Lighter evenings, warm spring sunshine and plants bursting into bloom – we love March! Here’s your guide to this month’s top gardening jobs from Plants and Minds…

Enjoy earlier blooms and a longer season of flowers by starting dahlia tubers now in pots of multipurpose compost in a frost-free greenhouse or conservatory.

If moss has ravaged your lawn, restore your sward to its former glory with a spring lawn feed and weed treatment. It’s high in nitrogen to encourage lush, green growth.

Look forward to an earlier, heavier harvest of delicious spuds by chitting seed potatoes – placing them in a tray or egg carton so they sprout ahead of planting.

From French marigolds to busy Lizzies and much more, sow half-hardy annuals indoors in pots or trays of moist seed and cuttings compost, placed in a propagator.

Now’s an ideal time to establish a wildlife-friendly hedge of New Zealand Broadleaf (Griselinia littoralis), while the soil is moist, workable and warming up.

Now that roses have woken from their winter slumber, treat plants to their first feed of the year. A specialist rose fertiliser applied in late March encourages better blooms.

Once daffs are over, snip off spent flower stems at the base but leave foliage until it dies down and turns yellow – this helps bulbs to replenish energy for next year’s displays.

Spent blooms of hydrangeas are often left in situ over winter to protect emerging buds from frost. Use secateurs to snip old blooms away and allow fresh growth to develop.