Busy with spring jobs

With any luck, spring will arrive around the middle of March, signalled as ever by the cheerful blooms of golden daffodils. Glad of more frequent sunshine, it’s now easier for us to press on with jobs around the garden ahead of the busy growing season.

In the shrubbery, we’re busy coppicing the brightly coloured stems of Cornus (dogwood) and Salix (willow) that have provided interest throughout the winter, so they can re-grow for next year. Late summer flowering shrubs like buddleia can also be pruned back. In the vegetable garden, we’re finishing off any digging as the ground becomes drier and thoughts turn to preparing beds for sowing and planting. Shallots, onion sets and first early potatoes, such as the Foremost we’re growing this year, can all go in now. In the woodland, we’re lifting and dividing large clumps of snowdrops as their flowers fade, to increase the spread for next year.

Elsewhere, we’re propagating summer flowering herbaceous perennials by division. Whilst potting up dahlia tubers to get them started under cover before the frosts end and planting summer flowering bulbs such as lilies and gladioli. On the seed bench, in the warmth of the polytunnel, we’re also sowing tomatoes, salad crops and other vegetables, along with ornamental half-hardy annuals (such as cosmos, marigolds and sunflowers) to provide summer colour around the garden.

As we get ready for our Spring Open Day on Saturday 13th April 2-5 pm, we’ll also be mowing the grass, hoeing the weeds and mulching the flower beds in preparation for the glorious sight of our tulips coming into flower. We hope you can join us.