Aside from general tidying at random times, 1st march is/was the official 1st day of spring, and the weather was pleasant, so I managed to get into the garden. It was a nice distraction, as I had a few things on my mind over that weekend.
I managed to sow the first seeds of the year in the first weekend of march – cauliflowers and sprouts. I actually have last years sprouts still in the ground! I think I have been planting these too late in spring, so trying to be a bit earlier to see if this works better.
Looking around the garden I can see daffs sprouting, but none in flower yet. Amazingly I located a crocus in flower. We’ve been here 10 years, and this is the first time we have seen it, so odd. Spotted buds on the wisteria. Hoping this starts coming into it’s own this year, as it should really be established now. Also spotted the first signs of growth of the fritillaries. The Pieris Japonica (fire tree) has it’s first blossoms. The camelia and rhododendron are full of flower buds.
I really want to start splitting the pots of European lilies, peruvian lilies, and daisy plants, but don’t want to do that too early.
I have lots of seeds I want to start sowing!
First daff flowered 5/3/25. Camelia flowers started opening a few days later, and the carnation has a lot of flower buds on it.
The warm spell at the start of march might lull people into a false sense of security, but a cold snap is also forecast. I got the Asian lilies out of the greenhouse during this spell, as several pots had signs of growth sprouting in the pots, as well as weeds, so some weeding of these pots got done.
I bought a couple of coldframes/mini greenhouses from aldi. Very easy to build, so great for starting off planting things. Of course, the risk is I will have more space for seed trays, and inevitably when I start potting on, there will be insufficient room (as always!)
Third weekend in march I properly got started. Sowed peppers, tomatoes, basil, spring onion, lettuce, cucumber, cosmos, lavender, and morning glory. Still have loads of other things to sow.
I got a series of pots out of the greenhouse, and weeded them. It seems the first balloon plants are sprouting.
Noticed a calla lily inside the house has it’s first signs of growth, but the ones in the greenhouse do not (yet).
Spotted the fritillaries have sprouted and have flowers. The camelia is absolutely covered in buds, and a nice spring day will see an explosion of colour.
I really enjoyed the moments sowing seeds, I got very into listening to the birds singing whilst out there. It was really tranquil.
One of the evenings in the week the weather remained pleasant, so I was able to also sow lavatera, cornflowers (unusual white ones), echinacea, poppies, and some marigolds. Am looking forwards to the clocks changing, as the light in the evenings will allow more time for sowing and garden pottering. Another evening I managed to sow some dianthus, peony flowers, and some unusual/tall marigold seeds that I collected from a plant I grew last year.
The final weekend of march was lovely, so I was able to do some additional sowing (marigolds and the tall ones, rudbeckia, and more cosmos – whilst noticing that the first lot of this that I sowed has already sprouted!) I also moved the Asian lilies in their pots out – they’re kicking in now (the cat annoyingly sleeps on top of plant pots that are trying to sprout!) I also split one of the peruvian lilies we have that was filling a large pot. The camelia is in bloom now and the flowers are amazing – really pleased to see it, as we bought it years ago, and we put it in the wrong place, and in the wring soil for 2 years and it nearly died.
Start of April sowed more lettuce and spring onion so we have varieties being ready constantly. Split a couple of the daisy plants we bought a couple of years ago. Hope the nice weather continues, as stuff is sprouting.
, but feel like having it anywhere else would be daft seeing as we have a perfect base already. I think it should be OK, still gets decent sun as summer comes in.
