Borrowing once again from Ms. Coleridge, we note that March brings breezes loud and shrill, stirs the dancing daffodil, although if the month brings us more Darraghs and Ewoyns daffodil stirring will be the least of our worries when trees and telegraph posts are being ripped out of the ground.
Most sporty people will relate 1966 to England's one and only World Cup triumph, although those of a certain age (and beyond) may well recall that Tom Jones (Sir Tom I should say) ruled that year's December charts with the classic ballad 'Green Green Grass of Home' both of which Izzy's dad has fond memories and which also brings me nicely on to the theme of this month's gardening tips.....grass.
March can be a good month for taking a long hard look at your grass and whatever else is growing amongst it in the form of myriad weeds and perennial wildflowers - moss, plantain dandelion daisy buttercup clover and on and on - you name it and it will be there unless you are prepared to spend most whatever time you can spare for your garden trying to eliminate them. Why not take a relaxed view and simply leave them where they have chosen to live and grow and as nature intended and if you mow the grassed area regularly to keep it fairly short, you will still have a green surface as a backdrop to your planned planting.
Perhaps your 'grass' or what's left of it after suffering interminable and often acrimonious penalty shoot outs by energetic youngsters and labouring dads, is prompting you to seriously consider investing in a couple of six cubic metre loads of ready mix as a permanent answer to your bare, sad looking patch. However, before taking such drastic action, you might want to try out some repair work including the two Ss - namely scarifying and seeding.
Scarifying involves the raking out of excessive amounts of thatch consisting of dead grass and other organic matter which underlies the grass clogging up new growth with a spring tined rake thereby allowing water and nutrients to get down to the grass roots to liven them up. Probably a similar process to that contained in the jars of exfoliating face scrub cream sitting on Izzy's dressing table whilst the sheer pleasure on the faces of Izzy's two cats when they indulge in a good scratch can also be translated to your lawn/grass with this simple task - oh and don't forget to tip the scratchings (of the thatch that is) into the compost box.
Seeding can be done from March onwards and with most things in life, it's the preparation of the ground which is probably the most important step, so lightly dig over the ground and level it up if necessary (you might have to import some good quality soil here especially if it is well consolidated and resembling a five day Test Match strip in India on the final day) and rake over to a fine tilth before applying a lawn fertilizer. Apply the fresh grass seed (not the half used bag which has been hanging around your garage shelves for the last five years) in accordance with the spreading rate on the side of the box and always allowing for loss due to your hungry garden birds and then finally a gentle raking over to make sure that the seed and soil are well in contact with each other.
Let's hope the weather for the rest of March is kind to us so that we can have at least a fighting chance to achieve that green, green grass of home.
