March Gardening Calendar

Ornamentals

• Loosen winter mulches from perennials cautiously. Re-cover plants at night if frost returns. Clean up beds by removing all weeds and dead foliage at this time.
• Dormant mail order plants should be unwrapped immediately. Keep the roots from drying out, store in a cool protected spot, and plant as soon as conditions allow.
• Trees, shrubs and perennials may be planted as soon as they become available at local nurseries.
• To control Iris borer, clean up and destroy the old foliage before new growth begins.
• Weeks 1-2: Seeds of hardy annuals such as larkspur, bachelor’s buttons, Shirley and California poppies should be direct sown in the garden now.
• Weeks 1-2: Heavy pruning of trees should be complete before growth occurs. Trees should not be pruned while the new leaves are growing.

Vegetables

• Cultivate weeds and remove the old, dead stalks of last years growth from the asparagus bed before the new spears emerge.
• Any root crops such as horseradish, parsnips, Jerusalem artichokes, or carrots still in the ground from last year should be harvested before new green top growth appears.
• Fertilize the garden as the soil is being prepared for planting. Unless directed otherwise by a soil test, 1 to 2 pounds of 12-12-12 or an equivalent fertilizer per 100 square feet is usually sufficient.
• Weeks 1-2: Asparagus and rhubarb roots should be planted as soon as the ground can be worked.
• Weeks 3-4: Set out broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, Chinese cabbage and cauliflower transplants into the garden.

Fruits

• Gradually remove mulch from strawberries as the weather begins to warm.
• Weeks 1-2: Continue pruning grapes. Bleeding causes no injury to the vines. Tie vines to the trellis before the buds swell to prevent bud injury and crop loss.

Houseplants

• Two handsome houseplants that provide fragrant blossoms indoors this month are the Confederate Jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides) and Japanese Pittosporum (Pittosporum tobira). Both thrive in average home conditions and are easy plants to grow.
• As day lengths increase, plants begin new growth. Repot root bound plants, moving them to containers 2 inches larger in diameter than their current pot. Check for insect activity and apply controls as needed. Leggy plants may be pruned now.

Lawns

• Mow lawns low to remove old growth before new growth begins.
• Weeks 2-4: Apply broadleaf herbicides now for control of cool-season perennial and annual weeds. These must not be applied to areas that will be seeded soon.

Miscellaneous

• Week 1: Watch for the Harbinger of Spring (Erigenia bulbosa) blooming in rich wooded areas.
• Weeks 2-4: Spicebush is blooming in moist woodlands.