The big job in March was spreading 8 tonnes of mushroom compost on the borders to nourish the soil and suppress the weeds. The borders that didn’t get any had compost from our own compost bins (some of which were done in the autumn). Composting always feels like the last task of the winter to get the garden ready for spring. From now on we are busy with a new season, after the winter spent cutting things back and rearranging borders, it’s time to focus on everything growing, to keep the borders weeded, the new plants watered and fed and the grass cut. 

The other big news of the month is that we now have electricity in the shed. There are lights so we can see what we are doing, plug sockets for charging battery powered tools and most importantly we can make a cup of tea! The contractors were here for longer than expected, so the South East lawn was cordoned off for two weeks rather than one, however everything has been finished off, the trench has been back filled and hopefully the grass will soon be growing back. The only thing that doesn’t look so good is that the pea shingle on the path down to the tunnel has been mixed up with the MOT base, so we might need to look at putting more pea shingle on top. 

Other tasks we did in March were sowing seeds in the poly tunnel and we finished cutting back the perennial plants to tidy up the borders before composting. We also finished the last bit of hedge cutting before the bird nesting season. 

Looking ahead to April, we will be growing on and potting up annual and perennial plants in the poly tunnel to plant out later in the year. 

I will arrange for a contractor to spray the lawns with a weed and feed.

I would like to have one or two loads of non-burnable/non-compostable waste removed from the bonfire site. 

I will also get in contact with Green willows associates to arrange a date for them to do an ecological (phase1 Habitat) survey of the garden in April or May.