As temperatures rise and daylight hours extend, gardeners eagerly prepare their outdoor spaces for the season ahead. Renowned gardening expert Alan Titchmarsh, aged 76, highlights five crucial tasks to tackle in March for healthy, vibrant gardens.
Enhance Soil with Mulch
March marks the perfect time to boost soil quality by applying a generous layer of mulch to beds and borders. This organic covering acts as a nutrient reservoir, sustaining plants through spring growth. Opt for homemade compost aged for a year or peat-free bagged options like soil improvers or composted bark, which also suppresses weeds.
Alan Titchmarsh advises scattering blood, fish, and bone organic fertilizer around plants first. “It contains nitrogen, phosphates, and potash, crucial ingredients for plant growth,” he explains. “I add a couple of handfuls around each plant, and then, using a fork, I add the mulch, trying to keep it off the crown of the plant so it doesn’t scorch them. Aim for a thickness of 2 to 3 inches. Then you leave it to do its thing. And believe me, your plants will thank you for it.”
Plant Summer-Flowering Bulbs
Establish summer displays by planting bulbs like gladioli and lilies in March. This timing allows roots to develop strongly before summer blooms. Select firm, disease-free bulbs and use large terracotta pots with drainage holes, lined with broken pot shards.
Fill pots with peat-free multi-purpose compost mixed with John Innes for stability, leaving 15 cm from the rim. Position bulbs pointy-end up, spaced adequately, cover with compost, and firm gently. “All you need to do then is stay on top of the watering and you’ll have glorious blooms right the way through the summer,” Titchmarsh notes.
Sow Seeds for Cost-Effective Growth
Grow flowers economically by sowing seeds in March, giving seedlings time to strengthen indoors before outdoor transplanting. Use peat-free seed compost, which suits delicate sprouts with its low nutrient levels.
Follow packet instructions for depth. For covering, tap seeds evenly from your palm into pots and sieve a light compost layer over them. Label, bottom-water until moist, and position in a greenhouse or sunny windowsill, keeping compost damp.
Plant Early Potatoes for Fresh Harvests
Achieve new potatoes by mid-June by planting earlies now. Purchase seed potatoes and chit them in a light, warm spot to spur early shoots. In the vegetable patch, dig trenches, add soil improver, space tubers 30 cm apart, and cover.
For small spaces, use potato sacks with drainage: roll sides down, fill with peat-free compost, add potatoes, and earth up as shoots emerge. Titchmarsh promises abundant harvests by summer. “If you love new potatoes smothered in butter, this is the perfect time to plant your earlies,” he says.
Add Instant Color with Spring Planters
Introduce vibrant early displays using softwood planters stocked with erysimum, campanula, tiarella, trailing ivy, carex, and alpines like saxifraga. These assemblies provide quick garden cheer as spring advances.
