Herbaceous borders planted in November will be bursting with colour from Spring through to Autumn, to get that informal cottage garden look try to get some height into your borders There are four fairly easy to grow and maintain herbaceous perennials that will give you that cottage garden look. Foxgloves, Lupins, Delphiniums and Hollyhocks.
You will be able to buy them at your garden centre now. but better still and less damage to your pocket have a look around the local car boot sales and gardening friends gardens.
Plants them in at least groups of three for more effect as soon as you can to give the roots plenty of time to establish before flowering time.
Foxgloves are quite happy in shaded areas of the border , are biennial and will self seed, so you could be selling them on your own car boot stand next year !!
Lupins are an old-fashioned perennials happy in both sun or partial shade. slugs love em, so be prepared to defend them . Cutting back the faded flowers encourages more flowers later into the summer.
Delphiniums will give a lovely display but are the most difficult to look after. They like a sheltered sunny spot and can grow up to 6ft so will need staking, again slugs and snails love em.
Hollyhocks produce spires of rosette-like flowers through from July until September and like full sun and good soil, you will need to stake Hollyhocks as they can grow up to 9ft.
Foxgloves, Lupins, Delphiniums and Hollyhocks will add height, colour and an informal cottage garden look to your borders and are well worth the extra bit of TLC you will need to give them.
GARDENING TIPS AND THINGS TO DO IN THE GARDEN IN MARCH INTO APRIL
Vegetables
To prevent disease tis a good ideal to rotate your vegetables and not grow the same crops in the same place in your garden year after year.
Get digging and weeding finished, try not to compact the soil if its wet.
Continue to harvest broccoli, Brussels sprouts, leeks, parsnips, swede, celeriac and turnip. Add the stumps and soiled leaves to your compost heap.
Get your seedbeds ready and cover them with clear polythene to warm the soil ready for sowing broad beans, carrots, parsnips, early beetroot, bulb onions, lettuces, radish, peas, spinach and summer cabbage outside under cloches in February. In heavy clay soil wait until March. Garlic and shallots can also be planted out in the warmed up soil.Jerusalem artichoke tubers can be planted next to garden structures you want to shield..
Continue to harvest broccoli, Brussels sprouts, leeks, parsnips, swede, celeriac and turnip. Add the stumps and soiled leaves to your compost heap
Continue to force chicory and seakale.Pot up some chicory roots and put them in a dark (put a pot over them to exclude light) warm place . The tasty chicons will appear in about 4 weeks. Leave the Seakale outside with an upturned pot over the top to exclude the light.
Plant Jerusalem artichoke tubers. They can act as a screen for the shed or compost bin, as they get quite tall.
Order your asparagus crowns and prepare the beds by weeding and giving it a good dig and dig in lots of compost from your compost heap.
Also time to prepare your runner bean trenches by digging garden compost into the trench, ready for for sowing in May.
Greenhouse
From the begining of March you can sow tomatoes and cucumbers in your heated greenhouse. Good ideal to follow the instructions on the packet for temperature etc, if its your first attempt. Sow peas in old guttering (drill drainage holes) and then plant out by pushing the whole row of peas into a shallow drill in the vege garden.
Herbs
Cover over wintered herbs with fleece to bring them into early active growth.
Pott, and force a few roots of mint in the kitchen for mint to go with the early new potatos.
Do not feed Shrubby herbs in the garden most of them thrive in poor soil.
Flower garden
Time to devide snowdrops winter aconites and clumps of herbaceous perennials. Cut back the ornamental grasses and other perennials you have kept for winter interest. Prune back the stems of pot-grown over wintered fuchsias and place in a well-lit, warm place. Winter Pansies will carry on into the spring and even to early summer if you continue to dead head them.
Take root cuttings of perennial poppies, mullein, bear?s britches and phlox.
Place last years gladioli corms and dahlia tubers in seed trays in a light, warm spot to encourage them to sprout before planting, you will get earlier flowers. For Lily flowers this summer pot up in a cool greenhouse, they can be moved onto the patio when in flower.
Sweet peas can be sown under cloches. Sweet peas sown earlier in the autumn can now be potted on.Place them on a sunny windowsill, or on a high shelf in the greenhouse that gets plenty of light.
Bulbs coming up in the rock garden or in containers will benefit from Perspex placed on piles of bricks for protection from the rain and snow.
If you are planning to add new roses to your flower garden its a good idea to prepare the beds now, before you get really busy as Spring arrives.
