windowsill indoors with a polythene bag over them, as soon as they shoot take the bag off, but do watch the night temperatures. Ideally, start off in a heated greenhouse they do need about 20 degrees.
I was working in a garden the other day that has one of those gorgeous clematis jackmanii and some viticella clematis and these flower mid to late summer. Cut them back to about nine inches to a foot and feed with a good granular fertiliser, or blood, fish and bone as long as you don’t suffer with fox as they will come a dig around the roots which you definitely don't want.
How about an early potato or two for your lunch or dinner, well you could start some off now, choose an early like maris bard or rocket and place in a large tub or pot, I like to use a multi purpose compost, place a good layer of compost about a third of the way up. One potato to a 12 inch pot or three to a 30inch, any type of container will do as long as it’s deep, as the potatoes grow keep adding compost keeping the leaves above compost. The only thing is that the container does need a frost-free greenhouse although a shed or garage with enough light could work. Let’s face it our weather across the country is chucking everything at us and just recently snow to higher ground in the north. Who knows what’s next here or around the world.
Now depending on the weather see that you don’t ignore the lawns and grass in your garden, keeping cut is so important throughout this period as long as it’s not too wet as there could be damage to your lawn. Moss is a major problem this year and where do we start, moss killers can be applied now but never scarify until the moss is dead, if not you will spread it even more . Once it’s out use a good top dressing over the top raked in with the back of a rake or broom, then overseed with a good quality grass seed.
Check out on our website for how to plan your vegetable plot and look out for the best ways to grow with hydroponics.
Best wishes and good gardening,
Ken Crowther |
