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February 2, 2021 · Leave a Comment

What to Plant in March

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Garden· Gardening Tips· Our Adventures

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The beginning of March is always welcomed in the northeast. Geese start making their way back into the area, the Chickadees and Blue Jays are more active. Spring is definitely on its way! In our area, March is a unique time. It is still cold, there is still snow on the ground, and the thought of gardening seems months away still. But there are some things you can do in March to prepare your garden for the upcoming growing season. Here is how we are preparing our garden, and what to plant in March in our Zone 5 garden.

What To Plant In March In Your Zone 5 Garden

But we live in Zone 5, so the beginning of March also means we’re about 8-10 weeks away from our last spring frost. While the temperatures start to warm up, we still get cold nights, and yes, as the picture shows, we even get snow. Sometimes our last major snowfall can be as late as the beginning of April, but we have been known to get snow squalls as late as mid-May.

But just because the snow isn’t done falling does not mean we have to wait on prepping for our summer garden. Here is what we are planting in March in Zone 5.

Related Posts:

  • What I’m Planting In April
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March Garden Chores:

There are not many outdoor garden chores that can be done since the ground is still frozen for most of the month. This doesn’t mean I’m entirely free and clear of garden chores. March is when I go out and set up a hoop house on one of our larger raised beds, creating a makeshift greenhouse. This way as we progress through March, the soil in the bed is warming up.

By the time the end of April comes I can get my peppers and tomatoes out there, but I will still have to have the bed covered with plastic. This way my peppers are doing most of their growing throughout April and May rather than waiting until the weather gets warm enough in June.

I also need to come up with a rough plan of what I’m planting this year, and in what raised bed. This is also the month I’ll think about any additional raised beds or expansions.

March is also when I’ll be stocking up on some Slug & Snail Bait*. The slugs and snails can be voracious with our early transplants, depending on how rainy our spring is. To make sure they don’t help themselves to the 24/7 buffet I’m offering, I sprinkle in some of this bait as I the plant.

What to plant Indoors In March:

The end of this month puts us at 4-6 weeks before our last spring frost, so I’ll be starting quite a bit of my seedlings indoors.  To help save money, I reuse seedling trays from previous years or make my own newspaper pots.  For seed trays, I love using ones like these seed trays* that have lids to keep in moisture.  Since our grow lights* are in the same room as our wood stove, I need all the help I can get to make sure the moisture stays in with the seedlings.  Plus I can reuse them year after year.  Some of our seed trays are in their 6th year of use!

As for what I plant, I like to plant a variety of flowers and veggies.  Over the last few years with my allergies getting worse, I stuck to the basics, but this year knowing that it’s not anything in the garden I’m allergic to, I’m going to be planting marigold*, zinnia, and cosmos as companion plants to our staple veggies — tomatoes*, peppers*, and some hot peppers*.  Hubs absolutely loves his hot peppers.

What to plant Outdoors In March:

While I can’t directly plant things into my garden for another 4 to 6 weeks, I can try my hand at late winter sowing. Hubs and I would like to try it this year and see what does better, the plants that grow under grow lights or ones we winter sowed.

At the top of our winter sowing list are onions* {seeds, not sets… sets are planted a little later on in spring}, leeks*, peppers, and tomatoes.  I think some broccoli, cabbage, and kale would do well too.

What are your garden chores for the month?  Anything that you’re going to start indoors or outside this month?  What are you going to plant in March?

13+ Items To Plant In March

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makingcentsmatter
Only you can determine what your financial goals a Only you can determine what your financial goals are. If that means you're adding money to your savings account, or contributing to your retirement, while you are paying off debt, then so be it!⁠
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The trick to meal planning is to make it predictab The trick to meal planning is to make it predictable. But predictable doesn't mean the same thing week to week. You could have a chicken meal, a soup meal, a pasta meal, a leftovers meal, a family favorite meal, and so on.⁠
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I can only hear about my extended warranty I never I can only hear about my extended warranty I never purchased so many times. 😣⁠
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March Debt Paid numbers are in!⁠ .⁠ House: $51 March Debt Paid numbers are in!⁠
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House: $511.13⁠
Citi: $0 – this has a residual $3 in interest charges since payoff, due in April⁠
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Total Paid in 2021: $8,258.84⁠
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Extra Payment: There isn’t one this month since we were $25 away from zeroing out the budget for our February 15th monthly paycheck. That $25, and monies left from our January 15th paycheck, covered our OOP costs for Hubs’ filling. We also have some savings goals coming up that need to be met, making our debt payments a little lower for the time begin.⁠
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The battle for who can charge what tonight is abou The battle for who can charge what tonight is about to begin. 😬⁠
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My kids run off with my charger, plug it into one outlet 5 feet from where they found it like that particular outlet is the only one in this house, and then proceed to fight over who can charge their device first at night.⁠
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A needs his wisdom teeth taken out. I've talked a A needs his wisdom teeth taken out. I've talked a bit in our February Budget Check-In about how much of this I think we'll owe, and you can check that out on my YouTube channel if you're interested, but I wanted to say here...⁠
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It was a lot of money for us at the time. Our kids were 6, 2, and 3 months old. I don't think we even had $500 in savings, and I just left a part-time teaching job because it wasn't paying the part-time daycare bill, so paying our portion in full was just a dream I didn't think was achievable.⁠
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It's almost payday! Here's how our variable budget It's almost payday! Here's how our variable budgeting categories are working out for the pay month.⁠
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Food is looking good this far into our paycheck, probably because miscellaneous - which includes eating out - took a hit with unexpected purchases. Pet is low for this time of the month, and Household is spot on.⁠
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Fuel looks like it'll be lower than last month (yay for weeks of snow days & delayed school starts), and Therapy had one more appointment than initially planned.⁠
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Automating your finances makes saving money and bu Automating your finances makes saving money and budgeting more convenient, and therefore easier on you. Out of sight, out of mind, right?⁠
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What's one thing you can automate this week to make your finances easier?⁠
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Me? I'm going to set up our sinking fund transfers to automate every payday (the 15th of every month). Our bank set up a feature on their app where we can schedule savings transfers now, and I'm going to take advantage of it!⁠
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Oh my word... our miscellaneous category has gone Oh my word... our miscellaneous category has gone a smidgen overboard this month!⁠
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I foresee a goal for March's paycheck to at out less than twice. That's where this category went awry. $99.16 of it went to eating out. 😑 Some of it was avoidable, but not all of it. Having to drive to multiple appointments in one day during snow squalls and rearranging our whole day was one of those unavoidable instances.⁠
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Tracking our expenses - much like a budget review - is vital to sticking to your budget!⁠
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