What to Do in March for Your ‘Sacred’ Gardening Ritual
Friday, November 12, 2010 7:44Have you ever thought why March is the most important month for a gardener? Surely, March is a great month for trimming, tidying and for fertilizing because it is the start of the growing season. This is also the best time for feeding fruit and ornamental trees, groundcovers, shrubs, perennials and annuals that have been in the ground at least six weeks.
Before taking care of trees and flowers, check garden tools first. You can Fix, sharpen or replace them as necessary. You can also repair broken or weak arbors, fences and trellis or cleaning and repairing drip irrigation lines. Then you can start over seeding bare spots in the lawn. Seed once a week and water lightly twice a day until spots fill in.
What you should initiate for your trees and shrubs is removing the winter mulch from existing roses and prune as needed. Cut back your trees especially fruit trees but don’t prune flowering shrubs. Fertilize deciduous and evergreen trees. Protect deciduous trees from mites, scale and aphids by treating with horticultural oil. Then, start watering trees and shrubs that you planted in the fall. Begin when you see new leaves appear. A slow, steady watering is best. Try using a hose on a slow trickle or a soaker hose to water deeply and well. Plant new fruit trees, rose bushes, berries, spring flowering shrubs and other deciduous plants.
Before planting beds, test the pH levels in planting beds. Adjusting the pH level of soil is the single most important garden task you can perform to get healthy plants. This is a great time to buy and plant perennials as the soil is still cool. Also if you are ordering in bare root plants from mail order, this should be done early in month. When things arrive, bare-root woody plants will take priority in planting, so think ahead.
Best plants to be planted include lilies and Canna or pansies, snapdragons, calendulas, tulip and daffodil bulbs though the last two require a light application of fertilizer. Before planting them, cut smooth hydrangeas all the way to the ground. Thin last year’s growth on peegee hydrangeas, and remove dead wood at the base of oak-leaf hydrangeas.
Get a step ahead by edging and weeding your beds. Dig them, roots and all, before they set seed which will lessen their numbers later. Cut back your ornamental grasses. Hold or tie the old growth with twine and cut the grass 4-6 inches from the ground. New growth will appear in a few weeks.