My Garden Journal 2025 March

I began my March entries by writing, “According to the Met Office we are now in spring because March has arrived. Frosts come most nights though, so in reality it is still late winter. (They continued until mid-month.) Throughout the first half of March we enjoyed beautiful and dramatic sunrises and more gentle sunsets. The sunsets emphasised the coloured stems of acers and salix.”

I then shared photos of these shrubs with coloured stems.

On the next page I noted that, “A light frost each morning and blue sky days enticed us out into our garden to do jobs.” The photos on that page show just some of the jobs we have been working on.

“We have been tidying up plants and weeding each border. We clipped the ivy over the arch over the seat. It is so important to get this done before birds start to nest.”

“Planting replacement euphorbias.”

“Watering newly planted euphorbias, picking daffodils for the house and sowing perennial seeds.”

Over the page, the next two pages consider firstly our daffodils and then our garden wildlife.

“So many different daffodils add bright shades of white, yellow and orange to every border. From the middle of the month they begin to be joined by colourful tulips.”

On the page opposite the daffodils I looked at some of the wildlife using our garden this month. I noted that, “Over the winter we have been feeding the birds in our garden and the feeders in both the front and back gardens are emptied every day. Sunflower hearts are by far the favourite food for finches and titmice alike.

The flocks of finches visiting for nibbles got as large as 40 for Greenfinches and over 50 for Goldfinches. Long Tailed Tit flocks are usually 20 or so individuals.

Our hedgehogs have been in hibernation until the beginning of March when they started nightly visits to the feeding station for both food and water.

Up until last year our frogs spawned in mid to late February but for the last 2 years they croak, mate and leave large clumps of spawn in mid-March.”

“Wrens and robins are searching for nest sites while the early morning songs of blackbirds are starting earlier each day. Most birds’ calls have changed to songs.

Bluetits and Great Tits are exploring nest boxes. The strangest wildlife experience of all this month was seeing a snipe flying low over the garden, with its distinctive shape and long bill. A real treat!”

Turning the page we find on the left side a look at new foliage on trees and shrubs, while on the right I feature my sketch of a salix. I wrote, “One of the most wondrous happenings of the second half of this month is the bright freshness of new foliage bursting out of their buds of shrubs and trees.”

Then I shared eight photos of fresh foliage.

Opposite the photos of freshly burst buds is a sketch I made using Derwent Inktense Crayons, depicting a branch of Salix gracilistyla ‘Melanostachys’. Its catkins are intense black and red.

Onto the last page of my journal for March, which features flowers of shrubs and climbers about which I noted that, “The last week of March and we have several flowering shrubs and climbers in flower and each one is special in its own way.”

The photos below show some of our colourful flowering shrubs and climbers.

The final trio of photos for this month show the flowers of the three different ribes we grow, all beautiful in their own way.

So with a look at these colourful shrubs flowering away in March I can finish this look at my journal. I shall return to delve into it again at the end of April.