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What to do in the garden in March

Jason
Community Manager
Community Manager

What to do in the garden in March

March is the time to plan for spring flowers and vegetables. Give your flowers and vegies the head start they need to have blooming colours and a bountiful harvest this spring with these great tips from Bunnings horticulturalist Mark Dedman. It would also be great if Workshop members could add their tips by replying below.

 

What To Plant


March is the time of year to plant bulbs like daffodils, tulips and hyacinths in your garden.

 

In the tropical north, sweet potatoes, squashes, melons, cucumbers and capsicums can go in your vegie garden while impatiens, marigold and petunias can go in your garden beds. These can also look great in pots and troughs to brighten up a courtyard or balcony.

 

A bit further south in the sub-tropical zone, leeks, rhubarb, zucchinis, artichokes and capsicums planted now will give you a bountiful spring harvest. Salvia, verbena and lobelia will add colour too.

 

Temperate regions should look to beetroot, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, carrots, cauliflowers, onions and peas for their vegie patch and calendula, pansies, dianthus and sweet pea in the garden.

 

In cold climates, sow broad beans, cabbages, lettuce, shallots, spinach and turnips. In your flower beds polyanthus, poppies and primula should be planted.

 

If you are growing grass from seed, especially kikuyu, now is the time. The bit of growth you’ll get before winter means that your grass will be ready to thrive as soon as spring arrives.

 

What To Pick

 

Potatoes should be ready to be dug up now. If you are unsure, wait until the plant has completely shrivelled. That is when you should break out the shovel.

 

In the vegie garden, late-season tomatoes and zucchinis are ready to harvest as are pumpkins.

 

Early season apple varieties are also ready to be picked.

 

What To Do

 

Fertilise your lawn now so it gets one last spurt of growth that will see it through winter.

 

To ensure your berries are ready to endure the winter, tidy them up now. Remove any dead leaves and trim off the tops. Give them a good feed with an organic fertiliser like blood and bone.

 

You can also improve the soil in any empty beds of your vegie garden to get them ready for spring. Plant wheat or oats, let them grow to about 20cm high then dig them back in. This will organically add humus and nitrogen to the soil, giving your spring vegies the best possible start.

 

While the weather’s still good, take the opportunity to get out in the garden and get busy. Come springtime, you’ll be surrounded with colour and life and be glad that you did.

 

Check out Garden Corner on the Bunnings website for planting advice tailored to your area and climate. 

 

Feel free to let us know what you're up to in the garden at the moment by replying below or hitting the Start a discussion button.

 
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r23on
Amassing an Audience

Re: What to do in the garden in March

Hi Jason
I am about to redo my veg garden and want to do a no dig / compost garden any suggestions on what materials to use?
Ron
Jason
Community Manager
Community Manager

Re: What to do in the garden in March

Hi Ron (@r23on)

 

The Bunnings How to grow vegetables guide should help get you started.

 

Members like @Adam_W and @bergs might also like to provide advice about preparing your soil for planting winter vegetables.

 

What do you plan to grow? 

 

Jason

 

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bergs
Making a Splash

Re: What to do in the garden in March

Hi Jason,
I've been busy preparing the patch with compost and manure. I have a shredder with which, I make all my own mulch, from the trimmings from my trees and other bushes. Not much goes in the green bin.
I heard on the radio that the sugar cane mulch makes the ground go sour after a while and the go now is bamboo mulch.
I'm about to plant my broad beans, beetroot, radish, mustard greens and rainbow chard (silverbeet).
I will be getting an area ready for my garlic planting in April and early May I will give climbing peas another try. In the past the wind has played havoc with them and haven't been successful.
We need rain badly, the ground is so dry and even when you water deeply the wind has dried it up within a couple of days.
Cheers bergs
Be happy and care for your tools

Re: What to do in the garden in March

"I heard on the radio that the sugar cane mulch makes the ground go sour after a while and the go now is bamboo mulch."
Personally I've never been a fan of sugar cane mulch. Not sure about pH changes but it is quite possible.
My fave, especially when I plant veggies, fruit trees or need to beef-up soil is lucerne.
Only use proper garden lucerne as it’s weed-free & it’s like fine chaff. It breaks down fast but as it comes from a legume it adds a lot of nitrogen back into the soil. Ideal for food crops.
If I’m rejuvenating really poor soil I’ll often add a layer of cow manure, a layer of lucerne and then regular mulch. Within a month of so the soil will be totally alive!

Jason
Community Manager
Community Manager

Re: What to do in the garden in March

How is everyone's garden coping after a very hot summer? I've been spending plenty of time watering and also have some shadecloth up at the moment to protect some more delicate plants from the fierce sun. 

 

If you need a hand with anything, please let us know.

 

Jason

 

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Prawns
Becoming a Leader

Re: What to do in the garden in March

My hedges seem to be indestructable - they are doing well (not flowering at the moment but when they do its quite pretty :smile: )

 

I killed half my front lawn this summer though being lazy/forgetful - and not flipping over my borewater sprinklers to do the other half of the front lawn manually lol  (have since installed a permanent sprinkler that doesnt require switching -  so being lazy wont kill my lawn now lol)

 

My strawberrys barely survived - but are still popping the odd new strawberry out occasionally (barely lol)

My spring onions I planted are doing good as well :smile:  (planted some spring onions I got from Coles that were a bit old in the fridge lol)

 

one of the hedges when floweringone of the hedges when flowering

Re: What to do in the garden in March

Crazy up here.
We're in the sub-tropics & technically have just been through our wet season however... so far this year we've only had about 85mm of rain in our yard.
Lawns everywhere are looking miserable.
We're on tank water so watering is just not an option at this stage but I'm hoping to get some new tanks installed soon exclusively for garden use. Mind you... they're not much use if it doesn't rain...
On a different note the few things I have planted here are doing well especially a row of citrus that I planted on a raised mound made from left-over soil from excavating for our footings.
Interestingly there's loads of clay in the mounds but because they are elevated it doesn't stay too wet & in-fact the clay has kept the moisture up to my new citrus without me needing to water! Like giant, natural water crystals.
Anyway... fingers crossed for some good rain in March. Last couple of years we've had reasonable amounts (500mm in 2017...)
Prawns
Becoming a Leader

Re: What to do in the garden in March

@Adam_W Hope you get some rain soon mate Ill cross my fingers for you (water trucks start to add up hey my mate was always annoyed having to ring up a water truck when he ran out of water in his tank fairly regularly years back)

Is bore water a option around your place? (any neighbours with spearpoint?) Might be a option for emergencys if you sink the bores deep they tend to be filtered better and less likely to smell?

My mates old house - his borewater stank so bad nobody wanted to drink it though hahahahaha (some bores near me though - very clean tasting/smelling water as the bores are deeper than mine is - my bore smells like rotten eggs lol) Would help for watering your plants as well but Im not sure of the cost of installing borewater+pump etc VS buying a extra tank but might be worth checking out perhaps but might be cost prohibitive perhaps initially

Our "town water" here technically is bore water as well hahahhaha (the towns here arnt connected to the main dam/reservoir - theres pumps all over the place owned by Hunter Water pumping out water from the ground though that supply a few local towns here)

Re: What to do in the garden in March

Hey @Prawns , yeah, we looked at bores. Older locals tell me the water used to be quite sweet but too many people drawing from it & the extended dry has left it heavy with iron & smelly.
We would need to go at least 30m to get clean water (and it's always a gamble if you hit any at all...) and estimated cost including headworks, pump etc. is at least $10,000.
I can put on 20,000L of tanks for under $5k so...
In our renos we have one roof section that is being 'orphaned', would be a major feat of engineering & pluming to get it connected to the tanks so I’m looking instead at creating a dry creek bed ‘rain garden’ that runs to a large (very large) lined pond.
This should be useable as a back-up garden supply even once I have tanks in.

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