Gardening To-Do List for March

Essential gardening tasks for the month of March from our HGTV experts.

By: Felicia Feaster

Related To:

©Image courtesy of National Association of Realtors

Photo By: Photo by Ben Rollins

Photo By: Johnson Giles, Loch & Key Productions

Photo By: Costa Farms

©Shutterstock/gorillaimages

Photo By: Image courtesy of Ben Rollins

Photo By: Ball Horticultural Company

Photo By: Hortus, Ltd./P. Allen Smith

Photo By: Preen at Preen.com

Photo By: Image courtesy of Wild Birds Unlimited, www.wbu.com

Photo By: Walters Gardens

Photo By: Shutterstock/Elena Elisseeva

Photo By: Photo by Heidi Geldhauser. Design by Lindsay Coletta.

Photo By: Morgan Howarth Photography

Photo By: Shutterstock/Blacknote

Photo By: Ball Horticultural Company

Photo By: Photo by Felder Rushing

Cleaning the Garden

I will be cleaning out the vegetable garden and planning for this year's upcoming garden.—Melissa Caughey

Buying Chicks

We will be ordering some new baby chicks online to add to our current aging flock of chickens.—Melissa Caughey

Coop Clean-Up

The chicken coop will receive a good spring cleaning and the chicken run will be completely raked out and freshened up.—Melissa Caughey

Sowing Seeds

The kids and I will be planting some seeds inside to plant in the garden this spring.—Melissa Caughey

Diagnosing the Hive

I'll be cleaning out the beehive that died this winter. I'll be looking for clues as to why the hive died. I'll get it ready for a split or to hopefully catch a swarm.—Melissa Caughey

Feathering the Nest

I'll also be cleaning out the birdhouses around the yard to make room for new families and their babies.—Melissa Caughey

Testing the Soil

This month, I’m doing soil tests on my garden beds (I’ll grow flowers in one and vegetables in another) and lawn. I’ll add lime and/or fertilizer, as the tests indicate. I’ll also top off my beds with compost.—Lynn Coulter/Atlanta, Georgia

Start Tomato Seeds

I’m starting ‘Green Zebra’ tomato seeds indoors. This heirloom variety is hard to find, unless you grow your own from seeds.—Lynn Coulter

Spraying Houseplants

I’m spraying my houseplants as needed. I’m battling whiteflies on my orchids and African violets.—Lynn Coulter

Pruning Roses

I’ll prune my rose bushes early in the month.—Lynn Coulter

Feed the Bees

This month, after an unusually cold winter, we'll feed our bees with supplemental sugar water. It will hopefully keep them strong until early spring blooms have them lined up for all-you-can-eat buffets.—Mary Beth Shaddix/Birmingham, Alabama

Direct Sow

In the garden, as soon as the soil is crumbly enough to work, I plant direct-sow crops such as radishes, carrots, peas, and beets.—Mary Beth Shaddix

Reconfiguring Raised Beds

This year I am reconfiguring placement of raised beds and adding new trellis and fencing structures. I hope to complete this in March before the mad rush of planting the majority of our crops mid-April.—Mary Beth Shaddix

Adding Mulch

If you missed the window in February like me, now is an excellent time to top all beds with a heavy layer of mulch. It keeps the soil moist and cool, but I use it to blanket out any weed seeds thinking of getting a head start on my perennials. Who wants to weed when you can spend your time harvesting and eating?—Mary Beth Shaddix

Bird Watching

At our farm, March is the time to enjoy all of the bluebirds, nuthatches, woodpeckers and purple martins scouting out the perfect nest site. We’ve worked hard to build many nest boxes and feeders—now’s the time to enjoy watching them!—Mary Beth Shaddix

Clean the Coop

In the chicken coop, I’ve put off the annual deep-clean for the girls that I usually do in February. With two record snows, I thought they’d want to keep the heat in. We use the deep-litter method (so easy!) and rake in the rewards of nitrogen-rich composted material. I shovel out all of the decomposed leaves, straw and litter to create a heap of black gold that will sit for two months since it's too “hot” to apply to the garden immediately. There’s no better fertilizer, and it's free.—Mary Beth Shaddix

Give Ornamental Grass a Haircut

I will cut back ornamental grasses that I left up for winter interest. I usually cut them to about six inches and clean up any leaves that get stuck around the crowns.—Kim Visokey/Winnetka, Illinois

Turn the Compost

After things thaw enough, I’ll be anxious to turn my compost bins with a pitchfork and hopefully find some nicely decomposed garden debris from last summer. This will make a nutritious and attractive top dressing for my perennial beds.—Kim Visokey

Divide and Conquer

I took notes last summer on which plants will need to be divided this spring. March will be the perfect time to review those notes and determine if I’m relocating the divisions or offering them to friends or local school gardens.—Kim Visokey

Maintaining the Fence

My white picket fence is one of my favorite features of the front yard, but the combination of harsh winter weather, English ivy, Georgia clay and humidity have taken their toll. I will spend a few weekends cleaning and painting the picket fence, as well as sealing a new privacy fence I added to the yard this winter.—Felicia Feaster/Atlanta, Georgia

Planning a Woodland Garden

I love the green, lush shade gardens of Highlands, North Carolina and am trying to figure out how to evoke that feeling in my own side yard. I want to bring a variety of shades of green and textures to the garden and one plant I am hoping to integrate is Aralia cordata 'Sun King', whose bright chartreuse-gold leaves and appeal to honeybees will make it a great addition to the space.—Felicia Feaster

Pink Flowers

My front yard has been focused on perennials and shrubs in shades of green but this year I am going preppy and adding pink to that limited palette. I'm planting peonies in soft cotton candy shades and David Austin 'Boscobel' and 'Queen of Sweden' roses.

Stair Mastering

A big project for this spring and summer will be a DIY attempt to add stairs to my sloped side yard. I'm planning on wooden rail ties as risers and pea gravel for the treads.—Felicia Feaster

Planning a Patio Garden

This spring I will start committing to what I want to actually plant. I’ve been sitting with the window open, watching how much sun my porch gets. Verdict’s in: I’ve got a shade garden. (That’s not going to stop me from trying to grow a salsa, garden though!)—Jessica Yonker/Atlanta, Georgia

Strategizing Containers

I’ve been strategizing the best way to grow the things I want to grow on my patio. I’m working with a wide wooden crate, a rail planter, a soon-to-be-purchased hanging planter and a couple of pots as my containers, so I’m trying to puzzle-piece what needs to planted in what.—Jessica Yonker

Tackle the Lawn

Once lawn weeds start to flower, they are difficult to kill with sprays. I just cut mine down and they are gone for the spring. And I leave a clump or two for hungry foraging bees and butterflies.—Felder Rushing/Jackson, Mississippi