By Anne Kenyon
March is the month when the gardens are waking up and looking forward to a spectacular show of fruit, flowers and vegetables in the forthcoming spring and summer. A time for the flower show entrants to plan and plant.
A few tips and reminders: Potatoes should now be chitting (if not already chitted, place in cardboard egg boxes with ‘eyes’ facing upwards) ready for planting at the end of the month. The schedule includes white, coloured and salad.
If you haven’t over-wintered broad beans these can now be sown direct into the ground (preferably a patch covered in polythene to warm up the soil) or sown in pots in the greenhouse. Sweet peas should have been sown by now but you could buy ready sown seedlings. Pinch out growing tips just above the first pair of true leaves to encourage bushy growth and gradually harden off in 8cm (3") pots ready to plant out in late spring.
March is the time to hard prune your roses to ensure show specimens in July! Ornamental grasses and other winter interest perennials should be cut back. Prune to the ground half your summer fruiting raspberries for a longer fruiting season, into July! Prepare your seedbeds.
Moving on to the handicrafts: there’s a lot of hidden talent in the area, why not let us all enjoy this and exhibit your crafts in the show? We would love to admire your embroidery, knitting, carvings, paintings and many more crafts. More flower show tips in April.
PS – The Flower Show is on the 19th July.