Southeast Gardeners March Checklist

March is good time to drum to a different beat. As you plan your garden this year, think about doing something different. Flex your horticultural muscle and mix veggies with ornamentals, add a wildlife pond, grow herbs in containers or add a vine to serve as a host plant for butterflies. Beauty can be had in the most unusual ways.

With the arrival of spring, we want to see beautiful gardens. Look for garden tours, events and symposia. A tour is a great way to explore inspiring gardens, to learn about plants that do well in your region and to walk away with a thousand ideas while having an enjoyable time. Even if you take away only one idea, it will be worth it. My gauge for a successful tour of multiple gardens is when every garden was somebody in the group’s favorite.

 

And, from Organic Gardening

March To-Do List For Zone 8

• Get cool-season crops into the garden now. Don’t wait—soon the weather will be too hot for them. Have row covers or homemade windbreaks handy to protect plants on chilly nights.
• Early this month, sow the last plantings of spinach, turnips, mustard, beets, carrots, and broccoli.
• In mid-to late March, plant corn, tomatoes, squash, peppers, and cucumbers. Nourish young plants with liquid organic fertilizer.
• Pull mulch away from perennials, shrubs, and trees to allow the soil to warm around them.
• Plant carnations (Dianthus spp.), daisies, marigolds, petunias, and snapdragons.
• At the end of the month, fertilize the lawn.