What to Do in the Garden in March
“In the garden, I can start over.”
A bursting Brassica bed in the Sunshine Community Gardens, 2020.
Trust me on this and take heart: no matter how your winter months went or what state it’s in now, your garden will come to life this month. Spring is on the way!
CENTRAL TEXAS GARDEN WINTER STATUS FOR THE LAST FIVE YEARS:
2021: Trauma and grief after a legendary Texas freeze mid-February
2022: Warm weather with occasional micro-freezes that damaged tender crops that hadn’t been hardened off properly with consistent, climbing colder temps.
2023: Very similar as previous warm winter, leading to a garden canvas in March that was a mix of blank, brown spaces and emerging green.
2024: Possibly a perfect winter? 2024 had a steady pace of gradually colder days so crops could strengthen and build resilience. Brassicas and other cold crops are happy. Lettuces and spinach are now in their moment.
2025: Austin only had two weeks of freezing temps this winter, separated by temps in the high seventies. If you didn’t cover your garden during the freeze, you’ve probably lost some peas or other tender crops, but you see bountiful signs of spring. My garden is a mix of fresh blank spaces, emerging seedlings like wildflowers and arugula, and ongoing crops and flowers, like my ranunculus, about to bloom.
2025 NOTE: The following is the 2021 March Garden Guide that was originally published after the February 2021 Texas Freeze. Gardens were devastated. I've left it mostly unupdated as a reminder that every year we enter into this month in wildly different places depending on what kind of winter we just went through. You may want to keep a garden journal to remind you of these variables.
I hope you and your loved ones fared well through the winter storm that devastated the entire state two weeks ago. My house was out of power for almost sixty hours. The kitchen where my seedlings were got into the low 40°s and most of my tomato starts died. Even the ones that survive seem cautious, their leaves curled under protectively. I see so much on social media about how to manifest the results you want by setting intentions boldly. In that spirit, in January, I pronounced we’d have the biggest tomato harvest ever (!!!!) and launched a seed pack designed to produce harvests early so that we’d avoid the heat that comes early to Texas. I thought we just had to worry about the heat. I realize I am not powerful enough to conjure a devastating storm over most of the country, but I was reminded of that old saying, “Man Plans and God Laughs.” Oh life.
March is a beautiful time for Texas bluebonnets and redbuds. When you see them, you know spring will be here soon.
So much of this month’s To Do’s will vary depending on how extensive your garden was before the freeze. You may not have finished all the clean up involved after the hard freeze or perhaps you hadn’t really started anything so you now have a blank canvas. This time last year, my garden was green and lush. The snapdragons, delphiniums, nasturtiums, and calendula were all in bloom. Many of my perennials were already green with new growth. My brassicas were huge and getting mature, which is when you really need to control caterpillars. My borage was already blooming, buzzing with bees. This year, I'm grateful for what was still dormant when this freeze hit. Anything that had started to sprout growth was punished for it. The garden is largely brown. The flowers mostly survived (RIP nasturtiums), but their blooms are delayed. The perennials will surely regrow as the snow protected the roots, an extra blanket of insulation over the frost protection. When you feel despair, remember this: Spring is coming! It happens this month, right around the full moon, which is known as the Worm Moon because the worms are returning to the surface of the soil after diving deep for winter. March comes with the fastest rate of temperature increase out of the entire year. The average high temperature climbs from 68° to 77° over the next 31 days. (Central Texas).
March To-Dos
Start fresh.
Focusing on what we can plant this month will help cope with what we lost. We still have an opportunity to grow cool season spring crops. If you have been lucky with your seedlings, you can start setting your tomato babies out when it seems likely the warm days will stay (but always be prepared to protect them if the overnight low approaches 40º. By the end of the month, your peppers will be safe to plant. Give them a full week to harden off. Make sure they are protected from squirrels when you do, no good getting your heart broken twice. You may still need to protect them from cold if the temps dip. You can direct sow your zinnias, cosmos, and other summer annuals by mid-month. Fill in the spaces of what was lost with new crops and flowers to love. It is okay to feel grief for the seeds you sowed that never got to grow to their harvest or bloom. Loss is part of gardening. All we can do is begin again and take the lessons we were gifted with to new plantings.
Fertilize trees, shrubs, & perennials
Trees and the perennials that survived the winter freeze should be rewarded. They will need extra energy to recover and grow. Treat perennials with a seaweed foliar spray. If you have Sagos or palms that have turned brown from the cold, giving them this nourishment is crucial. Top dress with two inches of compost around their drip line. This goes for any young trees or evergreen shrub. Prune your survivors! Give them a pleasing shape that offers a robust and stable frame to grow from. Your perennials will astound you at how their growth varies in their first years. The coneflowers that were only a foot high all last year will suddenly burst up to three times that in their second spring. Most perennials don't reach their full height until year three. Fertilize citrus trees with high nitrogen fertilizer like Citrus-tone. Your poor loquats have been through it!
Want to fill your garden with pollinators? Attract and raise Swallowtail Butterflies with this package of four host plant herbs.
Turn over vegetable beds.
Prep your future tomato beds with whatever leaf matter you still have in the yard. Tomatoes don't need high nitrogen levels; they love the humus of well-rotted leaf mulch.
Sow grass seed.
If you want to add grass to areas of your yard, late March is the ideal time to start Habiturf®. Sod like zoysia will be very successful if laid in March and kept hydrated. Turfgrass should wait until April to be sown. If you have an established lawn, topdress with a few inches of compost and feed with high nitrogen, slow-release fertilizer. Aerate your lawn every 3-5 years. Don’t do this while your grass is dormant. You may need to wait until April.
The snails and slugs will be out in the cool days of early spring. Even record snow and ice can’t stop them.
Be pro-active against pests & weeds.
If cutworms are a problem, wrap stems of new transplants with newspaper. In normal years, we’d be seeing more caterpillars as brassicas get older, their resistance to pests fades and overnight they may become infested with cabbage loopers or army worms. Hopefully, the one benefit of a weeklong freeze is that we will have less pests this spring. It pays to be proactive with BT application on your brassicas or give up on them entirely, letting them go to flower until you need the space to plant something else. Stay on top of weeds in your spring garden as you don't want them robbing your new seedlings of space and nutrients.
The best weeding tools come from Japan, land of precise minimalism.
A Hori Hori knife and hand hoe offer deeply satisfying functionality—low-cost, high-quality additions to your arsenal. Tools matter in the garden as they do in kitchens; the right one makes work feel like meditation.
A sharp hori hori knife is serrated and strong. It also has measurements on the blade so you can use it to space plantings or gauge depth.
As Brassicas age into maturity, their defenses against pests decreases. Either be aggressive with BT application or harvest what you want and let old brassicas become trap plants for caterpillars.
Be proactive against both powdery mildew and pests like aphids & whiteflies with bi-weekly foliar applications of this insecticidal soap spray.
Letting broccoli flower will attract bees and pollinators to your garden. Plus the flowers make a lovely garnish!
What to Grow in March (ZONE 8B)
SEEDS (Early March)
Carrots
Peas
Potatoes
Turnips
Asian Greens
SEEDS (All Month)
Alyssum
Beans
Beets
Coreopsis
Corn
Cucumber
Nasturtiums
Summer Squash*
SEEDS (Late March)
Southern (aka Black-Eyed) Peas
Watermelon
Cantaloupe
Sunflowers
Zinnias
Cosmos
Gomphrena
Morning Glory
Moonflowers
SEEDS OR TRANSPLANTS (Early March)
SEEDS OR TRANSPLANTS (All Month)
Catnip
Chives
Parsley
Swiss Chard
Dusty Miller
Moss Rose
Pansies
Violas
TRANSPLANTS (All Month)
Feverfew
Oregano
Thyme
Sage
Rosemary
Mexican Mint Marigold
All Mints
Lemon Balm
Snapdragons
TRANSPLANTS (Late March) PROTECT FROM SURPRISE FROST
Tomatoes
Eggplants
Peppers
Malabar Spinach
Tomatillos (you need at least two)
Impatiens
Asters
Lantana
Pentas
Lemongrass
* You can plant summer squash, just don't get attached to it. Plant early, harvest as much as you can, accept that the SVB will claim it unless you grow it in a tunnel.
The most exciting time to garden is just around the corner. Flowers are coming!!!! If you’ve never grown flowers before in your vegetable garden, I encourage you to try them this year. You will thank yourself later I promise you. Gardening this month means enjoying the lovely weather before it gets super hot and literally sowing the seeds for future joy and color. ♥︎
