gardening jobs in March

~Chameleon~

Jack's_mummy wrote: »

Don't panic - I haven't sown any veggie seeds apart from chilli's yet. I am following this plan roughly
http://www.thegardenersalmanac.co.uk/Indexes/index.htm

as the guy lives up this end of the country and so has the same weather as us.

HTH

That's a great site, thankyou so much!!!! :j :T :A

Just had a quick glance at this week under the veggie bit and it's reminded me to net over the brassicas which I've not done yet, and I've got pigeons nearby too!

Will have a better look at it later on but looks like just the thing I need :beer:

Lotus-eater

I know its not exactly practical, but I think I have discovered a way to keep pigeons off brassicas. I have a large patch of ivy down at the bottom of the garden, growing on an old fence. Their are often pigeons sitting on there eating the berries. But they never ever touch my brassicas, I guess they prefer the ivy.

~Chameleon~

So far so good, the pigeons don't appear to have touched any of my brassicas, I think they get chased off by the doves and blackbirds, and the blackbirds have "other" things on their minds right now :whistle:

I still should cover them though to be o nthe safe side now I've been reminded

annie123

watch out for a cold snap easter weekend.
Dont want any tender growing seeds outside to freeze.

Dustykitten

Had a trailer load of manure delivered today for the new kitchen garden I have started to create.

Hope to get raspberries/tayberry/gosberry planted this week and then the second bed dug out. It is not a huge area but I plan to plant close together and harvest when produce is small and tasty.

Lawns are a real state - moss galore. I will kill that off once the grass is growing better and I need to order a spring lawn feed (without moss killer).

Lunker_2

Afternoon all,
This is my first post in this part of the forum so go easy

My girlfriend and I are first time buyers and moved into our new house in November, and this weekend is the weekend I try and improve the rock and clay pit we currently call a garden. I'm planning on removing most of the bricks and weeds that have sprung up, then digging in about a 4" layer of soil improver, possibly from B&Q or the local garden centre. I have read a few threads about using good quality improver, but my pockets are a bit sparse at the moment, does anyone know of any good deals? I have tried the local council and Freecycle.

The plan is to leave it for about a month and then lay the turf down. In between this period I thought about laying some weed prevention cloth over the soil to try and keep the weeds at bay, is this a good idea?

Also is March a good time to doo all of this, bearing in mind turf will be laid in April/May time?

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Dustykitten

Welcome Lunker. I am by no means an expert on lawns but a couple of things to think about.

Grass roots are not very deep so they don't need loads of goodness. I think your potential problems are likely to be drainage. Which way does the area face and is it shaded by trees/houses. We have clay soil and the parts which are shadey don't do well.

I'd google laying a new lawn or get a book out of the library before you start to see how best to prepare.

Digging soil when it is very wet is not a good idea as it ruins the soil structure - that depends as much on weather as time of year.

Turf will take well in spring aslong as it gets enough rain/water.

HTH a bit.

annie123

sorry no idea where has good deals at the moment.
My neighbour put loads of horse manure on his old lawn 2 years ago hired a rotovator left it for 3 weeks then laid turf.

I thought this was a lot of s****ng around for a lawn, but it looks fab, lush thick etc. well eorth it.
Try your local stables for a price.

You wont need weed fabric, make sure that you lay it during a wet time if poss otherwise you will need to water several times a week.....assuming we do have some warm weather at somepoint this year!!

annie123

I get the feeling, looking at the long term weather forecast for April that many of my seedlings will be spending another few weeks yet on my windowsill.
Doesn't look as nice as April last year, but I guess its difficult to forecast that far in advance.
Hope they are wrong!

~Chameleon~

I think I'm rather glad that I haven't started any of my seeds this year yet, despite earlier being worried I was getting behind. I still haven't got round to glazing the greenhouse yet!!! :doh:

I'd left this weekend free to get out in the garden but the weather has certainly put paid to that :rolleyes:

I'm thinking now that I might build the 4-tier staging in the shed and start off some seeds in there. Do you think they'd be ok in there? There's plenty of light from windows and it's quite well-insulated but isn't heated.