Inverclyde celebrates equinox today

This really is the beginning of spring and the daylight will continue until later in the month when the clock changes. This will allow gardeners the opportunity to get out into the garden for a few hours in the early evening.

The clock changes on the last day of March when Greenwich Mean Time will cease and British Summer Time begins. The bad news is that we will lose one hour of slumber. Daylight hours will gradually increase and we can all get out in the garden for longer and begin to get all our plans for summer flowers and vegetables underway.

Many keen gardeners will welcome this fact - there are lots of tasks to be getting on with. Seeds can be sown either in the greenhouse or at a bright windowsill, although they will not be able to be put outdoors until the end of April or early May. Air frost can prevail in this area up to the end of May or beginning of June and therefore protection from frost must be given. Watch the daily weather forecasts and if an extremely cold night is forecast then protect all young seedlings by covering them with garden fleece or even newspaper.

Grass and lawns

Soon the grass and lawns will be taking up our attention and it will be time to get the lawnmowers out to give the grass its first cut of the year. I know some gardeners who maintain that grass has been grown all during the winter, and they may well be right.

Before we begin, however, we need to tackle the preparation if we are to get the best results and one of the main jobs will be to get rid of moss. I is not in itself a problem but a sign of other ones. Moss grows heavily on acidic soil and poor drainage and hence these problems need looking at first.

Often the soil beneath the grass is acidic and the drainage needs improved. Moss will not grow if the drainage is poor, hence we need to use a hollow-tined tool to spike the grass to allow air to get to the roots of the grass improve drainage.

Once this has been done, we can think about applying a moss killer which will eventually turn the moss black and the black moss can be raked out. Having raked out the moss gardeners will be amazed at the extent of bare patches which exist and these need to covered with new grass seed, but more on this in the coming weeks.

Take a walk round the garden

During the last week I have taken a stroll round the garden and noticed new buds beginning to appear on the Rhododendron bushes. These will not produce new blooms until sometime in May. However, gardeners should snip off the dead flowers of over-wintered spent blooms and give a good dose of an acidic feed to all lime-hating plants such as Azalea. If you have a spare water butt this can be used when watering all lime-hating plants.

My eye also caught sight of a number of buds on hedgerows - there is definitely lots of new growth despite the rain we have had in recent weeks.

Rhubarb seems to be growing well and if you can cover a few stalks with a bucket you will be able to force a few for early use. The forced stalks will be more yellow in colour and sweeter than the normal stalks and now is the best time to plant new rhubarb crowns. Keep a close eye open for rhubarb running to seed and tackle the problem as soon as possible.

With hedgerows full of buds, give them a light trim as the birds will soon be starting to build their nests and we should not disturb them or their chicks during that important time in the lives.

And if you have a pond in your garden try putting a net over it, particularly if you have fish in it. This will prevent herons from making a meal of your fish.

Plan out new garden designs

If you want to enhance the layout of your beloved garden now is the ideal to get to grips with the job, although planning is often curtailed due to adverse weather.

Over the last week I have had expert contractors working on some new designs in my own garden and they took great patience in making sure that each slab was checked with a spirit level before cementing each one into place. The lads did a wonderful job which I was very happy with and now it is over to me to brighten up the space with containers of bright colourful flowers.

New tool unveiled for gardeners

On Wednesday members of Gourock Horticultural Society who hold fortnightly garden talks at Cardwell Garden Centre will be highlighting a new piece of garden equipment which can be used both indoors and outdoors when watering and feeding their plants.

More details of this will be given in next week’s garden page, together with details of where and how to get this innovative piece of equipment. Make a point of reading about this in next week’s column.