Getting The Garden Ready in March

March is the time of year to get your garden planning started. For me this includes mapping areas out for new gardens, and planning where each vegetable or new flower will be planted this year. Getting the garden ready in March is just one of many tasks for us and is truly the start to a new season.

Adding New Gardens

This year we will be adding to our existing garden in the back corner of our property. We are adding a potato bed as well as a new row for brassicas and cucumbers. I plan to plant cabbage in this row first and then follow up once that is harvested with my cucumbers. I am trying to plant my cucumbers later in the season hoping that the pest pressure will not be as bad as it is earlier in the season (stay tuned for updates).

I will be using my “no till method” for this new row of brassicas, but we will be using a roto tiller for the potato bed. My thoughts on that are tilling once and then using a broadfork for future plantings. The soil will benefit from this first till because we will be amending the soil and then planting immediately or very soon after. You don’t want to leave the soil uncovered too long or weeds will have a change to get a start there. This is a very hard clay soil and in need of amendments before anything will grow, especially potatoes due to the hard ground. In the end the soil will be better off doing this first tilling and planting.

The Good and Bad

We have some sad news as well, we are losing our big, beautiful silver maple tree in our front yard. This tree is one of the last silver maples lining the street we live on. In the 80’s and 90’s this street was lined with a canopy of very large maple trees. It was just beautiful, and we were lucky to have 2 of those trees in our front yard. Unfortunately, many of those trees are gone now. We lost the first tree several years ago and now this one has to go. It has two very large limbs that are rotten and ready to fall anytime.

This will give us lots of firewood for next season as well as lots of wood chips for the garden and compost pile. I like to line the walkways of the gardens with either straw or wood chips to help with the weed pressure. This also helps keep the walkways dryer when it rains. I am also excited to have this addition to our compost bins. We have added some new bins last fall and are excited to put them to use this year.

Our front yard will be a mess for most of the season, but this will give us an opportunity to work on the lawn as well as the flower beds up front. They are in need of some attention and with the tree removal I believe this will force us to work in the front yard some and not spend all of our time in the back where we prefer.

Flower Beds

I am so excited to really dive into my cut flower garden this year! This was my husband’s idea last year and he would like for it to grow even bigger this year which makes me happy. Last year was more of an experiment and it went very well. We planted lots of flowers, started some from seed, and was very impressed with the results. So impressed that we have decided to expand this area of the garden.

We currently have a middle flower bed that is just that all flowers with the exception of a few blueberry bushes in the back corner. Over the years this has changed, and some perennials have faded, and some new ones have been planted in their place. This is where we will be adding the cut flower garden.

The back half of this garden is overrun with daylilies, and we are in need of something new in this area. So, we will be removing some of them and expanding the flowers. I do like the daylilies and will be leaving some, but most will have to go. In their place we will be adding, dahlias, zinnias, snapdragons, bachelor buttons, sunflowers, marigolds, and I’m sure more along with leaving some existing perennials. We currently have a dwarf butterfly bush, some buttercups, veronica, and some primrose here in this spot.

It will be so nice to have fresh flowers to cut and bring into the house. We love bringing a little bit of outside indoors. Brightens things up and just makes us feel better, more of my garden therapy!

Tiding Up the Other Beds

Up close to the house we have a small herb garden that I have already done a little cleaning to. This has my oregano, thyme, marjoram, parsley, chives, sage, and rosemary. Although living here in Ohio, Zone 6A I can never overwinter my rosemary. I did try last season to cover them, but I fear that I may have lost them, we shall see. We do have plans to plant other flowers and herbs here in this area. I will keep you updated.

In front of my deck is the strawberry bed. I do have an article on thinning your strawberries, but I don’t think I am doing this for this season. I have ordered new strawberry plants and they will be shipped the first part of April. The plan is to remove the existing strawberries after I harvest whatever they produce this year. Then I will replace them with this new variety. It is called Jewel, from Gurney’s Seed. I will be planting them in a raised bed until after harvest time then I will move them to the old strawberry bed. Fingers crossed this works.

The berries that are there now do produce well they are just a small variety. This makes a lot of work when harvesting and processing them. Small berries, harder to pick, clean, slice, you get the picture. This Jewel variety is a June bearing plant with large berries and a super sweet flavor. They are winter-hardy and disease resistant. The hope is because these are bigger berries, I will have less work, but we shall see.

Soil Testing

Getting new gardens ready in March then leads to easy planting for the rest of the year. I like to amend the soil to existing gardens this time of year as well. We will be adding our usual 2 yards of composted manure to each row or garden area. This is purchased from a local organic farm that we have used in the past. I will also be doing a soil test with a new test kit I bought from PX soil. I am so excited to try this. It looks very easy to use and it seems they give lots of good information pertaining to your results. As well as telling you what to get to fix any issue the soil may have. I will do another article on this to let you know my thoughts on the process, results, and the overall rating of the company and the website.

I hope everyone is excited to get this 2023 garden season started and I hope it is a year of learning, trying new things, and passing on what we have learned. Stay motivated and Happy Planting!