March Gardening Checklist

By thewriteDuffy •  Updated: 11/04/24 •  6 min read

March may find you sighing with impatience as you watch yet another snowfall cover your barren container boxes, but it’s one of the most important months for gardeners.

There’s still time to do all of your prep work, from honing tools to starting seeds, as you imagine the shapes, tastes and colors of your next garden. Spring begins with the vernal equinox on March 20.

Tool Cleanup

If you didn’t do so in the fall, it’s time to give your lawn mower and other tools some tough love.

Lawn Doctoring

The green, green grass of home doesn’t get that way by accident, and March is a perfect time to assess your lawn’s health.

Weeding

There’s always the battle of the weeds. The only way to win that fight is to keep at it. Nip weeds at the bud — literally, for if they’re allowed to flower and go to seed, you could be looking at several years’ worth of uninvited guests: Some weeds shed 10,000 seeds at a pop.

Preparing Your Soil

Once your soil has had a chance to thaw and lose some of its winter moisture, you’ll want to prep it for planting.

Vegetables

Start planning your vegetable garden, keeping in mind the following guidelines.

Starting Seeds

Caponata lovers, get those warm-season crops started indoors from seeds, including tomatoes, eggplant and peppers.

Pruning Roses

After all the pleasure you’ve had from your rose bushes, now you can reward them with pruning. This will give bushes a more attractive shape and also result in larger blooms and longer stems. Use gloves to protect your hands from thorns.

Planting

These are the deciduous days, so selections at garden stores and nurseries are at their peak — and not yet picked over — in March.

Slug Control

As tender shoots start to poke up in the spring, they make a beggar’s banquet for slugs. Plan your counterattack before young plants become young nubs.

Fun for Kids

Kids love to help with simple growing projects or to have plants of their own to watch and care for, especially if growth is rapid (remember those pint-size attention spans).

For the Birds

Find out who’s likely to fly over for a visit in the next month or two, and target bird treats and feeder types for their individual tastes.

Almost April? A Warm Spring in Your Area? Just Want to Keep Going?

Don’t worry, we’ve got a fresh checklist for you of April gardening tasks too, jump over to our April Gardening Checklist now!

thewriteDuffy

At home, April is a mom, wife, and DIY darling. Among other home projects, she helped her husband Dan renovate their 1986 bungalow and is currently designing and decorating the 2023 custom home they are building themselves. Professionally, April is a writer, author, and online marketer with 15 years of experience writing for newspapers and magazines, building online authority websites, and publishing books.