SPRING is here, (though it may not feel like it) and gardeners and food lovers who want to enjoy a feast of fruit and veg in the summer need to brave the wet and the cold and start work now.
Ian LeGros, Hyde Hall curator, gives us his tips for what to do in the garden in March.
1. Strawberries: Wimbledon and Pimm's may seem like a very long way away but believe it or not March is a really crucial time for those who want to enjoy strawberries in the summer. Normally you have to wait a year to get a crop, but by buying '60 day' plants that have been kept refrigerated you can get a crop as quickly as, well, 60 days. After cropping the plants can be left to crorp for another few years.
2. Gardeners who have planned ahead can gather Parsnips, leeks, spring onions, sprouting broccoli and kale are all at their best. And if you fancy something sweet forced Rhubarb is delicious right about now. New gardeners can start sowing parsnips now and planting rhubarb for 2014.
3. Apply a nitrogen feed to plums, cherries, cooking apples and pears as they're hungry feeders. This will help fruit swell this year and encourage flower buds for 2014.
4. Give raspberries, blackberries, loganberries and blackcurrants a treat and mulch with well-rotted farmyard manure or garden compost
5. Plant onions, shallots and garlic sets as well as Jerusalem artichoke tubers. Red onion sets are tricky and best planted at the end of the month.
6. Make sure you have a steady supply of potatoes by laying out both early and second early varieties in a light cool place, like an attic or conservatory, and waiting for them to sprout. Maincrop potatoes are also best sprouted, but the tubers are gathered in early autumn for storage over winter.
7. Spring is a bit late this year so it's not quite time to start sowing new vegetables. You can get the earth ready though by digging it well and covering for a couple of weeks with cloches, clear polythene or fleece to warm it up ready for your seeds.
8. If the weather has been wet avoid walking on your soil as you'll compact it and just create work for yourself later on. Alternatively by using some planks to work off you can avoid damage.
9. Slugs absolutely love the wet weather we've been having and will be poised and ready to much their way through any new seedlings you may plant out as soon as if the weather gets warm enough. There are all sorts of ways to protect your crops, pick the one that works best for you and get it in place now or you'll be feeding the slugs, not your family.
10. Weeds should start shooting up now and if not tackled, will quickly take over your garden. Little and often is the key to effective weed control so begin now, winkling out dandelions and docks, and hoe off weed seedlings through the summer.
