It’s March in the Pacific Northwest. Sun’s beginning to shine, competing with the rainfall. Early daffodils are peeking through the soil. Buds are forming on the trees. The lawns beginning to grow and might need to be mowed. You might be ready to get outside and tackle those yard projects you’ve neglected. But, while the weather’s looking promising, it’s still not the time to race outside, trowel in hand, and sprinkle seeds or bury seedlings here and yon. March is a good time to take stock of your yard and garden, and plan for the year ahead. Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

1. Make a plan. Whip out an actual calendar or calendar software on your computer and write in the tasks you need to do on the dates you need to do them on. This will allow you to plant your garden in succession, ensuring an abundance of fresh produce throughout the year. Or, if flowers are your passion, you’ll be able to stage colorful blooms all the way through to winter.
2. Make a map for your garden. Plotting and planning your garden on a map will help you determine where everything’s going to grow, so you don’t run out of room.
3. Plantings for the veggie garden: March is the time for planting asparagus, beets, broccoli, summer cabbage, carrots, kale, lettuce, onion, peas (toward the end of the month), peppers, potatoes, rhubarb, spinach, strawberries (plant berries in a new location of berry production dropped off last year) and turnips. Check the frost calendar – you might want to start some of these seedlings in your greenhouse or in the house under bright lights, two inches from the leaves of your baby plants. When they have two sets of true leaves you can move them outdoors.
4. Weed, weed, weed. Now’s the time to pluck those tiny seedlings from the soil before they grow into monster weeds, suffocating surrounding plants and sending their roots deep.
5. Lawn care – apply a good, high-quality fertilizer, followed by lime.
6. Plant hardy annuals where your bulbs will die back. Try alyssum, bachelor’s buttons, California poppy, calendula, and sweet peas. These plants are also colorful pollinator attracters.
7. Start herbs such as arugula, curly cress, parsley, and cilantro.
8. Pick the blooms from your flowering bulbs. Prune perennials to remove dead growth. To encourage daffodil growth next year, let the leaves die back and decompose – don’t cut them off.
9. If you haven’t already done so, mulch, mulch, mulch. We’ve got some great mulching tips here.
10. If you need to mow your lawn, try to stay off of it when the ground is soaked from a recent rain. Sharpen your mower blades if needed.
11. Have you aerated or thatched your yard yet? If you’ve been putting it off, now’s the time to do it. We know it’s a messy job so if you need some help, call us. We’ll get the job done from start to clean up, giving you time to do other things, like plan your garden. We service Pacific Northwest locations including but not limited to Gig Harbor, Bremerton, Tacoma, Port Orchard, and Poulsbo.
12. If you need a new lawn, and neglected planting it in the fall, now’s the time to prepare the soil and spread the seeds.