March is a great month to get started working in the garden to make sure your garden gets off to a great start. Now is the time to plan out your garden to ensure you rotate your crops for maximum yield and reduce the chance of disease.
The beginning of March can bring many weather conditions from snow to sunny warm temperatures, either way there are many tasks that you can accomplish.
March Garden Task List
- Time to plant your peas directly in the garden to have your first harvest in the Spring.
- Sweet peas can be planted now so that you will have an early bloom with incredible fragrance later this Spring and Summer. Remember Sweet Peas should not be planted near your eating peas since sweet pea pods are poisonous.
- If you have not purchased your seeds for this year already you need to get them purchased. More and more people are gardening and the supply of your favorite varieties may not last.
- February and March is the time to start your seeds indoors so that the plants will be ready to go in the ground when the last frost days are behind us.
- See the seed planting schedule to know when you should start your seeds. Also, know your last frost date to calculate when to start your seeds.
- If you have Tomato seedlings and there are two in one container you can clip one out and place the stem in water to allow it to root in a few days providing you a 2nd plant.
- Gardening items to purchase now, organic seed starting mix, containers to start your seeds, seed domes, grow lights, and Neptune’s liquid fertilizer to feed your seedlings.
- Clean your tools for use.
- Clean your existing pots and containers you are reusing with soap and water or bleach and water.
- Transplant any of your existing plants and trees before the buds start to form.
- Make sure you have completed all of your pruning duties on blueberries, grapes, and other fruit trees.
- Purchase or build any of the structures you will be using to grow your garden vertically.
- Onions and Carrots can be directly sowed in the garden now.
- Lettuce, Spinach, Cabbage, and Kale can be directly sowed in the garden and you can start some seeds indoors for an early crop.
- Monitor your soil temperatures to know what plants can be planted outdoors.
- If you have a cold house or greenhouse you can purchase some plants to get an early start.
- If you have older seeds that you want to see if they will still germinate you can take 5 seeds and place them in a damp paper towel in a warm dry location to see if they germinate. Be sure to keep the paper towel damp and warm.
- Monitor your seeds for germination to put them under grow lights indoors.
- Determine the location of the plants for this year’s garden and review last year’s layout to complete your crop rotation.
- Review all your notes from last year’s garden to help you make decisions for this year. Which plants produced and how much you grew to know what you want to grow this year?
- March is the best time to view the bulbs you planted last Fall, even if you have snow on the ground they will pop through to see their beautiful colors.
- If you have bulbs planted it is a good idea to remove any leaves and grass clipping you had to cover them so that the stems grow strong and start to produce their beautiful flowers.
- Be sure to include your children and grandchildren in your March gardening tasks to let them be a part of your garden for the upcoming year.
Recap
Review, Plan and Design, Purchase, Clean, and Plant to kick-start your garden for the new year.
