A comprehensive list of how we're preparing our Zone 5 garden in March for the upcoming growing season.

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The beginning of March is always welcomed here. Geese start making their way back into the area, the Chickadees and Blue Jays are more active. Spring is on its way!

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.

Garden Chores:

Since the ground is still frozen for most of the month, there’s not many outdoor garden chores we can do. 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 the 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 plan out what I’m planting this year, and come up with a rough draft of where in my beds. This is also the month I’ll think about any additional raised beds, or expansions.

What I’m Starting Indoors:

The end of this month puts us at 4-6 weeks before our last spring frost, so I’ll be starting a quite a bit of my seedlings indoors. I like to plant some marigold*, zinnia and cosmos as companion plants, as well as tomatoes*, peppers*, and some hot peppers*. Hubs loves his hot peppers.

What I’m Starting Outdoors

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 this year are onions* {seeds, not sets}, leeks*, peppers and tomatoes. I think some broccoli, cabbage and kale would do well too.