What to Plant in March

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 definitely 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.

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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. 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 on 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 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 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.