Do These 13 Gardening Tasks in March to Boost Your Garden’s Yield

March officially marks the start of spring and launches us full speed ahead into the gardening season. As the weather warms and the last expected frost dates come and go, we can safely set about planting and tending to our vegetable and flower beds. 

If you want a garden that is bursting at the seams, there are things you can do now to ensure it happens. While day-to-day tending is important, much of the work that makes a successful garden is the preliminary tasks. This work sets the stage and sets you on the path to an incredible and successful harvest.

We have some great ideas if you’re unsure where to begin. Here are 13 important tasks that you can complete in March to ensure a greater yield and a beautiful, bountiful garden in the weeks and months ahead. 

Test Your Soil

A soil test is an incredibly valuable tool in the garden. It’s one of the first things you should do in planning any new garden. It’s also helpful in older beds because it lets you know where any deficiencies may exist. 

Testing your soil will give you several pieces of information. First, it will let you know about the presence of macronutrients. If you have a nitrogen, potassium, or phosphorus deficiency, it’s important to know that you can correct it. These are the primary nutrients that your new plants need to thrive. 

Additionally, your test will give you an idea of where your soil stands regarding micronutrients. These include chloride, boron, iron, copper, manganese, zinc, nickel, and molybdenum. While these are not the primary nutrients your plants use, they are necessary in different amounts for most. 

Your test will also tell you about the makeup of your soil, how much organic matter is present, and how well it holds those important nutrients. Finally, you will get a reading of the pH of your soil. Since plants need varying levels of acidity and alkalinity, this is an important factor. 

Along with all of this information, your test will recommend ways to correct any deficiencies. After accomplishing this crucial March gardening task, you can start the season with the healthiest soil possible.

Weed or Clear Your Beds

If you left last year’s plants in your beds, it’s a good time to get those cleared out. Whether you cut them to the ground or pull out the roots is your preference. Both have benefits. Take this time to clear away fallen leaves and any old mulch that needs to go. 

If you did your cleanup before the winter, you might still have some weeds to pull. This depends on your zone. My zone 9 garden requires quite a bit of weeding in the spring. Go ahead and get those weeds cleared out to make space for any soil amendments you need to add. 

Clean Your Tools

Before you do any pruning, make sure your tools are clean and sharp. If you packed everything away in the fall without cleaning up, this is the time to do it. You don’t want to begin the work of spring pruning with tools that could be harboring harmful pathogens from last season. 

Prune Plants That Flower on New Growth

March is a good time to prune trees and shrubs that flower or fruit on new growth. It’s a good time to prune deciduous trees in general. During dormancy, before these grow their leaves back is ideal. Pruning is important to the health of your plants. It promotes healthy new growth and increases flowering. 

While dormant, you get a great view of your trees and shrubs’ interior and overall shape and structure. This makes it easier to clean up the exterior, creating a nice shape and allowing air to circulate. Creating space for air and light to reach the interior of your plants is an important part of disease prevention. 

Check for Cold Damage

While you’re taking care of March pruning tasks, check for cold damage in your garden. This can appear as black, mushy tissue in herbaceous plants and splitting wood on shrubs and trees. If you live in a climate that doesn’t typically experience a great deal of cold, you may have some extra work to do this year. 

For those gardening in the Southeast, we had some uncommonly frosty weather this winter. Take a look around at your less cold-tolerant plants. While it’s good to leave cold, damaged tissue intact until the last frost date passes, it’s good to get it done as soon as that date passes. 

It is important to leave those plants alone until the threat of frost has passed. The damaged tissue insulates and protects the healthy tissue from future damage. However, once the weather warms and there is no threat of another freeze, that cold-damaged tissue will begin to rot and can compromise the entire plant. 

Clean Up Dead and Diseased Material

Cleaning up is another important March gardening task to take care of while you’re pruning. Be sure to remove and discard any damaged branches or debris. Identify any potential diseased plants and plant parts, and remove whatever you can. 

Make sure you discard all the dead and diseased materials away from your healthy plants. Burning or trashing are usually the best options. Leaving debris lying on the ground beneath your plants is a recipe for disaster. The decaying material will attract nuisance pests, and disease can continue to spread.

Cut Back Ornamental Grasses

Many ornamental grasses show off in the fall and can leave behind interesting foliage for the winter. Leaving this foliage protects the plant, insulating the roots and crown. 

If you leave all of this dead foliage intact, you won’t get the same robust regrowth. Cutting it all back makes room for your grasses to fill back in with new, healthy growth. If you don’t want to cut it back, pop on a pair of gloves and gently rake the clumps to remove dead blades.

Cut Back and Divide Your Perennials

Don’t put those pruners away just yet. Many perennials also benefit from a spring reset. Spring is the prime time to divide and propagate—two of my favorite gardening tasks for March, April, and May. Your perennials are all about to go back into rapid growth mode. Dividing them now gives them ample time to fill out and reestablish their roots before the summer heats puts stress on them.

This is a good time to cut any perennials that got out of hand over the last year. As with trees and shrubs, it’s easier to see the structure of the plant while it is dormant. You can make the most educated and accurate cuts at this time. 

Propagate Softwood Cuttings

Depending on the plant and your climate, you can start propagating. New growth is best for this purpose, so spring is the best time to do it. If you live in a colder climate, it’s unlikely that you’ll have many plants that are putting on a lot of new growth yet.

In warmer and mild climates, you probably have some plants that have already come out of dormancy at this point. In zone 9, I have roses putting on new growth, as well as many flowering and fruit trees. Taking cuttings is a rewarding treat to add to your March task list in the garden.

Check and Treat For Pests and Diseases

Now is also a good time to give everything a once over, checking for issues like pests and diseases. The sooner you catch and take care of these, the better chance of maintaining a healthy plant. 

On evergreens, inspect foliage for any damage. Things like leaf discoloration, misshapen leaves, and chewed-on foliage are all signs of pest and disease damage. The best time to treat is while the plant is not in bloom. This way you avoid killing pollinators along with the bad bugs. 

If your plant is in bloom, and you notice damage, try physical control until it’s finished blooming. Use pruners to remove affected foliage and give the plant a good spray down with the hose to knock down the insect population. 

Start Seeds Indoors and Outdoors

Many of the seeds that you want to start indoors should be growing by now unless you live in a cold climate. January and February are ideal seed starting times. If you haven’t done so, get busy starting anything you still have. Seeds that do better when you start them indoors include most small seeds that need light to germinate. These need to lie on top of the soil so they can easily blow or wash away outside.

Once you’ve shifted away from indoor tasks, March is the time to think about seeds that you want to sow directly in the garden. These are typically seeds that have either a tap root or a hard outer shell. Plants with tap roots don’t like disturbance, so they don’t transplant well. Seeds with a hard coating handle the weather and are usually good for direct sowing.

Repair or Add Irrigation

If you have irrigation set up, give everything a once over in March to prepare for everyone’s favorite gardening task: planting. Check that seals are still watertight and everything functions as it should so that your newly transplanted crops have a reliable water supply. Replace anything that looks like it won’t make it through to fall so that you’re not trampling your vegetables to get to it mid-season. 

If you haven’t installed irrigation and feel like this is something you want to do, this is the time to do it. Install your irrigation systems before things get growing while you have plenty of space to plan and create the layout you desire. 

Setting up an irrigation system, especially in a vegetable garden, has many benefits. For one thing, it saves you the time and effort of daily watering and moving sprinklers around. It also conserves water, especially if you’re using drip irrigation. 

Drip irrigation systems deliver water directly at the soil level, so it goes into the soil rather than evaporating. They also help prevent fungi like powdery mildew, which happens due to moisture sitting on the foliage for long periods. 

Apply a Slow-Release Fertilizer

Nearly everything in your garden will appreciate some fertilizer to kick off the growing season. March is prime fertilizing time; you don’t want to skimp on this task in your garden. Now is a vital time for your plants to uptake those nutrients rapidly and make excellent use of them. Unless it’s still freezing where you live, it’s time.