Things to do: Outdoors

* Aside from walnut, maple and birch trees which are best pruned after leafing, March is also a good time to prune deciduous trees and shrubs. When nighttime temperatures are forecast to remain above 40 degrees F. for 2-3 days, spray your fruit trees, roses, and other ornamental trees and shrubs with Bonide All Seasons Oil to smother overwintering insects, eggs, and immature insect stages.

*If you choose to mulch trees and shrubs, do so at a depth of no more than two inches, and keep the mulch away from the trunks.

*If you have younger trees that were wrapped for the winter remove the wraps for summer growing.

*Instead of tearing out and replacing overgrown hollies and boxwood, try cutting them back hard now while they are still dormant. Prune them heavily until just bare branches remain. You can even cut them back to one to two feet above the ground. This type of severe pruning is not always 100% successful but a very high percentage do regrow beautifully. After severe pruning, fertilize your shrubs with Holly-tone or other organic fertilizer.

*If needed, early this month while they are still dormant you can also thin out branches of forsythia, quince, and other spring flowering shrubs but not more than 20%. DO NOT shear them (give them a haircut) or you will loose the spring bloom. Any major pruning or shearing should be done right after they bloom.

*Wait until April to cut back Buddleia (butterfly shrubs) and Caryopteris.

*This is a great month for planting new fruit trees, rose bushes, berries, and other deciduous plants. Nurseries typically have a complete selection of new plants this month, so you can choose from the best selections.

*As for transplanting trees and shrubs, it should have been done during the dormant cycle but if not, you can still transplant (although it may be harder on your plants). Many plants will have started their spring growth making transplanting more difficult on them.

*Once soil drains, pull and dig up perennial weeds now, before they get a foothold. Weeding in the early spring can save you hours of a back breaking war later. Apply weed suppressant.

*In the vegetable garden, don't cultivate or till soil until it begins to be crumbly, not sodden, which might even be April. When the time arrives, turn in several inches of compost and an all-natural, organic fertilizer rated for vegetables. As soon after soil can be worked, sow peas. Lettuce can follow shortly, along with radishes.

*You can also sow annual poppies right in the garden.

*An easy rose groundcover: Scratch up soil under roses or elsewhere to sow sweet alyssum seeds as an annual flowering carpet.

*Cut back evergreen groundcovers whose leaves will fade when new crop pushes, including epimedium, hellebores, liriope and European ginger (Asarum europaeum) or things that emerge fast and would then prevent easy cutback, like tall sedums. Once these begin to grow in the spring, it's difficult and time consuming to trim the old foliage.

* Muck out garden ponds of fallen leaves and other debris at the earliest opportunity using a net.

• Prepare new beds by smothering grass or weeds with layers of recycled corrugated cardboard or thick layers of newspaper, then put compost on top. Once beds are cleaned up, top-dress according to label directions with an all-natural organic fertilizer and another layer of finished compost. Wait to apply mulch until the soil warms thoroughly.

Recommended Resources:

Websites:
A.M. Leonard - Gardening supplies - https://www.amleo.com
A Way to Garden - Resource for gardeners of all levels - https://awaytogarden.com
Fine Gardening - https://www.finegardening.com
Missouri Botanical Gardens - Plant ID, Plant Finder, etc.- http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org Rutgers Agricultural - List of deer resistant plants - https://njaes.rutgers.edu/deer-resistant-plants

App:
Plantnet - App for plant identification