Gardening: Jobs for the week ahead (March 6) | Brian Kidd

From Christmas roses to spuds.
Helleborus niger (Christmas rose) is blooming now. Picture by Tom Pattinson.Helleborus niger (Christmas rose) is blooming now. Picture by Tom Pattinson.
Helleborus niger (Christmas rose) is blooming now. Picture by Tom Pattinson.

• Remove the dead leaves from the base of Christmas rose plants to ensure the plant looks glamorous. Scatter sharp sand around the clump. This will prevent mud splashes spoiling the flowers and foliage and help keep slugs away.

• Try to plant a row of early potatoes, as long as the soil allows you to do this job ie it is not waterlogged. The tubers need to have a covering of soil six inches deep over the top. Scatter 2oz per yard run of blood fish and bone meal along the rows and when the tubers are planted, simply finish by leaving a ridge over the top of the row. Save as much of your wonderful home-made compost as possible so you can top dress plants as they appear. This will ensure you have a crop of potatoes with smooth skins. To each barrow load of compost, add 1lb of sulphate of potash and mix it really thoroughly. Potash kills slugs that try to eat the new tubers and adds flavour to the new potatoes.

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• Where weeds are growing on the soil you so patiently dug over, put a plank down and lightly spray the weeds with Weedol. If you do this on a sunny day, it will work within three days. Don’t allow this product to drift on any cultivated plants because it will kill them.

• Little fuchsia plants and hanging basket Surfinia petunias are arriving at garden centres. Buy them if you can and keep the plants warm. Take cuttings three inches long in a few weeks. This can save a lot of money.

• Sow seeds of all types of annuals in the greenhouse but it’s too early to sow French and African marigolds and zinnias. These are not sown until early April because they grow rapidly. You need the space for items such as lobelia, begonias and petunias which grow far more slowly.

• Have you tried to buy some snowdrops in the green? This is the time to plant them while they are in leaf. Use an apple corer to plant them.

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• Some of the early daffs are just finishing flowering. Remove the dead flowers and seed heads. This will cause the foliage to die back naturally and build up the bulbs for next spring.

• Scatter a cheap fertiliser such as Growmore over the area where the daffs are growing. This is the best time to give them a feed.

• Don’t forget, the birds appreciate clean water every day. They will have found their mate by now and will be making nests and need the water to make the finishing touches to the inside of that home.

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