Ready steady grow
It has been said that hearing the first cuckoo was the first sign of spring, but for most of us it’s the sound of the first lawn mower as March is normally the month we make the first cut.
There is some thing quite magical and intoxicating about the smell of freshly cut grass, it burrows into the heart and mind, it just makes us smile, lifts the heart as we then know, spring has sprung.
If the smell could be bottled, well I’m sure a cure for many maladies would be found,
Natures very own medicinal compound.
In the flower garden things are already on the move. Towards the end of the month the green shoots of the early Daffodils will be in flower heralding the spring with those yellow trumpets.
Any Hardy annuals that have survived the winter snow and wet will need to be nurtured and weeded, should any have failed there will be plenty of time to catch up.
If you have the space a few packets of annuals can help brighten the garden as well as the vegetable plot.
The analogy that all the worlds a stag fits so well to the garden, when it comes to flowers there are so many blousy leading ladies but of coarse these must be supported by the rest of the cast and chorus,
Zinnias especially the taller varieties tend to steel the show in late summer and can be sown now, they tend to be free from pest and disease and make a good cut flower.
This year I have sown the Zinnia elegans 'Benary's Giant Lime'
This is a special giant Zinnia with long, thick sturdy stems with magnificent, fully double blooms, each almost four or five inches across, in a unique and fashionable colour of lime green. Blooms to dream about.
Zinnia seed’s tend to be easy to handle and though they can be sown where they are
to flower (they like a sunny, sheltered position) from the end of April to the end of May when the soil is warming up.
I normally start them of undercover in modular trays
Apart from keeping the weeds at bay, just let nature do the rest. If you feel you have to thin out, be careful not to disturb the roots of the plants you are retaining. And in a few short weeks you'll be able to sit back and admire the colourful results of your hard labours
Other easy annuals-
Larkspur
Cornflowers
Asters (annual form)
Nicotiana sylvesteri
Nicotiana alata 'Sensation', Mixed Colours
Sunflowers
Cosmos purity another of the leading ladies
