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Here is our monthly round-up of news, tips and ideas to make the most of your garden this March!
Spring is just around the corner – the month of March marks the start of a busy gardening season, bringing the promise of longer days and, hopefully, warmer weather!
As we move to our spring-summer opening hours, now is the perfect time to flex your green fingers and make a start on the gardening projects you have planned for 2025!
From the 1st of March until October, both of our centres will operate under our extended spring-summer opening hours:
Mon – Fri: 08:00am – 05:00pm
Saturday: 08:30am – 05:00pm
Sunday: 10:00am – 04:00pm
Mon – Fri: 08:00am – 05:00pm
Saturday: 08:30am – 05:00pm
Sunday: CLOSED
Transform your garden experience with our new range of versatile garden cabins! Chosen to combine practicality and good looks, our robust timber garden cabins bring an extra dimension to your garden, and are carefully crafted to give you many years of use. Choose from The Willow, The Maple, The Elder, The Aspen or The Hazel.
Enjoy 10% off our new range during the month of March!
Our new range of cabins offer contemporary and traditional styles, with a huge range of options – carefully selected to allow you to specify a unique cabin for your garden.
• Wide range of sizes and styles
• Traditional and contemporary
• Range of wall thicknesses and insulation options
• Full service from base, installation, painting and landscaping
• Range of roofing options, including rubber eco slate
• Choice of pre-painted door and window colour options
• Easily customised from a wide range of options
Check out our new Cabin Collection Brochure and Price Guide, which have been developed to help you choose the right log cabin for your garden. We will be with you, every step of the way!
Find out more here.
Here are some tasks to help you make the most out of your garden over the coming months:
• Separate perennials – Separating into smaller groups encourages new growth and summer flowering.
• Cut back rose bushes and climbers – Remove dead branches and trim stems just above fresh buds. Ensure your secateurs are sharp for precise cutting.
• Add to your compost bin – Add grass clippings and left over matter from pruning to your compost bin.
• Weed your garden – 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.
• Prepare your greenhouse – 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 – To keep weeds away, lay fresh mulch around fruit trees. To feed your trees and ensure a healthy crop, also apply a garden manure or compost.
• Manage pests – 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.
• Care for wildlife – Help your local hedgehogs by providing food, water and a safe place to take shelter.
• Check for wood damage – Be sure to inspect your fencing, crop protection and outbuildings. Bad winter weather can cause damage, which is best to fix at around this time of year.
• Plant potted bulbs – If you forgot to plants spring-flowering bulbs back in autumn, purchasing some potted bulbs now may be the answer. Though a little more pricey than dormant bulbs, using potted bulbs in a series of containers or along a flower bed can result in a beautiful spring display!
Sustainable gardening is set to continue as a firm trend throughout 2025. Why not try these ideas out this year?
An increasing number of gardeners are returning to the traditional method of growing plants from seed and collecting seeds from their plants to sow during the next growing season. Sowing from scratch provides a fun, cost-effective alternative to buying potted plants, and can help local plant populations grow stronger and cope with the changing climate.
Spring is the ideal season to begin growing from seed, with sweet peas, sunflowers, and cosmos being perfect choices for beginners.
Waterwise gardening goes beyond conserving water during dry periods—it’s also about managing and absorbing excess rainwater. With the unpredictable wet weather we’ve had in recent years, protecting your garden from waterlogging is more important than ever.
Installing a water butt in your garden is one of the simplest methods of collecting rainwater, whilst also providing an environmentally friendly way to water your plants. Visit us in-store to view our range of water butts.
Adding water-tolerant plants to your garden, like yellow Irises, cardinal flowers and Tatarian dogwood, can also help to divert and absorb excess rainwater.
Many gardens are beginning to shift towards a wilder, more natural look – with gardeners embracing the rustic charm of cottage-style planting and moving away from stricter geometric designs. These wilder gardens will typically have borders overflowing with plants, featuring a variety of colours, textures and heights.
This approach to gardening is ideal for boosting biodiversity, creating a haven for wildlife in your garden.
More and more gardeners are choosing to grow their own food, with fruit trees, edible shrubs, and perennial vegetables growing in popularity due to their reliable harvests and low maintenance upkeep.
Easy to care for plants like Honeyberries are perfect for smaller spaces, fitting well in compact gardens while providing both food and habitats for wildlife.
The shorter lifespans of bedding plants have encouraged many gardeners to opt for more sustainable, long-lasting alternatives, such as hardy annuals and resilient perennials.
Plants like heather, dahlias, and salvias are excellent low-maintenance options that not only look stunning but also support pollinators!
Daffodils across the country are beginning to bloom with the arrival of spring!
To celebrate this iconic flower, the Royal Horticultural society are calling on members of the public to help them map the UK’s daffodils, and locate three rare varieties.
Logging your local daffodil population helps RHS scientists understand environmental influences and spread. Locating rare daffodils will aid in their conservation, and may even enable the preservation of genetic material in the face of a changing climate.
Find out how to log your local daffodils here.
The International Day of Forests takes place on March 21st – celebrating the importance of forests, and our need to preserve them.
This year’s theme is ‘Forests and Foods’, raising awareness of the crucial roles that forests play in food security and nutrition across the world.
Just a simple walk in the woods can calm and invigorate our senses. Why not visit our Midgley centre and enjoy a woodland walk?
We have two nature trails of differing lengths at Midgley for you to explore, with historical facts about the area dotted throughout.
You can also visit our Little Acorn coffee stop at Midgley – our vintage horse box conversion serves hot and cold drinks and a variety of tasty treats.
As local wildlife begins to return to our gardens, March is a great time to start thinking about how you can support and protect the UK’s critters.
Here are our top tips for creating a wildlife-friendly garden:
• Let your spring grass grow – Areas of long cut grass are home to all kinds of insects, as well as the birds who feast on them.
• Add animal houses to your garden – Adding birdboxes, hedgehog homes and insect wedges to your garden is a clever way to welcome springtime birds and hungry hedgehogs back to nature. Take a look at our range of RSPB-approved bird feeds, bird boxes, and hedgehog houses.
• Create a compost heap – Disposing of appropriate waste in a compost bin or heap helps to enrich your soil and will provide a home for worms, woodlice and frogs.
• Grow bee-friendly plants – Include a variety of flowers, shrubs, and herbs that attract pollinators such as bees and butterflies. Plant species like lavender, coneflowers, sunflowers, and salvias, which are known to be attractive to pollinators.
RHS Chelsea Flower show will be returning from the 20th – 24th of May!
The world’s most prestigious flower show is more than 100 years old, and represents the pinnacle of horticultural excellence – this event has something for everyone, no matter your level of gardening experience.
There’s still time to book your tickets here!
• 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.
How to Design a Garden: Create and Maintain Your Dream Garden by Pollyanna Wilkinson
How to Design A Garden shows you how to untap your garden’s potential and customise the design to suit you and your space: whether that be an extension of your living space for parties and al fresco dining or a calming oasis to relax in.
Available from Amazon here.
“March, when days are getting long,
Let thy growing hours be strong to set right some wintry wrong.”
– Caroline May
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