Like many gardeners, I have something of a love-hate relationship with this time of year.
I love, for example, the sulphur-yellow crocuses flowering their socks off beneath the garden’s beech trees, the gilded spring evenings, and the rhubarb pushing up its sherbet-pink stalks. Similarly, waking up to the musical morning song of our resident starlings – a wondrous concoction of warbling calls, chirrups, clicks and tuneful whistling – is good for the soul, as is the sight of drifts of egg-yolk yellow daffodils in flower, and roadside willows heavy with golden catkins.
On the other hand, that quickening pace of growth is as daunting as it is inspiring, with so much in the garden that needs doing, but never enough time to do it all. I’ve learned the trick to staying on top of things at this time of year is to ruthlessly prioritise those jobs that can’t be put off.
An example is seed-sowing. Hard-wired into every seed is a timetable for growth, one that no amount of hot-housing or fertilising will enable you to accelerate. Sweet peas, for example, typically need a minimum of 75-85 days to reach maturity, the pretty flowering annual known as cosmos needs between 90-100, while the Sungold cherry tomato needs approximately 60 days. Leave it too late to sow seed and you quite literally won’t have enough time to catch up.
Likewise, if you still have bare-root plants waiting to get in the ground, then there’s no time to waste. Leave it for more than a couple of weeks and they’ll struggle to properly establish in time to withstand the warmer, dryer days of late spring and summer.
Another essential task at this time of year is keeping bare soil covered (the exception, of course, being any freshly sown areas). Use a mulch of homemade compost, leaf mould, well-rotted manure, or sheets of cardboard to do this. You can use the latter either by itself, or under a layer of compost, manure or shredded garden waste as an extra-effective weed-suppressant. The aim is to protect soil health while excluding light, which prevents the germination of weed seeds and discourages weedy growth.
Using sheets of strong black plastic as mulch is another short-term alternative, with the added benefit that this will also weaken or even kill off most existing weeds if left on the ground for several months. When time is of the essence, it’s also a very effective, relatively low labour way to prep weedy vegetable beds for planting later this spring, as well as to clear new ground for beds. Just watch out for slugs lurking beneath.
For weedy pathways and paving, a combination of hand-weeding, hoeing and raking at this time of year will do the trick without the need to resort to weedkiller; a planet-friendly way to save yourself many hours of hard work in the months to come.
As slugs and snails start to become active, early spring is also the time to take pre-emptive action to protect both vulnerable young seedlings and the soft sappy growth of emerging herbaceous perennials from damage. For this reason, use only fresh seed compost (open bags of old compost can harbour both slugs and their eggs) and check the bases of seed trays regularly for any pests that might be lurking. Ideally, also keep pots and trays of young seedlings on a table or bench, rather than at ground level where they’re much more vulnerable to attack. To protect herbaceous plants emerging from winter hibernation, clear away weeds or old, decaying leaves from around the young stems where they might be offering slugs and snails a handy place to hide.
A pre-emptive approach also pays generous dividends when it comes to other common garden pests and diseases. Now is an excellent time of year to disrupt the life cycle of vine weevil, a widespread garden pest whose C-shaped, creamy-coloured larvae cause huge damage by feeding underground on the root systems of plants, especially container-grown specimens growing in ericaceous compost. Most active between March-May, and then again in August-October, the best way to eradicate it is by using a biological control such as Nemasys as a liquid drench around the root systems of vulnerable plants. Effective for up to four weeks after application, it uses high concentrations of naturally-occurring parasitic nematodes which target the larvae and kill them quickly.
Late March is also the time to start protecting box hedging and topiary from pests and diseases such as box blight and boxwood moth. The former is a widespread fungal disease that gradually defoliates plants and can kill them. The latter is a newly-arrived pest in Irish gardens, whose green-and-black caterpillars become active at this time of year and can quickly defoliate and kill entire hedges by feeding on them.
To control box blight, apply a monthly foliar feed of either liquid seaweed or the product known as TopBuxus HealthMix (available in good garden centres), from now until autumn. An organic mulch around the base of the plants also helps to suppress the disease, as does hand-collecting and burning any fallen leaves.
To control boxwood moth, wait until the caterpillars become active (typically at this time of year) and then use a biological control such as TopBuxus XenTari (available in good garden centres) or LepinoxPlus (available from fruithillfarm.com) as a liquid drench, making sure that it makes direct contact with the caterpillars. Both products contain Bacillus thuringiensis, a naturally occurring nematode that targets active caterpillars, but bear in mind that they both need to be applied on a dry, warmish day to be effective. The latter were thin on the ground throughout the long, cold months of winter, but not any more. Spring, it seems, has finally sprung.
This week in the garden
Lift and divide established clumps of snowdrops that have finished flowering, replanting them into a suitable spot in the garden and then watering them in.
Use a sharp secateurs or shears to cut the faded stems of herbaceous perennials back down to ground level or to the crown of the plant, before lightly mulching around the roots.
Dates for your diary
RHSI Bellefield Plant Fair Sunday, March 23rd (11am-4pm), RHSI Bellefield Gardens, Shinrone, Co Offaly. A boutique gathering for plant enthusiasts with a range of specialist nurseries taking part. rhsi.ie
Alpine Garden Society Annual Show Saturday, April 5th (1.30pm-4pm), Cabinteely Community School, Dublin 18. A range of plant exhibits, society plant sales and commercial nursery plant stalls. alpinegardensociety.ie
