ASlake Community Glasshouse Growers Sprowston

Gardening jobs for March

Its the busy month sowing nearly everything for the glasshouse and seed beds for outside Broad beans and shallots Can sow early peas like Meteor sow onion seed in March /April to give good supplies for the home less likely to bolt opposed to sets

If you covered your Rhubarb in February it will take about three weeks for your harvest with a layer of straw then a plastic bin over the top to exclude the light, yes some varieties respond better to this Timperley early and Champagne giving you nice pink shoots to harvest

Hellebores are a lovely start to the year but if the leaves are showing signs of black distorted leaves this is called black death sadly a virus comming from an early attack of aphid there is no cure all you can do is destroy the plants affected. this is on the increase for the last two years and Brexit wont help, as this stems from Europe ,

Plant summer flower bulbs Gladiolus, Dahlias and lilies for coulour over a long period Begonias ideal for the hanging basket Its trendy to stick to one colour salmon and red are the hard fast rule

Window cill garderning sow rocket, mustard and cress ideal to top up your salads also as a micro herb to garnish the main meal with extra nutrients

Prune roses now cuts should be on a diagonal away from yje bud cut out poor growth and saw away very old stems with the exception of climbers and newly planted these to be left alone

Clematis cut basck time Group 2 and 3 the big flower typesthat appear in mid summer these only need a light prune the ones flower in the late summer and autumn these will need a hard prune if they flower before June dont prune

Top dress fruit trees with a slow growing fertilizer now fish bone and blood or a seaweed are perfect

If you are glasshouse growing chillies Aubergines Tomatoes are a must but now carrots beetrootor turnips can be sown for somethig different Peas Broad beans dwarf types ideal for pot growing Pot up some hanging baskets with cherry tomatoes for a good early crop and early variety od potatoes in plastic conpost bags Charlotte variety are wexcellant although this is really a second eary Rocket and Arran Piot are also ideal and will give you even an earlier crop

Many plants in garden centres although having the label bee freindly are sprayed, have been sprayed with neonicontincids so they are not bee freindly please challenge them about this as its a practice that still conytinues

Roundup weedkiller the Glyphosate material is Ok but its the wetting agents and other chemicals that cause the problem, this is supposed to break down on soil contact this has been found in the garden pond water, killing all amphibians common frog numbers are being defastated by this contamination

Mike Ellard