Green Fingers: A burst of enthusiasm
The spring brings with it a huge range of possibilities in the garden.
There is no holding back in gardening when conditions are right. The phrase ‘seize the day’ from the Latin phrase ‘Carpe Diem’ applies, as everything can change the next day.
It might be more relevant to ‘seize the moment’ in that it is more immediate and does away with hesitating or changing the mind.
Whatever way you think, it is certainly a good time to take on board this train of thought.
There is a local priest who shared a word of advice that he embraced many years ago and that is with anything in life “do the right thing”, which can be applied to so many aspects of our life, including gardening.
He then added to the phrase the words “do it now”, which brings on a whole new aspect to our way of thinking.
Many of us already do the right thing but quite often not at that moment in time. I should imagine that everyone that does something that needs to be done immediately will get that glow of satisfaction from completing the job.
Hares behave strangely and excitedly throughout the breeding season, which peaks in March but while the hare has the idiom “mad as a March hare” attached to its behaviour, it can quite as easily apply to many other animals, including humans. I am sure it is quite normal for us humans to behave in a similar and unpredictable manner when we just come out of a long dark and cold winter and then with more light and warm days we become quite happy and perhaps excitable!
The spring brings with it a huge range of possibilities in the garden. Whatever your interests are, now is the time to plan and mull over what can be done for the upcoming growing season.
Vegetable growers are making a start as preparation and sowing gets underway and if you are one who might like to dip your toes into growing some simple vegetables then a start can be made within the next eight weeks.
For those who want to have flowers and patio plants for the summer, it is too early to start now and you can wait until late April or better still the second week of May to do your planting. If you wish to grow some fruit then plant away from now on until around June for best results.
Finally, for all those other plants, such as trees, shrubs, perennials, etc., there is no closed season and they can be planted at anytime of the year but perhaps avoiding the main summer months in case it is too dry.
If you cover the ground with some plastic the soil will warm up faster and stay that way until you start sowing outdoor vegetables and flowers. After germination, you can remove the plastic and cover with fleece and the young seedlings will continue to grow away undisturbed but do make sure you control any damage from slugs and snails.
If you have any queries or comments you are welcome to share them with me on 051-384273 or orchardstowngardencentre@hotmail.com and if of general interest I will include it in a future article.
