There is general surprise in the media about the weather, March, they say, March is the beginning of Spring! This isn’t anybody’s idea of Spring. But looking back at my photos, there have been quite a few years where March has started with a good covering of snow. This photo is from 2016.
Snow in March 2016
The icy winds this year have made it hard for humans, and many new shoots on plants will be ‘burnt’ black. The hellebores that I have in pots have been affected in this way, I am hoping the ones in the ground are being protected by the snow covering. Whether it is snow, frost or blizzard, give up any idea of doing anything in the garden. A crushed plant will not recover if it is frozen, this includes the lawn. So definitely a time for keeping off the grass.
But keep planning and looking forward because of course the low temperatures will not last. The sun will come, the blossom, the pond will fill with frogspawn, crocus and daffs will colour the front gardens.
Spring pond, frogs at work
And there is work to be done:
Cut back the thin stems of willows and dogwoods that have graced the winter garden with their coloured stems. This will encourage a good crop of fresh young brightly coloured growth to do the same next winter.
Hellebores flowering their hearts out in spite of the weather
Cut back and disentangle the stems of summer flowering clematis. Thin last year’s flowering stems from hydrangeas.
Cut back the dead growth of grasses like Miscanthus to leave a bristling hedgehog of a clump.
Go through the borders weeding, feeding and mulching as you go.
Split large clumps of snowdrops after flowers have faded and replant. Order and plant snowdrops ‘in the green’.
Still time to sow tomatoes, germinating them on a warm window cill. Sow many hardy veg crops, but under glass. The soil will not warm up enough for germination until the end of the month at the earliest.
N. ‘Jenny’
