What to do in the garden in March
Here in Georgia we are finally beginning to thaw out— the birds are singing and signs of spring are popping up all over. (Northerners might be rolling their eyes right now, but in Atlanta we do tend to have a handful of truly frosty weeks each year. So when the daily lows consistently creep out of the 30s I can practically feel the seasonal depression lifting!).
While we still have about a month until average last frost in our area, there are lots of things we can start doing in the garden already. Here are a few ideas:
If you haven’t already, top off your garden soil with fresh compost or other amendments like vermiculite or worm castings. This year, I mixed in all of the above, and then I also added some (rinsed and crushed) eggshells to my raised beds for a little calcium boost.
Fertilize your blueberry bushes with a natural, acidic fertilizer in a large donut shape on the ground, around the perimeter of the outer branches. You can use a product labeled specifically for blueberries, or some people like to use fish emulsion (also good for azaleas, hydrangeas, and camellias).
Plan your garden layout and make any major configuration changes. I added a new arched trellis to my raised beds this year. Sometimes I use a pencil and graph paper, other times I use Canva to make my garden layouts. I personally am pretty aggressive about ignoring plant spacing rules suggestions. Make your plan for irrigation (which could definitely be just walking out with a hose… but make sure you have ideas for who you might ask to cover for you on vacation!). Order any seeds and plants you want to try this year. I love buying seeds on Etsy, and I recommend TN Nursery and Prairie Nursery for online orders of bare roots and other plants. Set up a compost bin or tumbler for your kitchen scraps.
Direct sow (meaning plant seeds directly outside in your garden beds) any seeds that should be planted around 2-4 weeks before last frost (the seed packet label should tell you when to plant). This usually includes radishes, beets, carrots, kale, arugula, calendula, lettuce, peas, spinach, swiss chard, among others. Many people like to start their indoor seeds in February and March as well, but this really requires things like grow lights and heat mats to get right, so you might not want to start there as a beginner.
Transplant frost-tolerant plant starts from the plant nursery, including most lettuces, kales, strawberries, oregano, cilantro, violas, cauliflower, broccoli, and others. This is also a great time to divide up your chives and plant small patches all around the perimeter of your garden beds to deter pests. Their oniony smell is strong and confuses bugs!
Aerate, topdress with compost, and overseed your lawn if needed (primarily fescue lawns). We have shrunk our lawns by about 70% over the years, but we still have a patch of fescue in the back that struggles every summer because we don’t irrigate it. This year we are adding in microclover, self-heal, and white yarrow seeds in with a low-mow fescue mix. I will follow up with an update to see how it grows in!
Plant shrubs, trees, and bare root perennials. This is a good time to get them in the ground because they will have time to establish before it gets too hot. I just planted some more bare root astilbes (beautiful flowering perennial for shade) and my yukon gold seed potatoes in late February. Most people recommend doing potatoes between Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day in Georgia. Many perennials can be easily be dug up and divided at this time and spread around your garden (free plants!).
Inoculate mushroom logs. I think you can do this pretty much any time of year, but I think it depends on the variety and your area. We did this in late February and it was such a fun project to do with my toddler. I am excited to hopefully harvest my oyster mushrooms in a few months!
Prune fruit trees like figs, peaches, and plums (I use loppers for smaller branches, and a pole saw for larger ones). Walter Reeves (known as The Georgia Gardener) recommends that you, “Remove all dead wood, then any limbs that cross through the middle of the tree.” The basic idea is that you want to keep fruiting branches at a manageable (pickable) height, removing a lot of the larger/inner branches so that the tree can receive enough sunlight in the center and focus on growing larger, better quality fruit on just a few branches, instead of growing thousands of tiny, inedible fruits on branches 30ft high where only the birds and squirrels can reach them. Prune any suckers (small shoots growing from the base of the tree) which are zapping energy from the tree. Depending on the type of tree, you might need to adjust your pruning method. Also prune (link for pruning shears) dead blackberry and raspberry canes, (canes that fruited last year). Here is a great resource from the Gwinnett County Extension.
Add mulch to walkways and around plants. It spruces up the look of your garden, suppresses weeds, and helps retain moisture. We love using ChipDrop and getting a big, free pile of mulch delivered to our driveway, but you can also just use leaves or pine straw/needles from around your yard. I don’t recommend dyed mulch (unnecessary risk of chemicals) or cypress mulch (not sustainable), but we do sometimes use cedar or pine woodchips from the hardware store. We also have a mulcher/woodchipper that we like to use to turn twigs and yard waste into usable mulch, although it can be time consuming! You can use cardboard (take off the tape and labels first) if needed to suppress weeds or grass underneath the areas where you want to add mulch. I don’t recommend landscape fabric, because it compacts the soil, doesn’t actually suppress most weeds (they seed happily right above the fabric), contains potentially harmful chemicals, and can harm your soil’s microbiome.
The anticipation for springtime is killing me, but I also somehow feel like I am already falling behind. I can’t help but be excited for the warmer temperatures to start ramping things up, but for now I’ll be trying to savor these delightfully cool, sunny days with dirt under my nails. Keep on growing, friends!
