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    • January winter
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    • October fall begins
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  • HOME
    • About Master Gardener Volunteers
    • 2023 Master Gardener training
    • Demonstration GARDEN
  • Request Our Help
    • Horticulture Help Desk
    • School/Community Garden Consultation
    • Speaker
  • Garden Zone
  • GARDEN CALENDAR
    • January winter
    • February to do list
    • March timely tips
    • April 15th last frost
    • May spring frenzy
    • June garden tasks
    • July summer tasks
    • August hot summer
    • September gardens
    • October fall begins
    • November planting
    • December gardens
  • Our Publications
  • Videos
  • Consider a Donation


Garden Tasks in
​March 

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Perennials, Annuals & Bulbs

  • Fertilize perennial beds based on results of your soil test. 
    • Slow release organic fertilizers work best.
  • Plant hardy woody vines like clematis.
  • Divide and replant daylilies, hostas, peonies, Shasta daisies, asters, boltonia, phlox, rudbechia and chrysanthemums when new growth is 1-2 inches high.
  • Cut back liriope monkey grass before new growth begins.
  • Deadhead daffodils when the blooms fade, but allow the foliage to die back naturally to store nutrients for the next growing season. 
    • Pansies benefit from deadheading as well.
  • Sheer back germander to 1-2 inches to keep compact.
  • Cut back plants that were left for winter interest, including grasses and seed heads.
  • Cut back dead and old foliage from ferns.  

Vegetables

  • Turn over soil in vegetable beds and add plenty of organic matter.
  • Plant cool season crops – i.e., lettuce, chard, kale, spinach, peas, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, radishes, and beets. 
    • Cover them if temperatures dip below freezing. 
  • Start tender vegetables, like tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, indoors.

Lawn & Landscaping

  • Fertilize cool-season lawns (Tall Fescue)
    • Don’t fertilize again until September
    • Don’t fertilize warm-season grasses now (Zoysia, Bermuda, St. Augustine).
  • When mowing Tall Fescue lawns, don’t remove more than 1/3 of the height at any one mowing; leave clippings on the lawn unless they would smother the grass.
  • Apply pre-emergence herbicides to lawns by the time dogwoods bloom.

Trees, Shrubs & Groundcovers

  • ​Prune summer-blooming plants like althea, buddleia, vitex and crepe myrtle
  • Prune deciduous azalea, forsythia, flowering quince, spiraea and viburnum after blooming.
  • Roses:
    • Prune ever-blooming roses severely to force new growth
    • Thin out older canes on climbing cultivars (make pruning cuts above outward-facing buds)
    • Fertilize roses and continue every 6-8 weeks
    • Begin spray program, if needed, when new leaves appear.  (Try 4 teaspoons baking soda to 1 teaspoon vegetable oil in 1 gallon water.)  
  • Fertilize berry plants and fruit trees
    • If raspberries/blackberries weren’t pruned last fall, do it now.  
  • Remove old camellia blooms to prevent spread of petal blight
    • Clean up any dead blooms from the ground.  

 Indoor Gardening

  • Repot houseplants and begin putting them outside on warmer days.

Always more to do: 

  • Clean and sharpen your garden tools.
  • ​When mulching, keep mulch from touching the foundation or lowest course of siding (to discourage termites from invading your home undetected). 
  • Clean out birdbaths and feeders.  

  Mecklenburg Extension Master Gardener℠ Volunteers 
mastergardenersmecklenburg.org

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 ​The Extension Master Gardener Volunteer Program is a part of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service and North Carolina State University
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