It’s easy to grow your own tasty onions when you start by planting onion sets. ‘Sets’ are tiny onions grown from seed which when replanted in spring just carry on growing, giving delicious bulb nions which are ready for lifting in early autumn. It works perfectly and is the chosen method of most professional growers. Stuttgart Giant is a trusted garden variety which produces a heavy crop of flattish brown skinned bulbs which have a great taste and are easy to prepare in the kitchen. Lift and dry and then keep in a cool airy place and they will store well indoors until well after Christmas.
Red Baron is a wonderful variety that will give you a heavy crop of gorgeous deep red onions with striking red rimmed white flesh. It has a good strong flavour and is great used raw in a salad. They store well over winter too! It’s easy to grow your own tasty onions when you start by planting onion sets. ‘Sets’ are tiny onions grown from seed which when replanted in spring just carry on growing, giving delicious bulb onions which are ready for lifting in early autumn. It works perfectly and is the chosen method of most professional growers. Fully deserving its coveted RHS Award of Garden Merit, you can be sure that this is a proven garden performer, guaranteed to be suitable for UK gardeners at every level of experience. You can therefore plant this in the garden with confidence. Supplied as a 250gm pack of sets.
In this blog post, I will talk about a few jobs in the garden for March. I normally think of the main garden season being between March and until the end of October. However, I do know that there are many jobs that we can do in the middle of winter to help to get ourselves ready for the spring season.
Here in the UK we never quite know when spring will arrive, February can often bring some spring like days. However, here in East Anglia, it looks like we are in for a cold start for March. However, that can quickly change at any time and become more springlike.
Top Jobs For March
Now is a good time to cut roses back hard, I tend to find that a hard prune generally gives better results. Don’t forget to make your cuts slope downwards, so that the water does not collect on the bud. This is a good principle for all cuts that you make whether it’s deadheading or removing deadheads or just annual pruning.
Try and keep the bush open to encourage room for growth and prune stems to inward facing bards to encourage more upright growth of the rose bush.
Make sure that your secateurs are sharp, as you want to make good clean cuts and you want to make your job easy. If the stems are particularly large then use a pair of loppers as they have more cutting power than secateurs.
Try and trace suckers back to the roots and cut them at the root and pull them out the way.
Don’t forget that the majority of pruning is a common sense type thing. You’re just making room for the plants grow adequately. It’s amazing how quickly you can learn in the garden once you start doing things.
Plant Shallots, Early Potatoes And Onion Sets
Onions are a great crop to grow as they are easy to store and they have so many uses in the kitchen. The easiest way to grow your onions is to buy onion sets. Although they can be grown from seed, I have always found that sets are much easier and quicker to grow. Normally onion sets are planted in the spring, however they can be sown in the early autumn. Harvesting can carry on right through the summer and into the autumn and beyond.
Lawns
March is normally the time of year when people start cutting the lawns. Although, this year I did notice that several people were cutting their grass in February as we had a mild spell. I think this is why we are having a cold spell now!
I am one of those people who do not like to cut grass to short. I have seen too many lawns damaged by people cutting their lawns to short. The main thing is that the lawn is cut nice and evenly rather than razor short. A lawn that is not cut too short will also look better in dry weather.
If you are collecting your grass, those grass clippings can make a valuable compost for use in the winter. I like to try mix the grass in with other garden waste like leaves and light pruning’s and general garden rubbish. If you have chickens or animals like pet rabbits, I also like to mix the manure in with compost. Horse manure is also great if you can get hold of it locally.
Bulbs
Don’t forget that if you have bulbs in your garden to leave them at least six weeks after they have finished flowering before you cut them down. I see so many people cutting up bulbs down far too early. It’s the perfect way to spoil the next flowering season.
When you are planting bulbs in your lawn highways recommend to people that they plant them around the perimeter of the lawn. Many people scatter bulbs all over the lawn which cannot nice, however, it can make the rest of the lawn look quite untidy when you’re waiting for the bulbs to die down. If you plant them around the age of your lawn or against a boundary fence, you do not notice the bulbs so much when they are dying down.
Lawn Feed
March is a good time to apply a nitrogen feed to your lawn. I prefer to feed the lawn regularly in small amounts rather than one large dose. There are slow-release fertilisers available that can last longer in the soil. However, I generally use a general-purpose fertiliser, side issues like dose and then repeat the process throughout the year. In an ideal world it’s better to apply the fertiliser before rain arrives. In that way the fertiliser can be washed in quickly and start doing its job.
Lawn Edges
It’s a good time to straighten up lawn edges, I was just doing this job last week. I still have more lawn edging to carry out. Although it takes time to do, I always find it a worthwhile job as it can make the garden look so much neater and tidier.
To Conclude
Of course there are many more jobs in the garden for March, that need to be carried out. These are just a few of the jobs, over the months we will be building up a range of articles to help you in your garden.
