To Do List - March

March should mean that spring has arrived. Actually it did pop in to say hello last month but only to say it had another appointment elsewhere and that winter was holding the court until they could come back!

Yes, it’s been an odd start to the year here in the southern Mediterranean. Shorts and flip-flops in the garden one day, followed by woollies and wellingtons a couple of days later.

However, March is normally synonymous with the start of Spring, and if you plan and prepare correctly, it sets you up for a healthy and colourful year ahead. So we have prepared a quick fire list of duties that will be beneficial in helping you create the perfect setting for your summer outdoor lifestyle. It may seem a bit strenuous, but if you have the energy to rise with the sound of the first blackbird, we can guarantee you will be sleeping peacefully by the time the owls start hooting after having done a fantastic day’s work.

• Grab your shears and secateurs and cut back your perennials. Remove deadwood, oldflowers, suckers, shooting stems, and erratic branches.
• Trim all your boundary hedges by at least 20cm in readiness for the growing season, and trim hibiscus, oleander, buddleias, lantana, tecomas, pittosporum, and bougainvillea further. On established climbers like these, you can prune 30/50cm off their height and width, otherwise the new shoots and flowers will come on top of last year’s growth, leaving bare branches below making it look too leggy. All these varieties thrive from a haircut in early spring so don’t be too shy.
• Undesirable weeds will inevitably have appeared over the rainy season, but allowing them to get a little bigger before removing them, so that you can gain more purchase when pulling them out. Precious time is spent trying to eradicate weeds when they have little or no root, so all you are doing is taking away the foliage. Wait until they are larger so once pulled you will remove the root and all meaning the job only needs doing once. Rotovating or strimming might look good at first, but often you are just multiplying the weeds, which will come back in greater numbers the following year.
• It’s feeding time. We all need sustenance to grow, and your plants are no different. Like bears coming out of hibernation, they want food! Top all areas with feed from your organic compost bin, or apply a pellet or foliar fertiliser that is high in nitrogen, to all of the garden. A good time to distribute fertilisers is just before the onset of rain.
• For the lawn lovers amongst you, edge your lawn. It will look so much better after the winter storms and will define your borders. It should only need doing once a year, unless you have some Bermuda Buffaloes (a vigorous creeping beast) that needs taming every month!
• "Go forth and multiply” was sound advice not just for Noah, but every gardener out there. Spring is the time to use the word ‘plant’ as in the verb, as it’s pretty much the best month of the year to do so. If you want a list of which ones, it would fill the internet, so basically everything and anything.
• If you have an abundance of leaves to clean up, then gather them up and add to the compost heap. If you don’t have one - then why not? Start one. Spring is the ideal time.
• If your garden furniture or decking has faded, it’s time to spruce up with fresh paint or wood stain. The terraces might also be slippery from a build up of moss and dirt, so a pressure wash might be required in order to keep your feet firmly on the ground.
• Finally rinse out your watering cans, sharpen your tools and service the machinery.

Time to run a bath, feet up, a glass of vino and let the season begin!