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Here is our monthly round-up of news, tips and ideas to make the most of your garden!
As we move to our summer opening hours, March marks the start of a busy gardening season and time to begin the outdoor projects you’ve been planning over the winter.
In readiness for the 2023 season, we have been busy enhancing our Midgley display area with an extensive paved patio next to the Little Acorn Coffee Stop!
From March until the end of September, the opening hours at each of our centres will be as follows:
Mon – Fri: 08:00 – 17:00
Saturday: 08:30 – 17:00
Sunday: 10:00 – 16:00
Mon – Fri: 08:00 – 17:00
Saturday: 08:30 – 17:00
Sunday: CLOSED
Mon – Fri: 08:00 – 17:00
Saturday: 08:30 – 17:00
Sunday: CLOSED
With warmer weather around the corner, there’s no better time to start planning your garden projects!
Creating a beautiful private patio has never been easier with our range of Natural Indian Sandstone paving, in an array of eye-catching colours. Alternatively, our contemporary Porcelain paving provides an anti-slip and non-porous surface – perfect for a more modern look and for preventing stains!
Click here to explore our collection of paving solutions.
Here are some tasks to help you make the most out of your garden over the coming months:
• Separate perennials into smaller groups to encourage new growth and summer flowering.
• Cut back rose bushes and climbers, removing dead branches and trimming stems just above fresh buds. Ensure your secateurs are sharp for precise cutting.
• Add grass clippings and left over matter from pruning to your compost.
• Get rid of weeds that have been left to thrive over the winter months, and cover borders and bedding with bark or wood chippings to keep them at bay.
• Take down insulation in your greenhouse to let in more light. At this time of year, plants need as much light as they can get to continue growing rapidly.
• Put down fresh mulch around fruit trees to keep weeds away. To feed your trees and ensure a healthy crop, also apply a garden manure or compost.
• Keep an eye out for snails and slugs, particularly if you have an unheated greenhouse, as they feed on new growth and seedlings. Copper rings, beer traps and organic pellets can help to protect vulnerable plants.
• Help your local hedgehogs by providing food, water and a safe place to take shelter.
• Be sure to take a look at your fencing, crop protection and outbuildings. Bad winter weather can cause damage, which is best to fix at around this time of year.
The world’s most prestigious flower show is more than 100 years old but RHS Chelsea still delivers new ideas in horticulture
Buy tickets here
International Day of Forests is observed annually on March 21 to celebrate forests and create awareness about the importance of preserving them.
Roosevelt called them “the lungs of the Earth,” Robert Frost and millions of poets were inspired by them. Just a simple walk in the woods can calm and invigorate our senses. They are one of our greatest natural treasures that we must preserve and protect. Why not feel the calming effects of forests in our woodland walk?
For the freshest food, here are some delicious crops to grow indoors and outside this month:
• Beetroot is full of antioxidants and can be sown until July and harvested until October.
• Tomatoes should be sown indoors between February and April and need to be watered generously and regularly.
Harvest your tomatoes between July and October.
• Strawberries can be sown in March and April. For an earlier crop, it is best to grow your strawberries
in pots in an unheated greenhouse or, if outside, covered with cloches.
• Carrots should be sown under cover in March and should only need to be watered if the foliage
shows signs of wilting. Harvest around 3-4 month after sowing.
• Broad beans, packed with iron and potassium, can be planted until May and should be harvested
towards the end of summer, around September.
• Second early potatoes can be planted in beds once the soil is no longer cold, for harvests in July and August.
At Earnshaws, you’ll find everything you need to grow your own food at home, including timber planters, pots, top-soil, compost and mulch, sleepers, seeds, gardening gloves and even greenhouses!
After 20 years in the heritage village of Wentworth, between Rotherham and Barnsley, we plan to merge our two Yorkshire centres into one high-quality destination at Midgley, near Wakefield.
We would like to thank our Wentworth customers for their loyalty, and to reassure them that we will continue to support you from our flagship centre in West Yorkshire.
Read more about our plans here
Trees and Woodland in the British Landscape by Oliver Rackham
Released in 1976, this classic woodland book written by Oliver Rackham is described by Country Life as a beautifully written classic of nature writing.
Available to buy here
“A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows.”
– Doug Larson, columnist