25 things to do in the garden, vegetable garden and flower bed in March
According to Karel Čapek, “March is the best month to prepare the garden for the arrival of spring.” Not only can the gardener languish in anticipation of “the full, exuberant spring life of the gardener,” but there are many urgent things to do.
Even the garden needs tending, during which it’s a good time to inspect the condition of the plants, prune, spruce up the snow, and take the first protective measures against pests. Gardeners and flower lovers are busy sprouting – sowing, picking, and feeding.
14 things to do in the garden in March
1. Save the snow in the beds. This winter in the European part of the country was not distinguished by an abundance of snow, so it is necessary to save and use as much as possible for the benefit of your garden. Clear the snow from between the rows and pile it on the beds. Between the beds, the soil thaws earlier and absorbs moisture, keeping it from running off.
Do you think your neighbor “doesn’t know how to request snow in the winter”? Maybe he’s just using it rationally by throwing it on the plants?
2. divert melt water. If the plot is on a slope, make cross ditches, snow rollers, so that the flow of melt water does not flow down and wash away the fertile layer of soil, forming gullies. In the lower part of the site, where water can stagnate, be sure to clean ditches to divert it. Remember that long standing water is bad for many plants.
3. Regulate the amount of snow under the trees. Do not pile snow on the nearest trunk of an apple or pear tree. Do not delay snow melting under trees in any special way (such as by sprinkling it with sawdust), this can have unpleasant consequences for the plants.
When it gets warmer, the tree’s crown wakes up, it needs water and nutrition, but the roots left in the frozen ground can’t work. As a result, the tree may wither due to lack of moisture and nutrients. Leave the snow in its natural state, and if your region has had a lot of it, it’s best to shovel it away from the tree by the end of the month to allow the frozen ground to warm up.
After every winter snowfall, do you go to the cottage to collect snow under the trees? And in vain. We have good news for you!
4. Inspect the fruit trees. Check the logs for rodent damage. Young trees at snow level are often eaten by rabbits, and buried seedlings can suffer from mice and other small rodents gnawing through the bark to the wood.
An apple tree gnawed by rabbits. Photo by the author
Depending on the severity of the damage, develop a treatment plan. Cut off the thin branches that the rabbits have gnawed with a secateurs to the first healthy bud pointing outward.
We came to the cottage and found that mice had eaten the bark of an apple tree? It is still possible to save the tree, and protecting it from rodents for the winter is not so difficult.
5. Treat minor bark damage. Minor, superficial injuries caused by rodents usually heal on their own if the bark of the tree is generally healthy. Such wounds do not need to be specially treated. In the case of severe damage, the bark will gnaw into the wood, so open wounds must be protected from drying out.
Be sure to caulk the wound with woundpaste or Blagosad paste, there are now products that prevent infection and promote bark regrowth. Later, while the sap is running out, you can tell if the cambium is damaged, if the bark is overgrowing.
6. Prepare material for future grafting. Severe bark ring damage can lead to the death of the tree because. The exchange of water and nutrients between the root and crown is disrupted. You can save the tree by grafting it with a bridge, but this process will be done later.
Now prepare suitable cuttings for such grafting, they should be longer than the damaged area. Take from a healthy annual shoot, wrap it in a damp cloth and wrap it in clingfilm, place it in a cold place.
7. Tünchen tree trunks. Sunburn is threatened on sunny days, and the bark of fruit trees suffers from it. Sonnenschutz-Tünche protect from severe temperature drop during the day and night and prevent burns.
On thawing days, lighten the trunk and forks of skeletal branches. Use a special pin or water-based cob.
8. Prepare your tools. March is a good time for pruning, but before you get started, make sure all the tools are available and ready. You should have a special garden saw (you can’t use a regular carpenter’s saw), a garden knife, and garden shears.
Stock up on garden varnish or use natural dry-oil paint. Trim branches at the top of the crown while standing on a stable stepladder with wide, comfortable steps.
9. Prune fruit trees. Before pruning, inspect the tree and mark the branches to be removed. Be sure to cut off dry, damaged, broken off branches. When shaping the cut to create a harmonious, beautiful crown that is well exposed to the sun, remove all adjacent, inward-growing and thickening shoots.
When pruning for the first time, you should know your pruning techniques well so you don’t leave stumps or make cuts that can take a long time to heal and lead to holes and disease.
10. Prune berry bushes. With little snow in the second half of the month, you can prune berry shrubs such as currants, gooseberries, goat leaf, and chokeberries.
Remove old, sick, thickening bushes, branches lying on the ground. Leave the strongest, evenly growing shoots in the root zone. Shrubs should have shoots of varying ages – from annuals to 4-5 year olds.
Cut cuttings for propagation. With cuttings, you can restore badly damaged trees and replenish the garden with different varieties. Cut cuttings from healthy annual shoots, wrap them in damp cloth and film, store in the refrigerator or in a pile of snow in a place where the snow does not melt for a long time (on the north side of buildings).
When pruning black currants, single-tree cuttings can be harvested to increase the most valuable varieties. Cut annual shoots 6-8 mm thick, each cut should have 5-7 buds. Store them in a cool place before planting so they don’t dry out or get moldy. Be sure to provide all cuttings with labels indicating the variety.
Propagation of plants by cuttings is within the power of every gardener, it is enough to study the subject carefully and practice.
12. Eliminate overwintering pests. When inspecting and pruning trees, pay attention to wintering pests. Cut out shoots with a clutch of Silkrum Lead gray rings about 1 cm wide, firmly attached to the bark. On the berries, remove the discs with traces of currant damage at the base, in such places the damaged core is clearly visible.
Tear off the swollen black currant buds, on which the kidney silt has settled. Remove any remaining mummified fruit in the fall. Give away any recognized pest findings.
At the same time, remove any remaining labels from the branches while they are clearly visible. If you thicken growing branches with wire or cord, cut into the bark and then into the wood. If you have to leave a label behind, hang it on a long cord with a large shooting edge in the thick.
13. Spray trees for pests. Many pests settle in bark cracks in winter and are difficult to eradicate. For example, use a special product such as B. light prevention. This product can be used at temperatures of at least 4 ° C. Plants are sprayed in early spring before budding.
The preparation can be used on apple, pear, quince, plum, cherry, cherry, cherry plum, cherry plum, grapes, currant, gooseberry, ornamental shrubs. It acts against dormant phases of pests – scales, false scales, mites, aphids, honeycreepers, moths, leafminer.
14. Attract birds to the garden. Birds that live in the garden make excellent helpers in the fight against insect pests. Take care of bird houses, repair and clean bird feeders. It is advisable to disinfect with a strong potassium solution or just boiling water.
The bird house should have a removable roof to take care of it. Small houses can be made especially for small birds, such as robins, tits, wagons.
The most natural way to control insects is to attract birds to the site. And what could be more fun for you than a proper bird house?
6 important things to do in the garden in March
1. Plant seeds for seedlings. In the first decade of March, it is common to sow indeterminate varieties and hybrids of greenhouse tomatoes for seedlings. These varieties and hybrids for the open field are sown in seedlings in 7-10 days.
Peppers, physalis and early varieties of white cabbage and cauliflower are also sown in early March. In the second half of the month – the time of sowing late varieties of cabbage intended for long winter storage. This is also the time to sow onions, intended for preserving beets in one year.
2nd Hour Sprouts. If you sowed eggplant or pepper seeds in a common container in late February, the seedlings should be transferred to individual pots about mid-March a few weeks after sprouting. Plants should have 1-2 true leaves by this time.
Try to keep clumps of soil on the roots when picking and traumatize them as little as possible.
To pick or not to pick, what crops to pick, what is better – picking or envelope … and you do these questions?
3. Feed the seedlings. If eggplants are sown in individual pots at the end of February, no picking is necessary, but two weeks after the seeds appear the plants can be fed with complex mineral fertilizer (1-2 g per 1 liter of water).
Fertilizing eggplant plants
If you have used potting soil enriched with fertilizer, you can fertilize if necessary. Water the seedlings before fertilizing. If the fertilizer solution gets on the leaves, be sure to wash it off with water.
4. Prepare the greenhouse and insulated beds. Check the condition of the greenhouse; it may need repairs after the winter weather. To quickly warm the soil in the greenhouse beds, pour boiling water and cover it with foil. In a heated greenhouse, the first greens, radishes, can be sown at the end of the month.
For cold-resistant plants, it is enough for the soil to warm up to 5-7 ° C. Check the temperature of the soil with a special soil thermometer, if necessary, just before sowing, water the beds again with hot water.
Isolated beds are usually covered with temporary shelters, they are suitable for getting early crops. In March, remove the snow from such a bed. Sprinkle with peat or ash and cover with several layers of film.
When the remaining snow has completely melted, pour hot water over the bottom and cover again with foil and rags. When the soil is ready, you can sow early greens by covering the plants with fleece and foil over the arcs.
5. Start preparing potatoes for planting. At the end of the month, select seed potatoes for germination or vernalization. Consider the generally accepted planting dates for potatoes in your area when calculating the time to start vernalizing.
This procedure takes 4-6 weeks. Put the tubers into the light in a warm place at 18°C for about two weeks. You can lay them in two layers in low boxes with moist sawdust, peat or sand. Then move the potatoes to a room with a temperature of 13-15 ° C under diffused light.
6. Preparation for planting onion seedlings. About a month before planting onions for seedlings, at the end of March, bring the planting material, which was stored in a cool place, into a warm room at about 0 ° C.
Dry the sweaty onions at 30°C for 2 to 3 days to avoid mildew. Then store the onions at 18-20°C until planting.
5 important things to do in the flower garden in March
1. Protect conifers from the sun. The March sun can do a lot of damage to the needles of evergreen shrubs. If your conifers are not covered, be sure to cover them with fleece to protect them from sunburn.
After the snow melts, remove dishes from shrubs and conifers.
2. Keep an eye on the roses. Open roses that have been sheltered for the winter to ventilate. This is especially important during thawing. If the snow has already melted and no heavy snowfall is expected, remove the top layer of covering material. Leave spruce branches in place until the overnight frost stops and the ground thaws.
3. Take care of the lawn. Depending on the condition of the lawn’s soil, proceed with clearing it. In this case, it is important to take your time and wait for the soil to dry so as not to damage the green carpet and turn a smooth lawn into a bumpy surface with holes.
Clean the dry lawn with a fan rake, removing dirt and dried grass residue. Use a nitrogen fertilizer such as ammonium nitrate or urea.
4. Sow annuals. The first month of spring is the time to sow annuals for seedlings. In the first half of the month, sow antirrhinum (sainfoin), heliotrope, lovage, callistephus (annual aster), petunia, and salvia.
In the second half of March, you can sow ageratum, guillardia, Drummond’s phlox, celogine, zinnia, vetiver plants.
5. Straight annual flowers. Annuals with a long growing phase in February are to be blocked. Early Sa y-Hegonia, Chabot’s carnation, Lobelia, and Verbena. Plants are pickled the moment they form 1-2 true leaves. Transplant into separate containers, being careful not to damage the roots.
Immediately after transplanting, the seedlings are watered very carefully, because the plants have not yet determined the roots in the ground. After 10 – 14 days, the seedlings are fed with complex mineral fertilizers or special mixtures for seedlings.
Work in the garden, vegetable and flower sprouts problems bring the long-awaited summer season. Plan your time so that you have time to catch everything in a hot spring.
Garden and vegetable garden work in March: A detailed list of issues from The Green Garden
Gardeners are in for a solid month of work in March. Garden work includes pruning trees and shrubs, treating wounds and hollows, treating the garden before suppressing pests, spraying and washing whitewashing, fighting sunburn, cleaning the garden, working
Gardeners buy seeds for seedlings in March, but it doesn’t hurt to do some preliminary procedures at home to have confidence in the health of the seed.
How to pull seeds at home
This relevant for many readers of “Agro XXI” question is answered by the experts of Tatarstan club “Green Crown”.
Disinfection and soaking are mandatory stages of seed preparation.
Such complicated procedures are carried out only if the seeds are self-prepared. Disinfection is mandatory, as it can contain spores of harmful fungi and viruses on its surface, and further infection of plants can occur.
Germination is a targeted treatment of the seed material to protect it from pests. It is necessary to improve the germination of seeds, increase the number of seedlings and create optimal conditions for seed storage.
There are several simple recipes that can be used to quickly treat seeds at home and still achieve a highly effective procedure:
1. potassium mordant (potassium mordant). It is enough to prepare a 1% solution of potassium mordant, put the seeds in a cloth bag and pour the solution for 20 minutes. After extension, wash the seeds without taking them out of the pouch.
2. Hydrogen peroxide. Heat the hydrogen peroxide solution to 40 degrees and dip the seeds in it for 8 minutes.
3. heat treatment. Place the seeds in a bag and soak them in warm water (about 50 degrees) for 25 minutes. After that time, dip the seeds in cold water for a few minutes.
4. You can treat the seeds with biological fungicides rizplan, pseudobacterin-2 (10 ml per 1 liter of water). Soak the seeds for 20 minutes. Dry and sow.
What to sow for seedlings in March
To know when it is better to grow seedlings, you need to focus on the time at which you plan to plant it in the greenhouse or on the floor. All manufacturers of certified seeds indicate on their packages the time of sowing and further planting, but more accurate more detailed data you can calculate yourself.
The following vegetables are sown in the first days of March:
Cucumber, if you want to have a harvest in early summer;
3. bell peppers;
8. Cauliflower.
Sow closer to the end of March:
2. Worm celery;
3. white cabbage;
Early March.Celery can be sown in seedlings. The ripening period of the root crop is 200 days. Therefore, it is better to plant seedlings, otherwise its celery simply will not have time to tire because of the moods of nature in the spring.
White and red cabbage seeds are usually sown for seedlings in March. The timing of sowing is calculated as follows: About 10 days pass from sowing to seedling sprouting, and about 50 days pass from sowing to planting in the ground. Based on these calculations, you can choose the right period of sap movement for your conditions.
middle of March Sow seedlings of petunias, asters, tina, ringlets, lion’s mouth, lavatera, annual phlox, etc.
When sowing in the field in March, take your time
In March, there is still snow in many areas, so it is recommended to start sowing in the garden bed at the beginning of April.
In early April, it’s time to plant vegetables that have the property of being cold tolerant – radishes, carrots, beets, beans and peas.
In April also sow greens – parsley, dill, rhubarb, onions, parsnips, lettuce and spinach.
Seeds of this vegetable germinate at floor temperatures of 2-3 ºC, and young seedlings can withstand frosts of up to 3-6 ºC. All need to be planted only under a covering material.
organic charging.
One of the most important points of spring preparation of the vegetable garden is its fertilization.
The floor can be “charged” in different ways:
1. Add organic tissues. Standing chaff is used to scatter over the field. Of course, with this application, it loses some nitrogen from its composition, but not as much as in the fall application. If you need to treat a large area, this method is optimal.
2. Since the beginning of April in the soil, prepared from the fall, sow a frost-resistant green fertilizer. For example, white mustard. Sprouts of this plant can withstand the temperature to o o-5 ° C, which means you can spend a full vegetative cycle before planting the most important garden crops.
Mustard is cut at the end of April, but not from the field. It is buried in the ground during spring plowing. It saturates the soil with scarce nitrogen, which is vital to plants for a full start to the growing season.
This is why trees, shrubs, and flowers are cared for in March.
Garden plants (trees, shrubs, perennial flowers) may need emergency “revitalization” in the spring, for example, if the shoots or root system is frozen.
Shrubs and trees need to be pruned before emergency feeding can begin. Dead branches, frozen shoots, and excess branches are removed. Glasses are covered with garden bangs. After the “hygienic” processes, trees and shrubs are fed. This is done not earlier than the beginning of April. Along the edge of the main circle, granulated superphosphate is added. If you do not like mineral fertilizers, you can use ready-made organic fertilizers designed for spring feeding.
Shrubs in late March can be treated with boiling water to protect against pests, but only if the weather forecast does not promise severe frosts after this procedure. Sprinkle in the first half of the day, then the main circle is mulched with ash, which also pushes through the insect pests.
At the end of the first spring month, you can begin planting garden shrubs – currants and gooseberries. Do it immediately after the thawing of the soil. Pits are prepared a few days before planting, so that the soil had time to settle.
Work in the garden and vegetable garden in March includes the care of the flower garden. There are many important things to do now:
– Shortly before the beginning of April, you should choose a good day and start airing out hydrangeas, roses and other perennials covered in the fall. Just raise the covering material a little;
It’s not a bad idea to break up the crust over onions and strawberries in the garden – this prevents moisture;
After the snow melts, it’s worth checking out the biennials and perennials in the cottage. If the root system is rooted, transplant the plants and mulch with peat;
Bulbous plants can already be given a little fertilizer – nitrogen-dominated mineral fertilizer right through the snow cover;
– Make sure that there is enough snow over the perennial, as it is not predictable whether there will still be frosts in March and the root system can freeze.
Reader question: “Is it time to remove the mulch, open the strawberries? Remove the potatoes from the germs?
Green Garden’s answer.
The signal to begin work on the strawberry vegetable garden is melting snow. Next, you need to check the weather forecast. If the risk of frost has passed, you can remove the cover (+7 … +10 ° C, you can start to open it, but gradually).
Take potatoes out of the cellar or basement should be about 30-35 days before planting. If you plant only early varieties, the potatoes can be removed 5-7 days later. These figures vary depending on the climatic conditions of the region.
Mulch should also be removed in time, as its remains prevent the warming of the soil, and this is a favorable environment for the reproduction of pathogens.
Question from readers: “Are there preventive treatments against pests and diseases due to the warm winter?”
Green Garden’s answer.
Before the appearance of leaves, in the phase of bud crushing, preventive treatment with biofungicide Rhizoplan, Pseudobacterin 2 (100 ml per 10 liters of water + 400 ml of urea).
A question from readers: “Threat of turnout – wait for the cold weather and how to protect the earliest crop?”
Green Garden’s answer.
Our area belongs to the risky farming zone. By early June, there is a chance of a return of cold weather. It is necessary to feed the plants in the spring, when the cold starts, to cover the early harvest with a covering material.
(The article was prepared by the experts of the Tatarstan Green Garden Club. Photo above: Sergey Berezin, pixabay.com).
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