Laidback Gardening: What to Do in March?

If February is a month of contemplation for gardeners, March marks a real transition. Depending on your region and the year’s weather, it can feel like winter or spring… sometimes both at the same time! But it’s the official start of spring, and as the days lengthen, our spirits rise, as does our eagerness to get back to our garden.

Between Anticipation and Caution

For gardeners in a hurry to get their hands back in the soil, be patient! It’s tempting to start too early, but the capricious weather, oscillating between cold and mild, can compromise your efforts. Fortunately, there’s always something to do.

It’s the perfect time to go shopping for summer seeds and bulbs, prune trees and shrubs before budburst, prepare and check your tools, and clean out nesting boxes for nesting birds. It’s also a great opportunity to expand your gardening knowledge and fine-tune your plans for the summer season. In fact, many new gardening books come out at this time of year, seed festivals abound and many horticultural societies offer inspiring lectures.

Indoor Gardening

For those starting their seedlings indoors, this is the ideal time to sow slower-growing varieties such as peppers, eggplants and certain perennials. These plants need more time to develop before they are ready to be transplanted to the garden in spring.

As the days lengthen, houseplants emerge from their dormancy and begin a new phase of growth. This is the time to revitalize them by repotting, resuming fertilization and giving them a good cleaning. For the impatient, it’s also the perfect time to take cuttings and multiply your favorite plants.

A Month of Transition

Between anticipation and preparation, the month of March is still a little early to dive fully into gardening… but the desire is beginning to bud!

Seedlings

1. Sow plants that appreciate an early start: the indoor sowing season begins gently in March. Beware: many gardeners start too early, resulting in tall, etiolated plants. The aim is to have young, vigorous plants for accelerated growth outdoors. Here are a few seedlings to start in early March and mid-March.
2. Prepare your sowing calendar: you can do this on graph paper, in a spreadsheet on the computer or even with a platform like tisanji.
3. Organize your seeds: before buying seeds at your local seed festival, sort through the ones you already have and find a way to organize them, like a seed binder.
4. Do a germination test: most seeds can germinate for at least 2-3 years after harvest, and some can remain good for 7 years or more. A few weeks before the sowing date, perform a germination test.

Ornamental Garden

1. Buy your summer bulbs: summer bulbs such as tuberous begonias, cannas, callas, dahlias, gladioli, etc., are currently available from garden centers in North America and Europe. Rooted cuttings of annuals are also available, for potting at home.
2. Prepare a plan of your garden: sketch plans by hand or with tisanji.
3. Force branches for an early spring: you can “force” branches from spring-flowering trees and shrubs to achieve extrahasty flowering in the house. The technique is useful for all spring-flowering trees and shrubs, such as willows, forsythias, serviceberries, magnolias, ornamental almonds and fruit trees. They can be forced as soon as their buds start to swell.
4. Take cuttings of annuals: In early autumn, you may have brought in cuttings from annuals such as pelargoniums, begonias, impatiens and coleus to keep them alive over winter. The aim is simple: to keep them alive for replanting in spring. With the arrival of March, it’s the ideal time to cut and propagate these rooted seedlings.
5. Prune your trees… in snowshoes: the best time to prune most trees is early spring, before budburst, to promote faster healing. In winter, with abundant snow, access to medium-sized trees for pruning is easier with snowshoes. In April, access is more limited once the snow has melted.

Houseplants

1. Repotting your houseplants: Repotting houseplants is essential to encourage their growth. Repotting is generally carried out in spring, but can also be done in summer or early autumn. Most plants benefit from one repotting a year, while young, fast-growing plants may need two a year. Mature plants that are not very active in their growth, such as indoor trees or cacti, can remain in the same pot for 4 to 7 years.
2. A spa day for houseplants: As the days lengthen and our plants slowly emerge from their winter rest, it’s the perfect time to give them some well-deserved pampering. A few simple gestures can revitalize them and thank them for their beautiful presence throughout the year.
3. Clean your windows: by keeping your windows clean, you allow more light to penetrate inside, encouraging your plants to grow. Be sure to clean both sides of the glass for maximum transparency.
4. Increase atmospheric humidity: place a humidifier near plants sensitive to dry conditions caused by indoor heating. But don’t overdo it! This can cause condensation.
5. Keep an eye out for insect infestations in your houseplants: some houseplant pests have calmed down during the short-day period by going into diapause, but as the days lengthen at the end of January, they become active again and start reproducing abundantly from the beginning of March.
6. Take cuttings from your houseplants: as winter draws to a close, under the influence of the increasingly long days, the growth of our houseplants begins, or else it will begin very soon. The best time to take cuttings is usually between mid-February and the end of August.
7. Resume fertilization of houseplants: in temperate regions, fertilization of houseplants ceases in October as light diminishes and growth slows. In late February and March, with longer days, growth picks up again, signaling the time to resume fertilization. Gardeners using grow lights can fertilize all year round if their plants are actively growing.
8. Prune your hibiscus: if you’ve had a Chinese hibiscus (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis) in your home since early winter, it’s time to give it a good trim. Pruning it in late February or March will stimulate it to produce more flowers over the summer, while keeping its often exuberant growth under control.

Fauna

1. Clean and disinfect the nesting boxes, or add new ones: a quick look at them once a year is all it takes! Ideally? A good cleaning and a few repairs at the end of winter or the very beginning of spring. It’s also a good time to add new ones before the birds settle in.
2. Keep feeding the birds: as long as the snow still covers the ground and natural food is limited, it’s a good idea to provide them with sunflower seeds, suet (if it’s still cold) and dried fruit for the frugivores.
3. Install a water point: if temperatures rise above freezing, a shallow bird bath can be useful. Be sure to change the water regularly to prevent it from freezing, or use a heated bath.

Other

1. Clean and prepare your tools: if you haven’t already done so, clean, sharpen and prepare your gardening tools so they’re ready for the season ahead.
2. Check your stored bulbs and tubers: inspect stored bulbs (such as dahlias or gladioli) and tubers for signs of rot or desiccation.