It’s March, What Plants Can I Start Now?

Where I am in the Midwest, we are having a lot of rain right now. We are predicted to have between 6 and 8-inches before this front moves out in the next two days. That’s going to make our raised beds too wet to even consider planting anything in for several days. We are behind in getting last season’s garden cleared, and we certainly could have used another two or three days to work at it, we are grateful to get rain, as we were getting dry since all the snow, ice, and rain we received in February has well soaked in already.

Many new gardeners wonder “what veggies can I plant right now?” There are several to choose from; Fifteen to get you started, in most planting zones.

You can start tomato and pepper seeds now if you have an indoor place to get them started. I even like to start my kale and spinach seeds, so we just set out the plants in our raised beds. We used an old wooden bench in our shop building to set flats of planted seeds on, then we purchased a waterproof heating mat with a thermostat (from a greenhouse supply) to set on the bench under the flats and took an old 4 ft. fluorescent shop light and hung over the flats. We used the type of flats that had the clear plastic domes, and we would place them over the lightly watered potting soil containing our seeds. This acts like a tiny greenhouse and gets the plants started quicker. Be careful to not overwater the soil, as seeds do not like tons of water dumped on them. Watch your soil daily, as you can be fooled believing since there is a lot of condensation on the domes, the soil is moist enough.

We kept the domes in place until the seedlings reached the second leaf stage, then we took it off. We set had the thermostat for the heat mat and the light set for 12 hours since plants need that much light to germinate.

You need to know what planting zone you are in. If you don’t know your own planting zone, readers in the USA can find one at this link: https://www.ufseeds.com/what-to-plant-in-march.html.

During March you can plant Beets, Broccoli, Cabbage, Carrots, Cauliflower, Lettuce, Radishes, Collards, Turnips, Green Onions, Onions, Kohlrabi, Kale, and Spinach, if your ground is workable. Hold off on other plants until the soil temperature is at least 40ºF. You can also plant bareroot plants like Asparagus, Artichoke, Horseradish, and Rhubarb. Get your soil test done if you haven’t already done so, as most vegetables like an acidic soil (6.0 to 6.8). You want to raise as much produce as possible if you plan to sell at a commercial level.

Have you begun setting up your markets yet? You should get going on that so you can have an idea of how much to plant. You should have your office set up and ready by now as well because once you get planting, trust me, you WILL NOT have time to worry about it later. Keep everything organized so you don’t have to waste time looking all over trying to find something that’s right under your nose. I am in the throes of trying to clean my office up as I get this ready. I procrastinated too long and now I am paying for it.

Recommendations for buying Non-GMO and great quality seeds for vegetables, fruit, flowers and herbs are:

  1. Johnny’s Selected Seeds, www.johnnyseeds.com.
  2. Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds: www.rareseeds.com.
  3. Peaceful Valley Farm Supply: www.groworganic.com.
  4. Seed Savers Exchange: https://www.seedsavers.org.
  5. Seeds Now: www.seedsnow.com.
  6. Territorial Seed Company: https://territorialseed.com.
  7. Burpee Seeds: www.burpee.com.
  8. Totally Tomatoes: www.totallytomato.com.

 

Remember: Knowledge IS Power!