Alice and volunteer Jenny cut purple potatoes in the greenhouse in 2021. This is always one of the first jobs we do with the new crew in spring.

It’s officially that time of the year! The smell of fresh soil in the air, the sounds of birds like woodcock and snipe and the growth of wild plants all tell us, “it’s time.” But time for what?? It’s easy to be overwhelmed with where to start in the garden and get a little behind — or ahead of ourselves! Here are some tips for what to work on in the March garden.

Frost Dates: Your guide to gardening.
The whole deal with gardening is that some plants can survive (aka are "hardy") during winter where we live, and some are not. For the purposes of frost dates, we are talking about frost-tender crops, which are ones that will die if the temperature stays at or below freezing (32F/0C)for too long. You can look up whether a crop is hardy or tender, but you probably already have a sense of that.

In general, the last possible date for spring frost is May 15 for Zone 6a, the zone that the farm and most of the Cville Area is in. That sounds extremely late, but there have DEFINITELY been years with hard frosts in May during the time that I've been at Bellair, which is a bit of a “cold sink” due to the Hardware River topography.

That being said, folks with home gardens in the city can definitely get away with planting a little earlier. There are lots of places online to get more specific with the frost dates. This resource has it dialed in by the % chance that a frost will occur. Gardens in the city will be several degrees warmer than outside the city and also maybe it's easy for you to go out and drape an old sheet over your lettuce at night -- in that case, you can try a bit earlier -- maybe a couple weeks or more! On the farm, we just can't risk losing a whole planting so we wait until we can see that May 15 (or pretty darn close) in the 10-day extended weather forecast before we plant acres of anything tender.

So, it's still too early to plant tomatoes, right?
Yes, if you mean transplanting outside! But you can seed them indoors now or through April. Bellair seeds our first tomatoes for retail sales around March 10 and the first ones for our own fields around March 30.

What to Plant: March

Plant outside

Spring Beets, Carrots, and Spinach!
Our first planting of these crops goes in in early March. In my experience, little baby plants tolerate frost as much or better than larger ones. Wait for spells of warm weather to work the ground.

Spring greens and brassicas - with protection
If you can protect your spring kale, cabbage, and similar, you can direct-seed now. Protection can mean you have a warm city-lot garden, or that you have a little cold frame, or that you cover it with row-cover, at least at night. On the farm, we will wait until early April and plant most without protection.

Potatoes
This is the time to get your potatoes in the ground! I remember my mentor Farmer Jamie always saying that it's good luck to plant potatoes on St. Patrick's Day! Cut seed potatoes into chunks and lay them in rows, leaving about a foot or so between plants and rows. Potatoes are frost-tender, but it takes them a while to emerge, and their growing habit means that even if they get nipped, they will grow back.

Seed Indoors

Start seeds of many types
If you're starting your own things from seed, it's time to get going! The first crops on the farm greenhouse schedule are leeks and onions, brassicas like kale, cabbage, and broccoli, and slow-growing herbs. Plants take a little longer near a window than they do in our greenhouse, so I'd start peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes soon if that was my situation. Hang grow lights just a couple inches above and move them gradually up for the strongest plants. On the farm, we wait until the end of March for these crops because they grow quicker in the greenhouse.

Wait a little longer for:

seeding summer squash and cucumbers indoors
planting frost-tender things (basil, tomatoes, peppers, etc) outside

This chart is another great resource for knowing what and when to plant in Zone 6a.

Conservation and the Garden

We’re all trying to grow in a way that is harmonious with the ecology around us. Here are some of the easiest ways you can change up your garden habits to benefit the living systems in your garden.

1) Delay garden “clean up” as late as you can. Did you know butterfly, praying mantis, and other beneficial bugs overwinter in the dead plant material in your garden? If you clear those things away now, they won’t be there when your plants need them! Clear just the area you’ll be seeding early and leave the rest until soil temps are consistently above 50 degrees (usually by mid-April).

2) Control a large patch of grass? Consider reducing or eliminating your mowing chores. Why mow every week if you can mow once per year? Ask yourself: why am I mowing? For city yards, lawns make sense. For large country plots, you’re just wasting time and diesel. If you mow once a year, the ideal time is any time now thru mid-April. Avoid mowing in the months of May, June, and July, as those are the most common nesting season for grassland birds.

3) Keep that soil covered! Till only just ahead of planting and minimize the time bare soil is left uncovered. You can use cover crops, mulch, or veggie crops as your cover of choice.