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Frog Blog...

March 2011

March at last!
Winter's not quite over, but now spring is very close. Spring bulbs are poking their optimistic green heads out of the ground, and the first birds are singing on sunny mornings.
But after the coldest winter for 47 years, (or 61 years according to some estimates), some of your treasured garden plants may not be showing those brave new shoots this year.
Tree ferns, some fuchsias, solanum climbers (potato vines), some jasmines (for example the evergreen "Jasmine polyanthum" which flowers in spring), some cordylines and palms, phormiums, many evergreens like euonymus fortuneii, climbers like campsis and sollya, in short, a large proportion of the most fashionable plants of recent years, will have been killed or badly damaged by prolonged frost.
In some cases this damage is obvious, with blackened shoots and leaves, but some is harder to spot.
With plants like campsis or fuchsia, which lose their leaves in a normal winter, it is necessary to wait till the new season's shoots appear. Only then is it clear which stems have been killed, and won't produce new shoots. These can then be cut off. Sometimes, the whole plant will be dead, and must be removed.
March is also a good time to prune hydrangeas, and any roses which didn't get done in February. Clematis jackmaniis can be pruned now as well. It's getting rather late to prune apple, pear and cherry trees, but if you're very quick, it's ok.
Hard cutting back of thick growths of ivy on walls and trees can be done at anytime, but if its done now, the fresh new growth will quickly cover the ugly brown leafless areas left by hard pruning/cutting back. If the work is done in autumn or winter, these ugly brown areas will remain for months, until the spring growth begins. The same applies to hard cutting or reshaping of privet hedges, Leylandii, and other big evergreens; any hard pruning which reveals the ugly brown twigs beneath the leaves will stay ugly and brown until April, whether its done in October, December or March, so hard cutting in March results in the shortest period without leaves. Anytime after March, and you will risk disturbing nesting birds, which is not only sad, its illegal!
Thinking about nesting birds, and breeding wildlife in general, if your garden pond got full of leaves in the winter, the frogs will be arriving to lay eggs any day now, and if the pond is foul with rotten leaves, they will die ,and so will their babies, so please quickly empty, clean out, and refill it. If some frogs have already arrived, put them gently into some nearby plant cover or shrubs, and they will make their way back in their own time.

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December 2011/January 2012
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August 2011
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June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
Small Birds vs Bigger Bird
Fruit and Veg
Obsessive Tidiness
Irrigation
Foxes and Pets
Knotweed Control
Tree Surgery Advise
Horse Chestnut
Mycorrhizal Root Treatment
Water Conservation
The Vine Weevil
Water - The Garden Lifeblood
Climate Change & Bug Life
Busy Lizzie