Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Jed Kirschbaum
I am writing this list of garden chores for March with some trepidation.
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Despite temperatures slightly above freezing during the day, I am willing to bet there are still piles of snow in your garden and on your lawn.
Even if those 40 inches of snow have disappeared into the ground, that ground is probably as soggy as a sponge and walking on it will only cause damage. Gardeners may have to be more patient than usual.
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In any case, here is your to-do list for March, courtesy of some of my favorite garden bloggers.
From Helen Yoest of Gardening with Confidence:
- She says that it is fine to leave the leaves stuck at the base of shrubs. "If it bothers you, pull them out and compost or put with your yard waste." If you don't have tulips or daffodils blooming because you didn't plant any last fall, put it in your day planner for August to buy some.
- Remember not to cut back the leaves of the daffodils until they are lying down on the ground.
- Cut back you Liriope, being careful not to cut any new growth. Cut back the ornamental grasses as well.
- Cut back the old leaves on the Hellebores.
- When hostas emerge, divide them and share with friends.
- Now is the time to divide daylilies as well. They need dividing every four years to promote flowering.
- Spring is also a good time to divide bee balm, bleeding hearts, Ajuga and Shasta daisies.
- Bulbs, pansies and violas will appreciate an application of fertilizer.
- Hardy annuals can go out even before the last expected frost.
- Wait until the soil dries and warms before planting summer bulbs.
- Prune roses before the buds break.
- Wait until the ground warms to plant shrubs.
- Force some spring blooming trees and shrubs such as forsythia, pussy willow, quince and crab apples. Watch for crows that may have heaved out of the soil during a thaw.
- Remove old mulch as temperatures increase.
From North Country Maturing Gardener:
- Order your summer blooming bulbs
- Send a soil sample for testing
- Send the mower in for a tune-up before everybody else does. Get your pruners sharpened, too.
- Prune fruit trees of dead and diseased branches.
- Cut back woody perennials such as Artemisia, lavender and Russian sage to about 6 inches.
And finally, from Margaret Roach of A Way to Garden:
- Hoard cardboard and newspaper to smother areas for new beds or to thwart weeds under fresh mulch in existing ones.
- Love your soil and protect it by not walking around on sodden lawns and in wet gardens.
- Empty bird boxes of old nests.
- Start spinach in your cold frame or them in open ground if the snow has melted.
- Start your tuberous begonias indoors so you can set them outside in late May. Start them in trays of moistened vermiculite, and then pot them up individually in a month.
- Scratch up soil under roses or elsewhere to sow sweet alyssum seeds and an annual flowering carpet.
- Love your soil and protect it by not walking around on sodden lawns and in wet gardens.
- Empty bird boxes of old nests.
- Start spinach in your cold frame or them in open ground if the snow has melted.
- Start your tuberous begonias indoors so you can set them outside in late May. Start them in trays of moistened vermiculite, and then pot them up individually in a month.
- Scratch up soil under roses or elsewhere to sow sweet alyssum seeds and an annual flowering carpet.