garden
How to prepare the garden for spring
If you look after your garden in March, you will have more of it for the rest of the year.
© Alexey Stiop / Shutterstock.com
In many federal states, hardware stores and garden centers have reopened since March 1st. There is now to be done in the garden.
Freezing temperatures will soon be a thing of the past and real spring is slowly arriving. In line with this, the garden centers and hardware stores in some federal states have been open again since March 1st, for example in Bavaria, Schleswig-Holstein and Saxony-Anhalt. In other federal states, the markets have been open since mid-February, including Lower Saxony, Bremen and North Rhine-Westphalia. The Saarland and Thuringia have not yet let citizens into the markets, but there is the option of "Click & Collect", in other words: If you need something, you can pre-order it online and pick it up in the appropriate shop.
This gives you the opportunity to bring the garden back into shape after winter. There will be some work to be done in March. Anyone who is already using rakes, spades and secateurs can look forward to a beautiful garden in spring. Hobby gardeners can already do that.
1. Tidy up the garden
Freezing temperatures and snow in winter leave marks in the garden. Point one on the list is therefore tidying up. A rake can be used to collect coarse winter remnants such as leaves, excess soil or moss. Even fallen branches from trees are not uncommon after winter. Are weeds also proliferating? Then it goes to the collar with a rake to prevent it from scattering seeds and spreading over the lawn in spring and summer.
2. Cut back perennials, trees and shrubs
Since most plants do not sprout until April, there is little risk of accidentally cutting off young shoots in March. Therefore, the month is suitable for pruning perennials. With a clear conscience, the perennials can lose a lot of length – until the end they still protrude about ten centimeters from the ground. Hobby gardeners can quickly divide lush perennials with a spade. After that, they have more space and get bigger.
Trees and bushes are also good to be pruned after winter. With the help of pruning shears or hedge trimmers, trees lose unwanted branches, so that the treetop shrinks. In the interior of the crown, smaller branches that cross others must give way. It looks similar with bushes. These have more space when side shoots growing inwards are cut off. This gives you space to develop optimally until summer.
3. Spread compost
The cut branches and twigs do not have to end up in the organic bin. When knotted into small pieces, they serve as mulch that can be found under trees and bushes. Merely pruned ivy and the foliage of nut trees are not suitable for this. To help the rest of the garden grow, it helps to cover it with fertilizer or compost as early as March. But be careful: In some parts of Germany it could still be much too cold in March to sow and fertilize the lawn. For this, the temperatures should be at least ten degrees Celsius.
4. Plant the first plants
When the frost season is finally over, hobby gardeners can start planting as early as March. Because some plants even have to be planted early, including roses, bulb plants or grasses. They feel particularly comfortable when the soil in the beds is loosened up after winter.
To do this, loosen the soil thoroughly and remove weeds. A hoe helps. The first types of vegetables can then already find their place in the bed, such as paprika and chilli. They have a particularly long germination time. Carrots, Swiss chard and onions can also cope well with spring-like temperatures. If the frost does come back, cling film over the young seeds is suitable as first aid against the freezing temperatures.