March In The Garden

I love this time of year, with the promise of what’s to come.

My seed sowing has started with two types of chillies, tomato Ferline, swiss chard and coriander. The true leaves are now growing, so at the next opportunity, I will be potting them on, into individual pots.

The strangest thing has happened with the potting compost I bought. It is from a reputable company and should be sterile but there must be lots of eggs in the soil, as the heat from the propagator has made these hatch and when I lifted off the lid of the propagator, the air was filled with the tiniest of flies.

I used more of the compost for the second batch of seeds and the same thing has happened. I will have to throw this compost away and buy some more. What a nuisance.

I have been preparing my greenhouse for the arrival of my seedlings and have cleaned it with Jeyes fluid, so there shouldn’t be any bugs lurking in the corners to spoil my plants.

In the vegetable garden, the broad beans are now about three inches high and my very kind partner has made me a cover from pipes and netting which supposed to keep insects out, in the hope that it will stop the dreaded blackfly getting to them.

The lady in the garden centre told him that nothing stops blackfly but ever the optimist, I shall give it a go and report back with the results (and a photograph) later in the year.

My two remaining purple sprouting broccoli plants have been revived by this warm weather and are starting to make new leaves, which fills me with anticipation for the tastiness to come.

The other vegetable growing in the garden is my garlic and I am pleased to say, I think I have cracked them this time, as they are growing good and strong.

I read somewhere that if you plant them by the winter solstice, which I did, you harvest at the summer solstice. So all that remains now is to be patient and see if I do indeed harvest at that time.

I have planted a couple of fruit bushes, a red and a blackcurrant, to add to my collection of soft fruit. I haven’t bothered putting them in a cage, as we don’t have a problem with birds, it must be the cat that keeps the pigeons away.

Not technically a fruit but a vegetable, my rhubarb is growing nicely and I think after watching Monty Don on Gardeners’ World on Friday, (which I thoroughly enjoyed), cover his rhubarb to ‘force’ it, I think I will do the same.

He says you get earlier sweeter stalks to pick, if you do it that way. This is only the second season for the plant. So I will only pick a few stalks, whilst it is still establishing.

The flower garden is starting to wake up and is looking a lot tidier now I have cut back the remnants of last years growth.

I have had a couple of casualties this winter. My Crambe Cordifolia has turned to mush and I have a large Callistemon (Bottlebrush) in my front garden, which I inherited from previous occupants and over the last two winters, it has been very badly frosted, so I think it is time to dig it up and replant with something frost hardy.

At the end of this month, I am off to the press launch of the National Garden Scheme yellow book for 2011. It will be the first time I get to see, which images of mine they have used in the book and it’s a good opportunity to meet fellow garden writers, photographers and to spot the odd TV garden presenter or two.

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