4 Things Experienced Gardeners Always Do in March for a Great Growing Season, Guaranteed

Set up your spring garden for growing success in March and you'll reap the rewards for the rest of the year. There's nothing difficult about any of these spring garden care tasks, even if you're a beginner gardener. No, they're simply March garden jobs that don't bring instant results so, for most of us, it takes a fair few years of gardening to realise that these slow-return tasks are the foundation that a great year in the garden is built on.

And boy, are the rewards worth the effort! Get these four jobs done this weekend and your plants will be in great shape and have all the energy they need for strong, sustained growth and abundant blooms in the months to come. But the best bit? You'll have plenty of energy for the rest of the year, too, as these tasks reduce the need for watering and weeding.

Here's exactly what you need to do to skip straight to the top of the learning curve.

1. Feed the Lawn

As soon as the temperature of your soil reaches 40°F, the thousands of grass plants in your lawn will start growing, and the warmer it gets, the more they’ll grow. So, if you feed the grass at this point, you’ll fuel lots of strong growth that will give you a greener, denser lawn for the rest of the year. That not only looks better, it means it’s harder for weeds to get a foothold.

Cut the grass first, keeping the blades high – about 1½ inches above the ground. If you’ve got a mulching mode on your mower that chops the cut grass up into a fine mulch, use that and rake the clippings evenly over your lawn. Fresh spring grass is packed full of nutrients, and especially nitrogen that fuels stem and leaf growth, so there’s really nothing better to feed your lawn, and it’s free! It’s important that the grass is dry when you cut it, if you want to use it as a mulch.

No mower mulching mode? No problem! Use a manufactured lawn fertilizer, and look for one that’s similarly high in nitrogen and is slow-release to fuel root and shoot production over a long period. This Pennington Full Season Lawn Fertilizer from Amazon releases nitrogen over four months and also contains iron which will make grass blades greener.

To keep thickening up the strong growth resulting from these extra nutrients, mow your lawn regularly, once a week or fortnight depending on the weather. There are plenty of other spring lawn care tasks you can do now, but feeding is the one that really can’t wait.

2. Clear Out Dead or Damaged Stems

March is a key pruning month but, whether or not your plants are due a spring prune, it’s good to remove any dead, damaged or diseased stems (the three Ds of pruning) from all your plants now. Think of it as a spring clear-out: if there are any stems in your yard that aren’t going to contribute to this year’s garden, ditch them!

Make sure your hand pruners are super-sharp before you start – give the blades a quick sharpen with a sharpening tool like this one from Amazon – so you slice rather than crush stems. Then systematically work around your garden, removing all stems that have died, been damaged by winter storms, or have any signs of disease.

When you’re removing diseased stems, it’s best to disinfect your hand pruners after every cut, to avoid the risk of spreading the infection. The easiest way is to dip the blades in isopropyl alcohol, available from Amazon.

3. Mulch Borders

Just as you’re feeding the grass for strong spring growth, giving all the plants in your borders a nutrient boost now will pay dividends for the rest of the year. And the very best way to boost growth in early spring is with a mulch. Rain will soak through, carrying nutrients into the soil, and the mulch will slowly rot down to steadily nourish your plants over a long period.

Mulching is a much better way to feed your plants in early spring than using a fertilizer if you’ve a while to wait before your last frost date. Applying a fertilizer results in near-immediate strong growth which is often tender, and easily killed by a hard frost. Mulching, however, will get the plant’s roots growing, creating a strong support system for the plant’s foliage and flowers to come. By all means fertilize for more flowers as well, but wait a few weeks until the weather is reliably warmer, and get the mulching done now.

There are lots of other benefits, too. The mulch acts as a cozy duvet to keep soil temperatures warmer, it suppresses weed growth, reduces the amount you have to water, and breaks down to improve soil structure.

You can use any organic matter to mulch. Homemade compost is a great choice, or there are plenty of different types available to buy. As well as considering the aesthetics of whether you want a fine-textured mulch such as compost or a coarser mix like bark chippings, think about the conditions your plants prefer. Mulches made from plant matter like Back To The Roots Organic Mulch available from Amazon, aspen bark like Brut’s Aspen Mulch from Amazon, or coconut husk chips like Back To The Roots Expanding Mulch, also from Amazon, have a largely neutral pH level, so can be used everywhere. However, mulches made from pine needles or bark, like Timberline’s Pine Bark Mulch from Amazon, is more acidic, so that’s better kept for plants that prefer a pH below 6.5 like rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias, heathers and magnolias.

Be aware that the acidity of your mulch can change the color of bigleaf hydrangeas (Hydrangea macrophylla) and mountain hydrangeas (Hydrangea serrata) over time. Acidic mulches encourage blue hues, while a neutral mulch can shift the tone towards the pink end of the spectrum.

Weed first, then spread a 2–3 inch layer of mulch over moist soil with a rake, keeping it away from direct contact with stems. Use the forked side of a bow rake with short tines, like this one from Amazon, to spread the mulch, then flip it over and level the surface with the flat side. A hand rake such as this from Amazon is also handy for mulching raised beds and pulling mulch away from plant bases.

4. Refresh Patio Pots

Any plants growing in pots need nourishing, too, especially as their roots are limited to gathering fuel from a restricted area. They’ve likely already used up most of the nutrients in their compost, so replenish them for another year’s growth by refreshing their pots.

Refreshing pots is different from simply fertilizing the plants with a liquid feed, which typically only fuels six weeks of growth. You can do that too, but it’s more important to provide a long-lasting supply of nutrients by replacing the top 2 inches of soil. In a bigger container, you can replace more, up to 4 inches. Simply use a trowel or hand fork to scrape out the top layer of tired compost, then replace it with new. Be careful not to damage any shallow-growing roots: a chopstick is a useful tool to loosen soil in congested areas.

You can replace the spent compost with any outdoor potting soil, such as this Organic Potting Mix from Amazon, but smart gardeners tailor the mix to suit the plant. So, if you’re growing a plant that needs free-draining soil, like lavender, then mix a couple of handfuls of perlite or vermiculite into the potting soil. If the planter is home to a long-lived perennial, invest in its long-term health by adding in worm castings, available from Amazon, or biochar, also available from Amazon. These will both enrich the biology of the soil.

To boost flower or vegetable production, you can mix in a slow-release granular plant food like Osmocote Smart-Release from Amazon. Want to water your pots less often over summer? Coconut coir is an excellent addition to add to the mix as it can hold up to 10 times its weight in water, and is available from Amazon.

Once you’re replaced the compost, water deeply to settle the disturbed soil around the roots.

And you're all done! Sit back, relax and feel wonderfully smug that your garden is going to look glorious for the rest of the year.