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Gardening To-Do List - March
For those of us who live in the southern hemisphere we've finished summer - apparently! It's the first day of Autumn (Fall for Americans) and the first day of Spring for gardeners living in the northern half of the world.
I love it when the seasons change. 3 months of any type of weather - especially the extremes of winter or summer - is just the right amount of time. With the change of a new gardening season comes a plethora of activities that need to be completed so I've constructed a list of things for both northern and southern hemisphere gardeners to start this month.
- Plant bulbs Autumn is usually the season to start winding down but the optimism of a forthcoming spring will drive any serious gardener scurrying to plant a heap of bulbs. Plant daffodils, jonquils, hyacinths, freesias, ixias and scillas.
- Take softwood cuttings this is a great time to take some cuttings from your favourite plants as they prepare to hibernate over the winter months.
- Plant a winter cover-crop it's a good time to start sowing some seed for an organic manure in your vegetable garden. Plant clover, rye or barley and allow to green up during winter.
- Plant some garlic if the garlic you buy from your grocery shop hasn't been cured with chemicals and has been grown organically, it can easily be divided into their own separate cloves and planted out together with some other allium crops.
- Test your soil it's a great time to test your soil as most of the nutrients have been used by your plants or leached through your soil. Use salts to increase the alkalinity or compost to increase the acidity.
- Prepare your lawn for winter Fertlise wih a slow-release organic fertiliser that's lower in nitrogen than what you would use in Spring and has a greater amount of potassium and phosphorous. This will give your lawn more structure as it lays mainly dormant over the winter months.
- Plant annuals as seeds or seedlings Spring is a great time to fill in some holes in the garden or change your annual borders. Try something a little different this year by mixing and matching colours, textures and heights.
- Renovate your lawn your lawn is going to start growing again after its dormant winter period and may require a little TLC. Add some top dressing mix to level out your lawn and to repair patches that struggled last year. Fertilise with a nitrogen rich fertiliser such as urea or any other organic lawn feed that's high in nitrogen.
- Fertilise your bulbs while the other side of the world is just beginning to plant theirs your autumn planted bulbs are nearly flowering. It's time to hit them with a dose of fertiliser prior to opening up and it's best to use a soluble solution such as seaweed extract.
- Move your pot plants it may be the right time to start bringing some of your container plants out of hibernation and showing them off in strategic parts of the garden. Why not create a few annual themes in a dislpay pot to exhibit on your patio.
- Renovate your pathways winter can be quite damaging to semi-permanent pathways such as woodchips, sawdust and even gravel. Check each of them to make sure that all the holes are filled in and if necessary recover with a fresh layer of the appropraite medium.
- Plant something new Why? Because you can - it's spring for goodness sake!!
Southern Hemisphere
Northern Hemisphere
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Comments
Actually, just to be pedantic, I believe the seasons change on the 15th of the month, not on the 1st, in the Northern Hemisphere.
Posted by: Alice | March 1, 2006 7:13 PM
No, I was wrong - it's the 21st of the month that the seasons change in the northern hemisphere.
Posted by: Alice | March 2, 2006 2:29 AM
They say you learn something new everyday. Is that because of the solstice and equinoxes?
Posted by: Stuart | March 2, 2006 6:26 AM
Yes, I think it is the 21st of the month, but the first is so much easier to remember.
And Stu, you've neglected to mention the real buzz you get when autumn arrives: it's the footy season! Ah the bliss of coming home on Friday night and collapsing in front the the tv after dinner. And no more Eddie! (heh, the non-Aussies will wonder what on earth we're on about).
Posted by: Val | March 2, 2006 5:19 PM
I thought Eddie was going to continue with the football. Or is that only as President of the Magpies, but not as a commentator?
Posted by: Alice | March 4, 2006 10:10 AM