What to Start Sowing and Planting in March?
If you’re a gardening enthusiast, you’ve been looking forward to planting seeds in the soil throughout February. March is finally your time, but you still have to be selective about what to sow this early. In fact, I would say the number one problem gardeners face when they first start planting is starting all at once, and starting too early. It’s a long game between now and when you can get plants in the ground, and some plants need more time and space than others. Additionally, your planting date will be determined by your growing zone and last frost date —all of which you can easily Google.
Once you start sowing seeds yourself, you can also move into succession planting, meaning planting a few plants each week rather than a whole batch. The result is that you’ll have, say, radishes ready to eat within a few weeks rather than right away. You can do this with lettuce, beans, flowers, and all kinds of “short” crops (so called because they can be grown in less than 90 days). I’ll offer a guide to what I sow each month inside and outside, and while you don’t have to grow everything (I never found room for peanuts), it will help remind you of the month’s possibilities.
Asparagus, potatoes and onions
Although these items may not seem related to each other, they are connected in the simplest way: You won’t be planting seeds in the ground. Onions are grown and trimmed to the point where you buy a bunch of 25 or so five-inch pieces, ready to go into the ground. (These are onions , not green onions.) The potatoes will look like potatoes, but you cut them so that each piece has a little eye, then let them heal and plant them. Asparagus grows crowns that look like very, very sad dried roots. You plant them in a trench like roses and they form a perennial bed that comes back spring after spring. They’re fairly inexpensive, and while you can grow asparagus from seed, since you won’t get any productive stems for the first three years, it’s best to start by purchasing crowns.
Every type of pea
Sweet peas (inedible and toxic, but gorgeous and sweet-smelling) and their edible cousins can be sown outdoors right now. These are snap peas, sugar snap peas. You can give them a head start if you like by starting them inside and they will usually be ready to plant in two weeks. Plant a second bunch of peas two weeks after the first for a spring harvest. They are ideal for climbing plants and add early color to your garden.
Rapid rotation crops
There are certain crops that I grow consistently throughout the season, such as lettuce, radishes, green onions and carrots. I make sure that as soon as the ground is workable, I plant a small row of radishes and green onions and then sow a few lettuces each week, all of which can be done outdoors. Carrots don’t grow quickly, but you can grow several beds over the summer and they will germinate more easily as long as there is plenty of rain. Get them in rotation every few weeks from now on.
Strawberry
Heed my call: you will never have to buy strawberry seedlings. There are as many of them as tribbles, and you’ll probably have enough from last year to move anywhere you need them this year. Either way, you’ll have to thin them out annually to ensure there are at least six to eight inches around each one. Even if you somehow don’t have a supply, someone in your area does. Remember that you want both June berries, which produce the sweetest berries but only for a short time, and everbearers, which produce larger berries throughout the summer.
Short spring crops
There is enough time before the summer season to introduce a new crop rotation. Inside I sow kale, cauliflower, broccoli, collards, spinach, kohlrabi and chard to take outside as soon as they are ready as they are all done. quite frost-resistant. Spinach especially loves the cold. Outside I sow beets directly into the ground.
Long summer harvests
Two crops that don’t get enough attention this time of year but need to be planted now to ensure they mature in time for winter are parsnips and Brussels sprouts. Both take forever (well, 150 days), so put some parsnip seeds in the soil and buy Brussels sprouts from a nursery or sow them inside every now and then and then as soon as possible.
Summer crops
Some summer delicacies, such as tomatoes, peppers and eggplants, require a longer growing period. But you should never put them outside without protection, such as an Agribon or a greenhouse, until the temperature at night reaches 50 degrees, and this can take a long time. Until then, you will have to maintain, feed and water these babies like annoying teenagers. Every moment they are in your care, they are exposed to pests, viruses, fungi and pet interference. You can see the pros bringing in their seeds now – I’ll start mine around March 10th – but I have a greenhouse to transport them to. Many people wait until April and you shouldn’t worry about that. First the peppers, then the tomatoes and finally the eggplants. To begin with, they will be placed in trays with 50 cells, two seeds per cell. Over the first few weeks I will ruthlessly cut one seedling from each cell (don’t try to separate them to save both, just learn to let go) and transplant them into four-inch pots by the time they are six weeks old. I plant other summer crops, such as pumpkins, corn or beans, much later.
Flowers
What I try to start as early as possible is flowers. I want as many of them as possible, as big and healthy as possible, before I bury them in the ground. Now I’m starting with the earliest flowers – snapdragons, poppies, bluebells of Ireland, larkspur, carnation, bachelor’s buttons, Love in the Mist and celosia. They are the most resistant to growth and winter-hardy, so an early start is justified. You can remove them relatively early in the season to make room for zinnias and sunflowers that will be planted later in the season.
This time of year as a gardener you always feel like you’re falling behind. I assure you this is not true. It’s still very early, but take this month and get your ducks (and seeds) in order. Every year I have at least one germination failure and have to start all over again, so you need time for this to happen.