I can resist everything except temptation - Oscar Wilde
This month's garden photo was taken towards the end of the month as we start to see the change in season from Winter to Spring. Pink cherry blossom and spring bulbs (daffodils, hyacinths and tulips) make their long-awaited appearance. Also on show are the bags of coir-based seed and potting compost ready for the flower and vegetable growing season.
Photo 1: Back Garden Scene (29th March 2025)
March 2025 daily photos are collated in Video 1.
Video 1: Daily Photos of the Rear Garden in March 2025
March 2025 was dry, very dry. Only 6.4 mm precipitation during the thirty-one days of the month. As we saw with February 2025, dry does not always mean sunny. However, we were blessed with plenty of clear skies during March which had the downside of an abundance frosty nights (10 out of 31). Wind speeds were moderate and there were no storms to speak of. Weather stats from our Davis Weather Station are collated in the table below.
Apart from a week of cold temperatures in the middle of the month, daytime temperatures were on the warmish side especially when the sun was shining (Figure 1). There were, however, quite a few frosts in the first twenty days which limited outside gardening. The last twelve days of March were frost-free and I was able to get the polytunnel ready, pot up some newly-bought strawberry plants, get the garlic cloves started in the greenhouse, and plant out the potatoes & onions.
Figure 1: Min/Max Daily Temperatures for March 2025
The main issue with outdoor planting was the lack of rain; only three days during the month (Figure 2). Apart from watering in the potatoes and onions when planting out, no additional irrigation was used.
Figure 2: Daily Rainfall & Sunshine Data for March 2025
Looking back over the past six March months (2020 - 2025), the temperature data has been remarkably consistent. While we should never take the weather for granted, all three temperature parameters (mean, maximum & minimum) have only varied over a narrow range. This year has seen more than double the usual number of frosts but at least we know to expect frosts and avoid planting out tender plants.
Figure 3: March Temperature Data (2020 - 2025)
March rainfall is highly variable with this year's precipitation only about 6% of last year's. Wind speeds are generally moderate, suggesting relatively few storms in Herefordshire, and there is usually a decent amount of sunshine (Figure 4).
Figure 4: March Rain, Wind & Sunshine Data (2020 - 2025)
The following three figures are taken from the March 2025 Monthly Report by the UK Met Office. Scotland was much warmer (+1.7 ℃) than the long-term average (1991 - 2020) whereas England, Wales and Herefordshire (marked) were about 1 ℃ warmer than the 1991 - 2020 average (Figure 5).
Figure 5: UK Mean Temperature Anomalies for March 2025
We can see from Figure 6 that March 2025 rainfall was only 20% of the normal March rainfall and, for Herefordshire, probably one of the driest March's on record.
Figure 6: UK Rainfall (relative) for March 2025
As Figure 7 shows, March 2025 was very sunny in Herefordshire though not as sunny as East Anglia where we lived many years ago!
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