March in New England:

Snow’s melting, soil is cold, the air teases some warmth— only to snap back with one last cold front. The weather is inconsistent, unpredictable, and easy to overlook. But for homeowners, this is one of the most crucial windows of the year. The truth is— the spring is coming fast— and what you do now— quietly determines how your yard, garden, and trees will perform this upcoming season. True early effort doesn’t just prepare your landscape for the spring; it sets the tone for the entire growing season that is arriving sooner than you know it.

So, you can follow these steps in order to best prepare your garden to strive for a strong and healthy growing season:

Plan— before you plant

• First off, don’t forget the most important step before you do anything: preparation!
• Sketch your vegetable and fruit plants layout and order seeds early.
• Rotate crops from last year’s rotation to reduce the soil disease.

Prune— but the best time to prune depends on the plant:

• Use prune cutters; cut them in small sections, 8-12 inch lengths at a time.
• Keep plants moist in a jar of water until done pruning; remove dead limbs and/or growth you don’t want.
• Trim early Spring-flowering plants after they bloom.

Ex. Fruit Trees: Late winter or early spring is the ideal time to prune fruit trees. The goal is to establish sturdy branches and an open canopy that gives light and airflow to the ripening fruit.

• Trim Summer non-flowering plants after new growth has completely formed.
• You can also trim lightly throughout the year.

Additionally, add berry bushes to your pruning checklist as well. The ideal size, shape, and age of canes varies for each species. Blueberries, blackberries, grapes, and some raspberries grow fruit on one-year-old growth. Gooseberries and most currants grow the best fruit on 2- or 3-year-old canes, while some varieties of raspberries will fruit on this season’s new canes. 

You can prune flowering shrubs that grow their blossoms this season, such as spirea, roses, potentilla, crape myrtle, or butterfly bush. Since they’ll grow new flower buds this year, there is no risk of chopping off your blossoms that are soon to be. So, in contrast, some spring-flowering shrubs, such as lilac, forsythia, and magnolia, already started growing this year’s blossoms in the last gardening season. Wait until those shrubs flower before you prune them.

Bring plants in and dip them in rooting hormone:

• Plant them in potting soil or directly in the ground.
• Certain bushes are extremely easy to grow from cuttings, such as elderberries, raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries, figs, and currants.

Fertilize and amend soil:

• Plants, like people, can grow without nutritious food. However, also like a human being’s body— the more nutrient dense your soil is— the more nutrient dense/healthy your fruits and vegetables will be; and the more well-nourished your family will be.
• So, add materials to soil to improve its structure, enhance drainage or moisture retention, adjust your soil’s pH, or add nutrients.
• For example: you could add peat to your soil to improve the soil structure, or you might use compost as a soil amendment to add nutrients and improve your soil’s structure.
• Ex of compost. grass cuttings, food scraps, cardboard eg cereal packets, toilet roll tubes, egg boxes, etc.

With the vegetable plot still unseeded and the perennials still leafless, it’s the ideal time to feed the soil with compost or aged manure.

Turn your compost pile:

• Feed those microbes in the compost by shaking them up and giving them air.
• Afterward, the pile should be left to “cook” from the sun and turned again once it starts to cool.
• Add compost to your weekly or biweekly checklist throughout the gardening season.

Enjoy the beautiful creations you’ve made with all your hard work!

I understand March in New England doesn’t necessarily look like progress with the inconsistent weather— but your effort in your yard now will be a successful investment in the long run. To reiterate what I first said, what you do now: pruning carefully, feeding the soil, repairing winter damage, planning with intention— quietly shapes how your growing season will soon result when the weather is consistently nice out.

“Preparation always beats prediction.”