Marching on to spring

At last! We’ve seen off another winter and are starting to enjoy more hours of daylight. You never know, it might start to feel like spring soon, too.

As any gardener will tell you, March is when the seed sowing starts in earnest – and here at the Gardens we’ll be doing just that as the team head to the plant nursery.

We’ll be sowing bedding plants for beautiful summer displays, annual herbs and vegetables, as well as new plants for our Tropical House.

Winter has been fairly mild and, of late, quite wet, so we’re looking forward to getting the mowers out towards the end of the month to give the lawns their first cut of the season. If you are planning to tidy up your lawn later this month, make sure you set the blades fairly high and don’t be tempted to give the grass a short cut as this will only weaken it and will also encourage moss growth.

If you’ve visited us in the past couple of weeks, you’ll no doubt have seen the wonderful display of snowdrops again in the woodland walk. As they come to the end of their flowering this month, we’ll be dividing the clumps and using the divisions to fill any gaps. You should do the same in your garden because the best time to move snowdrops is straight after flowering while they are “still in the green”.

Daffodils (narcissus) are the flower of the moment and are looking stunning on our west lawn opposite the playground. Speaking of daffodils, be sure to pay a visit to our brand new Daffodil Society Show at BBG over the Easter weekend (April 16-17). It’s going to be amazing!

We’re enjoying hosting events and welcoming back old friends, so make sure you check our what’s on pages to see what’s coming up.

Don’t forget it’s Mother’s Day on March 27 – our garden centre has wonderful plants and gifts for the most important woman in your life. You don’t even have to visit the Gardens to gain entry to it; just turn up and head straight in (although we’d love for you to stay awhile and enjoy the Gardens).

We hope to see you in the Gardens this month, enjoying what the early spring weather has to offer. It’s such a wonderful space in which to while away a couple of hours or more, and it’s always a pleasure to talk to you about gardening.