SOUND FAMILIAR? In March, the winter aconites (above) emerge in Monday’s warmth…and disappear in Tuesday’s snow. Consequently it pays to proceed with caution these final weeks of winter. Here are the month’s chores, based on my zone Hudson Valley, New York (zone 5-b) location:
Winter-Sowing. Continue to sow perennials and hardy annuals (including spinach) in make-shift greenhouses. Wait until late this month or early next to sow tender annuals and vegetables.
Raised Beds. You won’t have to buy new soil for these if you top them off with shredded leaves, as above. Give the leaves a light sprinkling of alfalfa meal, cottonseed-meal, or another organic source of nitrogen to help hasten their decay. More details.
Lawns. When the ground is dry enough not to damage grass, rake up the accumulation of twigs and branches.
Arborvitae. If heavy, wet snow has flattened branches, lash them back into place with twine. Stems should regain their upright habit over the course of spring and summer. More details.
Roses. Wait until the end of the month to uncover shrubs; prune them at your convenience but before the leaf buds break. (I prune my David Austin roses back by half; I do not prune my climbing roses, except to relieve them of dead wood.) Don’t try to prepare new beds until the ground is well thawed and the soil is workable.
Pruning. Definitely relieve trees and shrubs of dead wood. Also, prune for shapeliness Peegee hydrangeas, Rose of Sharon, and other shrubs that bloom in late summer. Cut Buddlejah back to ground-level now, unless you want a monster-size shrub (like mine, pictured above).
Iris. Examine these and other perennials for signs of heaving. Especially if your garden has not been mulched, you will need to go over plantings and firm back roots dislodged by frost.
Spring-Flowering Trees & Shrubs. Any time now you can cut stems of forsythia, pussy willow, crab apple (above), witch hazel and quince. Give the stems water, light, and warmth, and they will bloom for you in only two weeks’ time. More details.
Houseplants. Due to lengthening hours of daylight, these are growing rapidly now. Reward them with extra food and water. My collection of indoor plants, and how I care for them.
Forced Tulips & Other Dutch Bulbs . If forced in soil, continue to water and fertilize these hardy bulbs after their flowers fade. Once the foliage withers, withhold all moisture. Then remove the bulbs, and store them someplace cool and dry. In autumn, give them permanent positions in the outdoor garden. Pictured above is Tulipa ‘Quebec,’ now in bloom in my music room window garden. Bulbs I’ve successfully forced for winter-bloom.
Go to a Show! Want to find good-sized plants at bargain prices? Visit your local garden-show. This year, New York’s Capital District Flower & Garden Show is March 22-24. On the final show-day, exhibiting landscapers usually offer beautiful, in-bloom rhododendrons, lilacs, and other flowering shrubs as well as evergreens for a fraction of the retail price. Why? Because they obtained these plants purely for design purposes. They have little interest in keeping them once showtime is over. The rhododendrons in my Woodland Garden were all acquired this way.
Now, if my monthly gardening chores are helpful to you in some small way, by all means speak up. Hearing from you always brightens my day.
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Related Posts:
Make Your Own English Muffins
My Easy-to-Maintain Kitchen Garden
Over-wintered Plants: What to Do Now
Absolutely appreciate the monthly gardening chores. I’m very happy that I am in same hardiness zone. 5b so your advice I know applies to me!!
Thank you!
In Down East Maine I still have plenty of time to even think about these chores. But glad to read it anyway.
Hi Kevin. I always enjoy your listing of chores although I am in zone 7. I appreciate your blog so much. You always bring such joy to your gardening and all of the other tips you give!!!
Happy Spring!!!!
Another flowering shrub that you can force is sand cherry. Lovely little pink flowers against a burgundy stem. I’ve been winter sowing since 2006, and have had great success. All I have to wintersow now are perennials I’d like to try (even though I have stuffed beds), and my annuals.I wish we had those milk jugs. Here in Ontario, I have to use 2 litre pop bottles, which work well, but without the volume of sprouts. Happy gardening!
We just got walloped with some heavy wet snow yesterday. All the schools in the area had an entirely unexpected snow day which makes it like magic from the kids’ perspective. Lots of fun, but now I’m ready for Spring.
I still have to figure out what rose I’m going to plant. Reading through your older posts, I’m drawn to the Iceberg, but it is getting planted alongside my white garage so I wasn’t planning on a white rose. In shopping around Melody parfumee sounds intriguing. I’m really hoping for a classic rose scent. Any thoughts?
Ooouuuuu… I’m probably a couple of months behind in my gardening chores… I’m a bad, bad gardener… hehehehe.
I’m making a promise to myself after daylight savings that I’m going to make more of an effort after work to start working on the garden. It’s convention season for me as an artist, so I’m just far too busy working on illustration/prints during my off-time… /cry
But seeing your post made me check on gardening shows in my area! [and homygosh!] Margaret Roach will be @ Springfest [it's about an hour from me] later this month!!! I want to see her. Auuugh!
I had never thought to goto garden shows. I think I’m going to take my mother in law. She’d love it! Thanks Kevin~ ♥
Hi badger gardener – One of the nicest roses in the world is David Austin’s ‘Gertrude Jekyll.’ I have three of them — one in the Rose Garden, and two that flank the gate to the Kitchen Garden. What a scent! I think the pink, cabbage-shaped blooms of this disease-resistant shrub would look terrific against a white background.
If you are drawn to red roses, I can recommend ‘William Shakespeare’ and ‘David Braithwaite.’ Both are strongly-perfumed.
Donna B. – Hope your convention season is a fun, profitable one! And…hope you can attend Margaret Roach’s talk. Margaret will be at my house in late April — I’m hosting a party for her after she speaks to the local historical society. Fun!
That Gertrude Jekyll may be what I’m looking for. Being a novice at roses I wonder, is this something I can find from a local garden shop or is mail-order a better bet? It sounds like there is a climber and non-climbing variety. Which do you have? I’m leaning towards a non-climber as I already have a few climbing roses (a beautiful red variety but I have no idea what they are) . However a climber may look nice there too. I just winter-sowed some blue hyssop todayy that I may add to that bed. Along w/ the yellow coreopsis already there, I think Gertrude Jekyll will be a nice fit.
Badger, Heirloom Roses, in Newberg Oregon, has a large selection of -surprise – heirloom and David Austin roses. they’re on the web and also publish a wonderful catalog that’s worth whatever they are now charging for it.
By the way, if you’re looking for lovely colour and old rose fragrance, take a look at Abraham Darby. It’s a prolific shrub rose with the most beautiful fragrance.
Hi Kevin, I want to drastically reduce the size of 2 12 foot rose of sharon in the middle of my flower beds. If I cut them back to 3 feet now, will they survive?
My garden in Torrington, Ct. is still covered with about 21/2 feet of snow. I am having trouble trying to get my clematis vines to climb. I have several and I have studied about their care but somehow I have a problem attaching them from the beginning. Any Ideas? Your chore list is perfect for my area. Thank you for all the good advice.
Kevin although I am have a second future retirement home in Arizona in the high desert zone 8b I still love your blog. I love the desert but do miss all the flowers, shrubs etc that you have in your zone. Our problem at my second home in Arizona in a small town called Sierra Vista, AZ is the wind and the monsoons that we get in the summer is very hard on certain plants. My plans have been to use natives as much as possible in back yard and throughout our acreage and in the front courtyard have a slightly more lush mix of plants that can survive the winds and the part shade that is the courtyard environment. I drink in every letter you put out and appreciate all your good advice on not just plants but ood, party planning etc.
Thank you and Happy Spring!
Thanks so much for sharing your garden with us. Here in my zone 2b-3 garden in Clinton, BC I can only garden vicariously at this time of year. My raised beds are still under snow but I have tried winter sowing this year and have just started planting seeds to place under grow lights indoors. Once all the snow is gone and it has warmed up enough I will be out ‘playing’ in the dirt. I grow my tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers in my greenhouse as it is the only way to ensure success. We have had frost in EVERY month of the year so outdoor gardening is often a challenge. Thanks for all the gardening tips you share.
Thanks for the reminder about pruning the buddleias back… I have two that grew by leaps and bounds last year, and I need to work on both of them as soon as it dries out here in Northeast Kansas!
Thanks for all your gardening tips, Kevin. It gives me a good idea of how to start preparing things for the Hudson River Valley zone.
Thank you for the tips!! Always helpful
I did as you suggested and put out jugs of seeds last month. They are doing fine and this past week I added a few more. What the heck, I have filled up all of the makeshift green house spots in the garage. With all of my wonderful, heirloom seeds….you know I’m going to have to try all of them out!
Thanks, Kevin. Yours and Margaret Roach’s are my two favorite, most helpful blogs–wish I lived closer so I could actually, not just virtually, tour your garden. My milk jugs are all planted, but nothing has emerged yet…can’t wait to get out and play in the dirt again!
Oh, Kevin! If you only knew how much I look forward to seeing your newsletter pop up in my inbox! I get the best ideas from you…and it’s so convenient since we are in the same zone half a country apart. My birthday is this month and my husband has surprised me with a hobby greenhouse that I cannot WAIT to get set up and cooking. My little milk jug greenhouses are waiting quietly and I’m hopeful they will produce some good things. I’ve also started my tomatoes and peppers (and etc.) in my little seed starting plant stand in the laundry room. Our home is much smaller and simpler than your amazing place, but I’ve tried to incorporate some of your ideas.
I am concerned about one thing though. I planted crocus two autumns ago. Last spring they were lovely. This year, they’ve come up already and a few have tried to flower but got zapped by a heavy, wet snow last week. Will they survive to flower again? I’ve no experience with crocus although I am planning another planting in a larger area as they are adorable little flowers. Thank you so much for your blog. It’s a bright spot in my life.
Erica – Yes, you can cut your Rose of Sharon back to a height of 3 feet. Do this in late March before leaf buds open.
Dottie – Clematis needs a fair amount of training. I used 2-inch staples to attach the stems of Clematis jackmanii to my potting shed wall. The staples are hammered part-way into the wall’s clapboard siding. For the two clematis in my rose garden, I set an iron structure over each plant, and then wound the stems through the structure. Pictures here.
Here in central MN we still have 17″ of snow on the ground and expecting 4 more inches tonight, (had 3″ last night). Spring is still a good month or more away here. Sometimes we even get snow in late April. I’ve been sharpening my tools that I never got around to doing last Fall.
To help Clematis get their vines growing up a trellis, I wrap a 6-10″ high section of chicken wire around the base of the trellis. This also keeps the squirrels from digging in there and uprooting the plants. If your trellis is made from wood that’s larger than 1/2″ wide, run a sheet of chicken wire up it. Clematis cling by wrapping their leafy stems around and sometimes wood is too large for them to wrap around. The chicken wire will soon be totally hidden by the Clematis growth.
Marlyn – Chicken wire for Clematis. Love it.