March Gardening Tips

Since the weather during March is so variable, gardeners in the Juniata Valley have a difficult time getting out into their gardens. However, it is a great month to start your strategy for this year’s gardening season. Here are some

• Once the soil can be worked you need to get a soil test done for your garden sites.  Soil test kits are available at both the Juniata and Mifflin Extension Offices.
• Toward the end of March, carefully remove any winter mulches from your planting beds.
• Prepare your garden sites by digging them as soon as the soil is friable.
• Remove any old and moldy compost and add new compost in four to six inch layers.
• Remove the protective cover from any of your evergreens that you placed winter covers on in the fall.
• Replant any of your plants that heaved due to the frost.
• Apply horticultural oil spray to dormant trees and shrubs before the buds open and when there is no danger of night frost.
• When the soil becomes workable, de-thatch your lawn, fill in low spots with soil and fertilize your established lawn.
• Plant deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs as long as the weather conditions permit you digging in the soil.
• Sow the seeds of annuals and vegetables indoors that require 10-12 weeks of growth before transplanting.
• In late March sow radish and lettuce seeds directly into you vegetable garden.
• Plant you cold weather vegetables like spinach, peas and broccoli into your garden as soon as the soil is workable.
• Plant and transplant perennials.
• Divide and transplant your summer blooming perennials.
• Soak your mail order bare root plants before you plant them into the garden.
• Prune late flowering shrubs but wait until after flowering on any early flowering shrubs like forsythia and hydrangea, rhododendron and azalea.
• Prune all fruit trees before the growth begins.
• Prune your hybrid tea roses, floribundas and grandifloras but wait until after flowering on your climbing and rambler roses.
• Cut back any ornamental grasses to the new shoot level.
• Apply fertilizer to your roses as the new shoots begin to appear.
• Follow your soil test recommendations to lime and fertilize your garden. 

Welcome to the start of another outdoor gardening
season in the Juniata Valley.