March Gardening To Do List
Zone 1
- Order indoor seed starting kits and seeds
- Cut back on feeding houseplants (do not feed dormant houseplants)
- Water indoor cymbidium orchids weekly until they bloom
- Sow seeds indoors for tender perennials and annuals
- Clean, oil and sharpen tools
Zone 2
- Order seeds and seed starting systems
- Sow seeds indoors or cold frame
- Remove mulch from early bulbs
- Cut back on feeding houseplants (do not feed dormant houseplants)
- Sow seeds for cool-weather vegetables
- Sow frost-tolerant perennials indoors
- Clean, oil and sharpen tools
- Order or construct a cold frame for starting vegetables outdoors
Zone 3
For the vegetable garden, it is time to start seeds for brassicas (brussels sprouts, cabbage, broccoli, kale) and soon after, onions, tomatoes, peppers, and kohlrabi.
In the flower garden start seeds for marigolds, asters, snapdragons, and impatiens.
- When seedlings have their second pair of true leaves, transplant them to larger pots.
- Sow seeds for hardy spring-blooming plants
- Remove mulch from early bulbs
- Cut back on feeding houseplants (do not feed dormant houseplants)
- Sow seeds for cool-weather vegetables
- Sow frost-tolerant perennials indoors
Zone 4
Do not get in a mad rush to remove mulch from your perennials. This time of year can be a bit tricky, it is time to pay attention to the weather. The sun could heat the soil and stimulate new growth, which a hard freeze could still come and damage.
- Plant bare root trees
- Prune black knots off of cherry trees.
- Cut back on feeding houseplants (do not feed dormant houseplants)
- Start pepper and eggplant seeds indoors under lights.
- Start seeds of zinnias, salvia, petunias, and tobacco indoors under lights.
- Sow frost-tolerant perennials indoors
Zone 5
- Plant dormant, hardy container and balled and burlapped plants
- Time to transplant earlier started tomatoes into larger pots, planting the stem deeper into the soil for additional root growth.
- Remove winter mulch, lightly cultivate soil if thawed
- Prune out winter damage
- Apply dormant spray to fruit trees
- Plant or transplant frost-tolerant perennials.
- Sow seeds for tender perennials indoors including columbine (Aquilegia spp.), campanula, bellflower (Campanula spp.), blanket flower (Gaillardia spp.), globeflowers (Trollius spp.), and pyrethrum (Tanacetum coccineum) -indoors under lights.
- Directly sow seeds outdoors of nasturtiums and sweet peas.
- Plant bare-root trees, shrubs, roses, and vines
- Prune winter-blooming shrubs and vines just after bloom
- Plant bare-root perennial vegetables (asparagus, rhubarb etc.)
- Plant seedlings of cool-season vegetables outdoors, this would include brassicas (brussels sprouts, broccoli, kohlrabi, cabbage, and kale)
- Trim dead or damaged branches from trees, shrubs, and roses.
- Keep a weather watch and protect tender plants from frost
- In the vegetable garden, it is time to begin planting potatoes, peas, lettuce, radishes, and carrots.
- Toward the end of the month, transplant pansies outdoors.
Zone 6
- Plant cool-season annual edibles and perennial herbs outdoors. These include seedlings you’ve started indoors or purchased at a garden center:
parsley, cilantro, broccoli, cauliflower, onions, and Brussels sprouts. - Start seeds indoors as desired. Most vegetable and annual flower seeds should be started six to eight weeks before your region’s last average frost date — and for most of the Midwest, that means starting seeds now. Check package directions for suggested timing, however.
- Plant cool-season flowers. About six to eight weeks before your region’s last average frost date, you can put in pansies, violas, lobelia, snapdragons and other cool-season flowers. They thrive in cool weather and tolerate frosts well. They’re especially good in pots.
- Sow seeds of warm-season annuals indoors
- Unwrap mail order plants immediately and keep them cool and moist until planting.
- Prune out winter damage
- Feed cool-season lawns
- Remove winter mulch, lightly cultivate soil if thawed
- Sow seeds for cool-weather vegetables
- Sow frost-tolerant perennials indoors
- Divide and replant summer- and fall-blooming perennials
- Plant bare-root and container roses
- Prune roses (when temperatures remain above freezing)
- If there’s no snow, top-dress the lawn with compost. Fill in low spots and reseed.
Zone 7
- Plant radishes and spinaches as soon as the soil is thawed and you can work it easily. You also can plant potatoes — St. Patrick’s Day is the traditional planting day in this zone.
- Begin planting trees, shrubs and roses. You can plant both bare-root and container-grown types as long as the soil is well-thawed and you can work it easily to the needed depth.
- Plant cool-season annual edibles and perennial herbs outdoors. These include seedlings you’ve started indoors or purchased at a garden center: parsley, cilantro, broccoli, cauliflower, onions, and brussels sprouts.
- In the middle of the month, plant a row of swiss chard. Tender stalks will be ready to harvest in mid-May—and the plants will keep producing all summer.
- Remove mulch from strawberries when growth begins.
- Set out summer-flowering bulbs.
- Unwrap mail order plants immediately and keep them cool and moist until planting.
- To protect seedlings from cutworms, cut newspaper into three-inch squares. Wrap a square around each plant’s stem. About half the “collar” should protrude above the ground when the seedling is planted.
- Plant fall-blooming bulbs.
- Plant balled-and-burlapped, container, and bare-root fruit trees
- Apply dormant spray to fruit trees before buds swell
- Spray apples, peaches, and pears that have been affected with canker problems
- Plant bare-root perennial vegetables
- Sow seeds for frost-tolerant perennials
- Sow seeds for tender perennials
- Plant perennial herbs like sage, rosemary, chives, and thyme. Note: basil is quite tender, it should be planted after all danger of frost is past.
- Plant container and bare-root roses
- Plant summer-blooming shrubs and vines
- Plant conifers and broad-leaf evergreens
Zone 8
Get cool-season crops into the garden now. Don’t wait—soon the weather will be too hot for them. You can keep row covers handy to protect plants on nights if frost is expected.
- Prune winter-flowering shrubs and vines after bloom.
- Prune spring-flowering or tender shrubs and vines during or just after bloom.
- In mid-to late March, plant heat loving plants, okra, melons, sweet potatoes, corn, tomatoes, squash, peppers, and cucumbers. Nourish young plants with liquid organic fertilizer.
- Plant summer- and fall-flowering bulbs.
- Spray for peach leaf curl, peach leaf blight, and canker.
- To protect seedlings from cutworms, cut newspaper into three-inch squares. Wrap a square around each plant’s stem. About half the “collar” should protrude above the ground when the seedling is planted.
- Plant permanent ground covers.
- Plant or repair lawns
- Pull mulch away from perennials, shrubs, and trees to allow the soil to warm around them.
- Plant ornamental grasses.
- Plant bare-root and container roses.
- Plant or transplant warm-season annuals.
- Plant fruit trees.
- Feed houseplants that are growing or blooming.
- Plant heat-loving perennials.
- Plant warm-seasoned vegetable seedlings.
Zone 9
It may be too late to plant cool-loving vegetables, such as peas, cabbage, broccoli, spinach, radishes, and most greens. Temperatures usually turn hot in your area by April or May.
- Set out remaining warm season annuals.
- Feed roses with an organic blend of cottonseed meal, alfalfa meal, and composted manure.
- Plant summer-flowering bulbs.
- Plant container fruit trees.
- Prune fruit trees after bloom and fruit setting.
- Spray for peach leaf curl, peach leaf blight, and canker.
- Prune away frost-damaged areas on citrus.
- Repair or plant lawns with warm season grasses. (Bermuda, St. Augustine etc.)
- Plant ornamental grasses.
- Plant fall-blooming perennials.
- Prune tender deciduous shrubs and vines.
- Prune spring-flowering shrubs and vines during or just after bloom.
- Prune flowering fruit trees during or just after bloom.
- Sow seeds for warm-season vegetables.
- Set out seedlings of warm-season vegetables.
Zone 10
Plant heat loving plants, okra, melons, sweet potatoes, corn, tomatoes, squash, peppers, and cucumbers.
- Get ahead of the bugs by hand-picking or spraying with organic preparations
- Plant flowers that will tolerate heat: petunias, zinnias, cockscomb (Celosia cristata), and caladium (Caladium ? hortulanum).
- Fertilize oleander, Bauhinia, hibiscus and citrus while in bloom with a low-nitrogen plant food
- Mulch with at least two inches of decomposed hardwood material such as pine bark, pine needles, or cypress bark to conserve moisture in flower and vegetable beds
- Plant avocados, papaya, breadfruit and mango, tababuia and tibuchina trees
- Dig compost into the soil near new plants and around the dripline of established trees and shrubs.
- Plant seed, seedlings, or rooted starts of herbs and vegetables such as peppers, okra, cantaloupe, watermelons, peanuts, sweet potatoes, luffa, chayote, lemon grass and mint
- In drought-prone areas, install simple drip-irrigation systems to take care of summer watering needs
Zone 11
- Get ahead of the bugs by hand-picking or spraying with organic preparations
- Fertilize oleander, Bauhinia, hibiscus and citrus while in bloom with a low-nitrogen plant food
- Mulch with at least two inches of decomposed hardwood material such as pine bark, pine needles, or cypress bark to conserve moisture in flower and vegetable beds
- Plant avocados, papaya, breadfruit and mango, tababuia and tibuchina trees
- Plant seed, seedlings, or rooted starts of herbs and vegetables such as peppers, okra, cantaloupe, watermelons, peanuts, sweet potatoes, luffa, chayote, lemon grass and mint
- In drought-prone areas, install simple drip-irrigation systems to take care of summer watering needs
“There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments.”
~ Janet Kilburn Phillips
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