Spring Gardening Advice Goes Viral
Gardening experts are sharing March priorities, with professionals recommending strawberries as 'the one thing' to plant this month for both novice and experienced gardeners. Social media users are also sharing beginner-friendly crops like sweet potatoes, trombone squash, sunchokes, and medicinal herbs like dandelion. Monty Don suggests cutting back dead growth and re-edging borders for healthy spring displays.
Beyond the basics, March is a critical month for pruning specific shrubs to encourage summer flowers. Experts advise cutting back late-flowering clematis, buddleia, and roses now, as they flower on new growth. Deciduous grasses like miscanthus should also be cut back hard to the ground before new shoots appear. Another key task advised by horticulturist Monty Don is to continue feeding garden birds. In March, most birds are nesting and laying eggs, which requires a great deal of energy when natural food sources are still scarce. High-energy foods like fat, peanuts, and sunflower seeds are particularly beneficial during this period. The viral recommendation for strawberries is backed by significant benefits; a single, healthy plant can yield up to 1.5 pounds of fruit. Homegrown berries offer superior flavor as store-bought varieties are often picked before they are fully ripe to withstand shipping. Additionally, strawberries contain more vitamin C than oranges. The beginner-friendly trombone squash, or "tromboncino," is a versatile Italian heirloom that can be trellised to save space. It can be harvested young as a sweet-tasting summer squash or left to mature on the vine, where its skin will harden and turn tan like a butternut squash for winter storage. Sweet potatoes, a tropical plant, thrive in the heat and are grown from "slips," which are sprouts from a mature tuber. They should be planted about a month after the last spring frost into warm soil. These plants are known for being drought-resistant and having very few issues with pests or diseases. Sunchokes, also known as Jerusalem artichokes, are a species of sunflower native to North America cultivated for their edible tubers. They are exceptionally prolific, and any piece of tuber left in the ground will regrow, which can lead to them becoming invasive if not contained. The often-maligned dandelion has a long history in traditional medicine for supporting liver function and aiding digestion. Its leaves are rich in vitamins A, C, and K, while the root provides a prebiotic fiber known as inulin.
