Gardening Tips for March 2025

I always think of March as being the start of the gardening year because suddenly there is loads to do and avoiding it isn’t really an option for the gardener. The jobs didn’t really go away from last year but weather tends to put us off venturing too enthusiastically into the garden. But put if off no longer, now is the time to grasp the nettle!

The Kitchen Garden

Dig compost, well-rotted manure into your newly weeded vegetable patch to prepare for the growing season ahead. Dig in a 5cm (or more) layer when the soil becomes workable. If you are a no dig aficionado just do the weeding add your layer of compost and hope for the best.

Cut autumn-fruiting raspberry canes to the ground to stimulate new canes, cut the tips of summer-fruiting raspberry canes that have grown beyond the top of their supports.

Feed blueberry plants with ericaceous plant fertiliser.

Protect the blossoms of apricots, peaches and nectarines from frost with a screen or horticultural fleece.

Mulch fruit trees with well-rotted manure or garden compost. Feed trees, shrubs and hedges with a slow-release fertiliser (remember pelleted chicken manure!) or pelleted blood, fish and bone, the latter not a good choice if you have a dog, lightly forking the fertiliser it into the soil surface.

Give the strawberry bed a good weeding and cover the plants with a cloche if you have one handy to encourage earlier fruiting.

Mulch rhubarb with a thick layer of well-rotted manure to keep it healthy and reduce moisture loss through the soil. Take care not to cover the crown, as this is where the growth happens.

The Flower Garden

Feed roses with suitable feed as they come into growth and prune to shape encouraging strong new growth.

Cut back the stems of any shrubs grown for their colourful winter stems back to their bases to encourage new stem growth for next winter.

If you have a rhododendron that needs a new lease of life, choose a frost-free day to cut the branches hard back to the size of plant required.

Cut back dead growth from ornamental grasses.

Prune overwintered fuchsias back to one or two buds on each shoot to encourage a bushy growth.

Prune winter-flowering jasmine after flowering, to encourage new growth. Cut back the previous year’s growth to 5cm from the old wood.

Trim winter-flowering heathers as the flowers disappear, to prevent the plants becoming leggy.

Cut the old leaves off hellebores to remove any foliar diseases and make spring flowers more visible.

Deadhead winter pansies (if the rain hasn’t finished them off) to encourage new flowers and to stop them setting seed.

Deadhead daffodils as the flowers finish and let the foliage die back naturally, when it is starting to yellow, it can be removed completely.

Deadhead hydrangeas before new growth appears. Cut to about one third of last season's growth.

Plant native hedges to encourage wildlife.

Lawns

Don’t forget National First Mow of the Year Day on 30th March aka Mothering Sunday! This is the customary start to the year’s slog of lawn maintenance. As always take it easy at first with a high cut and subsequently reduce to your preferred height but always leave the lawn looking green after cutting.

Ponds

Time to clean the pump filter if you have one and to remove leaves and other debris collected over the winter particularly leaves that have sunk to the bottom and are gently rotting and releasing a plentiful supply of nutrients to feed the blanket weed as the days get warmer and longer.

Keep gardening.

Richard Haigh