Monthly Gardening Tips

MARCH 2026, GARDENING TIPS
Garden Chores

Below is an excerpt from a publication from A Way to Garden by Margaret Roach from our Resource Page! The snow has just about completely melted! Spring is almost here!
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1. I tease debris carefully off spots that hold the earliest bloomers first, like where the smallest bulbs are trying to push up through sodden leaves and such, or where trilliums and other ephemerals are growing if there is too-deep accumulation on top of them. (See the next section, after this list, or this article about how cleanup in fall and spring affects beneficial insects and other arthropods.)

2. Also target the earliest bloomers, like Euphorbia, for immediate cutbacks. Nudge them to push anew from the base with a severe end-of-winter haircut. Even later bloomers that grow from dense, cushion-like crowns (as Sedum spectabile ‘Autumn Joy' does), it will be easier to clean up now than once they start to push.

3. Cut back evergreen or otherwise-persistent perennial foliage. Leaves of European ginger (Asarum europaeum), Helleborus, and Epimedium, for instance, will soon be replaced with a fresh flush. Yes, the plant will do just fine even if you leave it on, but many with early blooms are better viewed minus all the nasty old foliage.

4. Cut down ornamental grasses. Mice and other garden undesirables are thinking it's the Maternity Ward in there, I fear, so off with their heads (the grasses', that is), right by the base, ASAP.

5. Empty bird boxes. Bluebirds won't accept a dirty box, and I always hope for at least one family a year. Wear a glove when you do this task; more than one nesting mouse has run up my arm in the process. Ugh. Be a great bluebird landlord, like this.

6. Muck fallen leaves from water gardens. This annual ritual, accomplished gently and mindfully with endless swoops of a fish net, may dig up more than debris (like salamanders, wood frog eggs, tadpoles). I carefully place the netted stuff in a wheelbarrow and look through for sleepy amphibian hitchhikers who need to go back in the water. I'll get the filters and pumps running, too, once sub-freezing nights cease. My regimen of spring water garden tips.

Order bulk mulch from a local source for delivery— skipping all those plastic bags, and all that fuel used trucking bark chips across the nation. What makes good mulch, and how to use it.

This is an indoor chore, but mission-critical: Prevent stretched, leggy seedlings by reading this. (My "when to start what" seed calculator will tell you the proper dates, and there is more seed-specific information below. All my seed gear is here.)