March Gardening Jobs

The evenings are getting lighter, spring bulbs are shooting up, insects are emerging, and spring is most definitely in the air. Enjoy the feel of the sun on your skin as you prepare your garden for the season ahead and plant out the first of the spring flowers.

March is a month of contradictions. One day, it feels like spring is truly here, and the next day, it's snowing. Whatever the weather, by now, I'm itching to get out into the garden and get it ready for the year ahead. There's a lot to be done, from preparing vegetable beds to sowing flower seeds and pruning shrubs. If the weather's particularly cold or wet, you may need to rein in your enthusiasm a little, but don't panic – it's still early in the season and there's plenty of time to get everything done. 

The first spring flowers are blooming, and if your garden is looking a little bare, there are plenty of flowering plants you can add to it now to make it come alive. Read our guide to seasonal March flowers for inspiration.

 

Flowers, shrubs & trees

As your garden plants begin to wake up, give them an added boost with a good feed and mulch. Giving both new and established plants some care and attention will help encourage healthy growth throughout the new season. It's also time to start sowing seeds and potting up summer bulbs, though it can still be frosty overnight, so tender and half-hardy plants need to be kept inside or in a frost-free greenhouse.

What to plant in March

• Winter containers may be starting to look a little tired by now, and March is a great time to refresh pots and patio containers. Plant senetti and Erysimum (wallflower) for a colourful spring display.

• As the soil warms up, plant out potted shrubs and hardy perennials.

• Pot up dahlias, cannas and begonias, and keep them inside or in a greenhouse. This encourages the tubers to start growing, so you get an earlier, longer flowering period when you plant them outside.

• Plant lilies outside this month. You can start gladioli and freesias off in pots this month, though you'll need to keep them under cover to protect them from frosts.

• Plant out any spring bulbs you forced inside over winter to bloom again next year.

• It's seed sowing month! Flower seeds to sow in March include hardy annuals, such as poppies and cornflowers, which you can sow directly outside, and half-hardy annuals like zinnias, cosmos, marigolds and sunflowers, which are best sown indoors or in a greenhouse.

• You can also sow wildflower seeds this month to create a pollinator-friendly meadow or bed. Wildflowers prefer nutrient poor soil, so this is an excellent low-cost way to brighten up new-build gardens and parts of larger gardens that you haven't got round to improving yet.

• If the weather is mild, you can plant or move evergreen shrubs and trees towards the end of the month. In colder areas, wait until next month.

Propagating and dividing

• Divide hostas and hemerocallis (daylilies) when you see new shoots emerge. Dig up the clumps and slice them into sections before replanting in a pot or the ground. Make sure each division has shoots and plenty of roots.

• You can also divide crocosmia and dierama in spring. Gently lift the corms and separate, then replant, sections or "chains" of corms.

• You can propagate dahlias by taking cuttings from fresh shoots growing from potted tubers.

Pruning and cutting back

• Deadhead daffodils and other spring bulbs to encourage them to produce more flowers.

• Their colourful stems may have lit up your garden during the winter months, but now it's time to prune cornus and salix to encourage new growth. Find out how in our guide to growing dogwood.

• Prune rose bushes early in the month before spring growth begins. Cut stems back to within 5 mm of outward-facing buds and slant the cuts to help water run off. Remove any dead wood and suckers.

• Prune the flowerheads on mophead and lacecap hydrangeas, cutting back to the first pair of healthy buds. You may also want to remove a couple of older stems completely on mature plants to encourage fresh growth.

• Prune group 2 and 3 clematis at the beginning of the month if you didn't get round to it in February.

• If you have an overgrown rhododendron, you can cut it back hard this month to renovate it. Find out more in our guide to growing rhododendrons.

• Tidy up herbaceous perennials and alpines, trimming away dead leaves and stems before new growth emerges.

General maintenance

• Mulch beds with garden compost to give them a nutrient boost and keep the soil moist.

• Keep an eye out for new weeds and remove them before they can get established.

• Feed shrubs and trees with a general purpose fertiliser such as blood, fish and bone. Feed roses with a specialist rose fertiliser once you see new growth, and feed acid-loving shrubs, like azaleas, camellias, rhododendrons, and pieris, with an ericaceous fertiliser.

• Top dress containers with fresh compost.

• Tidy up plants that have been in the greenhouse over winter and check for any signs of pests.

• Put structures in place for climbing plants. It's easier to do this now, before they start growing.

• Check young plants for aphids and, where necessary, remove them by hand before the numbers increase too much.

Fruit and vegetables

March marks the start of the "hungry gap" – a three-month period when winter crops and stores are running out and the summer glut hasn't begun. With enough growing space and careful planning in autumn, you can still have a reasonable variety of vegetables, but for most of us, we'll be supplementing our home-grown produce and getting beds ready for the main growing season.

There are plenty of seeds to sow in March, including hardy crops that you can sow outdoors. Early sowings will need protection from late frosts, so make sure you have some cloches to hand. Now is also the time to plan crop rotations and map out what you're going to plant where.

What vegetables to plant in March

• Sow sweet peppers, tomatoes, aubergines and chillies in pots indoors. You can also sow cucumbers at the end of the month – they get big fast, so don't be in too much of a hurry to get them in early unless you're growing them in a greenhouse.

• In most areas, you can sow peas, broad beans, lettuces, leeks, parsnips, beetroot, carrots, spinach and spring onions, as well as salad crops and radishes outside. Some crops may need covering with cloches or a cold frame, particularly if it's a cold month.

• Sow broccoli, cabbages, Brussels sprouts, celery and celeriac indoors.

• Onion and shallot sets can be planted out this month. Space onions 5–10 cm apart with the tip just showing above the surface of the soil.

• Plant young herb plants in a pot or bed to create a herb garden you can pick from throughout the spring and summer. Stick to hardy herbs, such as thyme and rosemary for now, and add tender plants after the last frost.

• As the weather gets milder, you can plant strawberries in beds, pots or hanging baskets.

• Buy asparagus crowns and plant them in a shallow trench. Asparagus is a perennial plant, so it will come back year after year.

• Plant out chitted early potatoes, as long as the ground isn't frozen.

Harvesting

• Forced rhubarb should be ready to pick now. The tender pink stems are deliciously sweet and welcome as the first fruit of summer (though, technically, rhubarb is a vegetable).

• Harvest any remaining parsnips, Brussels sprouts, winter cabbages and celeriac. If you have any leeks or kale left, these should still be good next month.

• The first spring vegetables may be ready to harvest this month. Early sprouting broccoli, Swiss chard, winter lettuces and spring cabbages and cauliflowers could be making their way to your table.

Fruit bushes and trees

• Peach, apricot and plum trees blossom early, before the leaves unfurl. Cover with horticultural fleece or hessian if frosts are forecast to protect the delicate buds and flowers.

• If your blueberry plants struggled last year, apply an ericaceous fertiliser now to give them a boost. Plants in containers will need feeding every few weeks from April to August.

• If you didn't feed your fruit bushes and trees last month, do it now. Seaweed, blood, fish and bone, or a high-potash fertiliser all work well. Cover with a mulch of compost or well-rotted manure.

General maintenance 

• Chop down green manure and dig it into your beds. Now's a good time to dig in some well-rotten manure or compost.

• Mulch around your rhubarb with rotted manure, but make sure it doesn't touch the crowns.

• Feed cabbages, kale and other brassicas that have been in the ground over winter with a rich fertiliser, like pelleted chicken manure, blood, fish and bone or a seaweed fertiliser.

• Prepare seedbeds by raking over the soil until it's fine and crumbly with no large clods.

 

Lawns and hedges

March is usually when your lawn wakes up and starts growing again, but the exact timing depends on the weather and where you are in the country. Once the temperatures begin to rise and the soil dries out from winter waterlogging, give your grass some TLC. You'll reap the benefits in a few months with thick, lush growth.

• Once the grass has begun to grow, you can start mowing your lawn. Raise the blades a bit for the first cut to encourage thick growth.

• If you have spring-flowering bulbs in your lawn, wait six to eight weeks after flowering for the foliage to turn yellow before mowing.

• Aerate your lawn using a garden fork or an aerator. If you have heavy soil which gets compacted or waterlogged over winter, you may want to brush some sand or loam into the holes to improve drainage. Your lawn may also benefit from scarifying.

• Reshape your lawn and neaten the edges using a turf iron or spade.

• Sprinkle lawn fertiliser across the grass to give it a boost.

• If you're planning to sow a new lawn from seed, prepare the ground this month, so the soil has time to settle before sowing in April.

• March is considered the start of nesting season. You may be able to do a light tidy up of hedges at the start of the month before you put your pruning shears down for the summer.

• March is a good month to plant potted hedging plants, as it gives them time to grow roots before the soil dries out in summer.

 

Other garden jobs for March

There are plenty of maintenance jobs to do this month to make sure your garden is ready for the main growing season. If you didn't get round to cleaning pots, cold frames and water butts over winter, now is the time to get it done!

• Check pond pumps and water features to make sure they're in working order, remove netting and clear any leaves or debris from ponds.

• Food sources for birds are still scarce, so keep putting bird food out regularly.

• Repair any fences, trellises or other structures damaged over the winter.

• Give your patio a spring clean with a pressure washer or some good old-fashioned scrubbing. Our patio cleaners can help you get rid of algae and mould.

• Build or buy a new compost bin, ready to recycle this year's garden waste.

• Make sure tree ties and stakes are secure and firm in any plants affected by wind rock.

• Carry out hard landscaping work, such as creating new paths or patios, so flowers beds are ready for planting next month.