Gardening with James Vaughan: Gardens this week

The weather during the month of March to date has certainly not been as settled as February. Nevertheless, the season is still pressing ahead- as it is in my own garden. In beds by our patio next to the house we have a lot of seasonal colour. There are Narcissus ‘Tete-a-tete in flower. There are also some Hyacinths, along with various Tulips. All of our herbaceous borders have signs of growth. Herbaceous plants are ones which appear every year but never get woody. Common examples would be Sedum, Peony and Rudbekia.
We have plum trees that are in flower. Hopefully, if we get some calm, mild weather some pollinating insects will visit our garden and do their job. What we are also hopeful of is that any future frosts will be mild. If we were to get a severe frost any time going forward this would certainly damage our crop of plums. Late frosts will also damage apples from forming by burning the delicate blossom. Unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done to prevent late frosts and the damage they can do.

Read more: Growing flowers from seed

Grass Cutting
I see more and more people giving there grass its first cut of the year. A useful task to perform to start your annual lawn care is to scarify. This means removing the ‘thatch’ from your lawn. The ‘thatch’ is made up of dead grass that lies on the soil surface. It gathers there from loose blades of grass not gathered by raking or in the grass box. This dead grass gathers over the season and forms a barrier. This ‘thatch’ acts like a sponge and prevents moisture from reaching the soil and thus the grass roots. If the grass roots are not getting moisture then this will affect the strength and vigour of the grass. This is why there is a need to scarify. Scarifying can be simply done by raking vigorously with a wire or spring-tine rake. This is quite strenuous work and you will quickly work up a sweat! What you would hope to achieve is rake up into heaps all the ‘thatch’ and any moss. Both these things are bad for effective drainage in a lawn. There are many other tasks to perform on lawns throughout the year including how and when to feed. We will touch on these tasks in future articles.

Other Jobs
I have just about finished planting trees and shrubs in my garden for this year. The last to be planted were a Laurel hedge and also a Holly hedge. I have also planted a couple of pot-grown trees. One was an Amelachier. This is a lovely tree for early spring colour. It produces lots of pure white flowers and is followed by copper coloured emerging leaves.
One final comment. Please remember that - under the Wildlife Act - we are forbidden from cutting hedges or diches from March 1 each year until August 31. This is so birds can build nests and rear their young. So, if at all possible, avoid unnecessarily cutting ditches and hedgerows.
Contact James by email: james.vaughan1020@gmail.com