March Gardening Calendar 2023

In March the weather teases gardeners into believing spring is almost around the corner, with lots of continuous sunny and warm days. During this time of year, the weather is very unpredictable for planning and the weather is like a roller coaster, one day it’s nice and sunny, then the next day it’s cold and rainy.  As gardeners we get antsy, we want to get out in our garden and play in the dirt. But we know better, the last average frost date is still a month or two months away, depending on your gardening zone. This is when we can start planning for this year’s spring garden. Spring is a good time to check out new gardening books. There are two gardening books I would like to recommend Southeast Style Gardening and Gardening for the Butterflies and the books are on sale on Amazon. Here are the links: Southeast Style Gardening and Gardening for the Butterflies. The books can help you plan your garden for spring.

March Gardening Chores

As we patiently wait for spring to arrive, we can start preparing by starting seeds. Start spring flowers and vegetables from seeds indoors. It takes about 6 weeks to get strong seedlings. To make starting seeds easier several horticultural companies have designed and marketed seed germination kits. The kits can be bought at local nurseries, Home Depot, Lowe’s, and online. There is a kit that includes 2 grow lights, seedling heat mat, growing tray, base tray for excess water, 2 vents on the cover, garden tools, and plant labels. This kit is just one that was listed on Amazon that I found.

Spring is a good time to prune your shrubs and vines. Just be aware that some plants bloom on new growth whereas other plants bloom on old growth. When in doubt prune after flowering.

March is the last month recommended to prune Roses to half their original size. After pruning rake up last year’s mulch and replace with new mulch. This should be done especially if your roses had black spot because the black spot spores are lying dormant on top of last year’s mulch. Fertilize with Bayer Advanced Rose Fertilizer after pruning and apply once a month. ClickHere For More Information on Roses.

Prune back Holly shrubs that have gotten too large. If needed, you can prune back to 36 inches, but if the holly shrubs are 10 to 15 feet you can do the pruning in stages until you find the height that you like.

Flowering shrubs such as Winter Honeysuckle, Quince, and Forsythia can be pruned after flowering.

Is your Liriope looking at little tattered? The leaves can be cut either with a weed eater or your lawn mower set on its highest setting.

Fertilize winter flowering annuals with a blooming type of fertilizer. Water in all granular type fertilizers.

Lawns should have lime at least yearly. Have you limed your lawn lately? Use 40 pounds per 1000 square feet.

Fertilize Pecan Trees with a fruit tree fertilizer and water in well after.

Fertilize shrubs with a shrub and tree fertilizer and water in well.

Need to divide your perennials? When the leaves start to show you can divide and plant elsewhere in your garden. Use a mixture of SuperThrive and Recharge, professional strength microbial superpack as a root stimulator for best results after planting.

One of the best time to plant fruit and nut trees is in early spring. Nurseries have a good selection of these trees in spring, but hurry the selection usually goes fast.

Peach and Apple trees need to be sprayed with a fungicide recommended for fruit trees and spray the trees while the blossoms are on the tree.

Check for scale insects on Camellias and Euonymus. Spray with a horticultural oil, if you detect the insects.