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Your March Garden: Top Tips & Advice

We have been waiting patiently (or, impatiently) for the weather to warm and for the new year in the garden to properly begin. There may still be the risk of a late frost lurking, but March is the month when garden activity really starts hotting up!

Read our guide to March gardening jobs to find out what to do now, what to plant this month and helpful gardening tips from our Hillier experts to keep your garden at its best.

What to Enjoy in your Garden in March

Magnificent Magnolias

Gardening is as much about appreciating the beautiful now as planning and planting for the future. Enjoy these plants in your garden and home this month:

Flowers that Bloom in March

Primroses – a brilliant bedding plant to bring colour to the garden all the way through to May
Spring-flowering shrubs: camellia varieties, chaenomeles, daphne, forsythia, kerria, magnolia, photinia, Pieris japonica, ribes (ornamental currants), vinca
Prunus varieties (e.g. Prunus x subhirtella ‘Autumnalis Rosea’, Prunus ‘Kojo-no-mai’)
Perennials: narcissi (daffodils), crocus, muscari, Iris reticulata, pulsatilla, bergenia

Fantastic Foliage and Architectural Stems

Ornamental grasses, including Festuca ‘Intense Blue’, Ophiopogon ‘Nigrescens’, Imperata ‘Red Baron’, Carex ‘Ice Dance’, Carex ‘Evergold’
Key shrubs and trees for foliage: euonymus, leucothoe
Conifers, such as juniper, spruce and fir varieties

Flowers to Plant in March

Forsythia ‘Lynwood’

March is as much about preparation as planting in the flower and vegetable garden. There are a number of things you can plant this month though, as long as the soil is workable.

What to Plant for Instant Impact in your March Garden

Gardening is often about the patient process of growing from seed, bulb or small plant and nurturing it over time. If you want to balance this out with immediate colour, foliage and scale in your garden, you can always find larger plants or those in bloom right now for instant impact. Be sure to water newly planted gardens often.

Simply browse the ‘what to enjoy now’ list above. Many of these plants will be available from the Garden Centre for immediate enjoyment and, once planted, should continue to develop year after year.

What to Plant for Future Interest in your March Garden

Small herbaceous plants. These can now be planted straight into the garden if it is mild

Hillier Tip: Both 9cm and 1litre herbaceous plants are a cost-effective way to add summer colour to your garden

Potted bulbs. If you missed the autumn bulb-planting season, potted bulbs are available instead. These have been carefully grown through the first stages of development and can be planted directly into the ground, or into containers for beautiful colour as the weather warms.
Alpines – 9cm or 1-litre plants allow for a cost-effective garden update
Roses, so they can establish in time for summer flowering

View our collection of plants

Seeds to Grow in March

Spring is here and the garden is bursting into life! It’s time to get outside and make the most of the coming year. Read more about growing this month in our March guide to Grow Your Own.

Sow Indoors

February and March are the months to start ‘chitting’ your potatoes, i.e. letting them sprout so they grow faster and stronger. Read our guide to growing your own potatoes to find out how
Sow winter brassicas in seed trays, tomato, cucumber and aubergine seeds in heated propagators
Start your regular sowing of cut-and-come-again salads, to keep you fully stocked with greens for months to come
Sow fragrant perennial herbs such as lemon-balm, rosemary, sage, thyme and oregano.
Sow courgettes, runner beans and French beans in root trainers or small pots ready to plant out in April / May

Sow Outdoors

Radish seeds can be sown under cloches now
Sow broad beans and kale seeds directly into the ground ready for a delicious summer crop
Plant out asparagus crowns out now
If the weather is mild, you can sow carrots, beetroot, chard and peas outside
This is the last month to plant bare-root fruit trees

Harvest Now

Cabbage, carrots, kale, leeks, purple sprouting broccoli,

Hillier tip: See the planting and harvesting times for many of our most loved vegetable and salad plants in our Seed Sowing Calendar.

View our collection of seeds

Gardening Jobs for March

As the weather warms (though with the ever-present risk of a late frost), there are more and more enjoyable jobs to do in the garden in March.

Hillier Tip: The creation of a vibrant, flowering garden is all in the preparation. Mulching properly now will stop weeds coming through and continue to feed and maintain moisture in the soil during dry spells, meaning you can sit back and enjoy it in the summer.

Pruning your Plants

Deadhead bedding plants, such as primroses to encourage prolonged flowering
If you haven’t already, prune winter-flowering shrubs and climbers that have finished flowering before spring buds burst into life – i.e. lonicera, ribes. Lightly prune hammamelis, holly and bay to remove dead or dying stems
Cut down autumn-fruiting raspberries to the ground, if you haven’t done yet. New growth will likely appear in April
Prune late-flowering clematis back hard to a couple of buds
Cut back deciduous ornamental grasses in late March, such as miscanthus, cutting above any fresh green growth. Pull out dead growth from evergreen grasses (but do not cut back)
Cut back buddleia down to the bottom couple of buds, otherwise the flowers will get progressively higher each year and the plant will be woody and poorly shaped
Cut back roses in February / March before buds begin to burst. This is also a good month to give roses a feed with special rose feed
Trim winter-flowering heathers as flowers fade
Deadhead hydrangeas now before the arrival of any new growth if you left the ornamental flowerheads on over winter
Remove dead leaves from around the bases of alpines to avoid rot
Cut back cornus hard to stimulate new growth, which will be brightly coloured come autumn
Prune acers if the timing is right. If you look at the plant and see the leaf buds starting to swell, then you can prune back to a strong bud to promote growth. This is most often in late February to early March
Cut back young hedges (i.e. hedges that are one or two years old) by about a third; this will ultimately help the hedge grow thicker and stronger

Moving your Plants

Lift and divide snowdrops that have finished flowering. Dig up a clump, complete with soil and root system

Protecting your Plants

If you planted any new trees this winter, check any stakes and ties carefully and keep them well watered

Lawncare & Gardencare

This is the month to prepare your beds and borders by improving the soil. As soon as the soil is workable, dig in a layer of good multi-purpose compost or well-rotted manure. You may also want to add a good all-purpose fertiliser
In the vegetable garden, help the soil warm up and dry out by covering with cloches
Now is a great time to build or buy a compost bin before the growing season properly kicks off
This month you can finally focus some attention on your lawn. Recut edges if needed and give it the first mow if there is a good dry spell
If you are planning to lay turf, mid-March is the ideal time. Prepare the ground a couple of weeks before laying turf, using a product like Grow More Granular Fertiliser that has a balance of the major nutrients needed, allowing it time to work into the soil.

March Gardening Tips

For your first cut of the lawn, set the blades higher than usual. You want to be gentle to protect the roots of the grass, which will be soft and delicate after winter. Read more in our guide to achieving your perfect lawn

View our collection of gardening essentials

Birds and Wildlife Care in March

Spring is the key breeding season for birds, which means a change in their care and food needs. Migratory birds will be arriving back and will need feeds that are high in protein and essential oils to refuel their bodies after the long flight. To help the birds in your garden this March, ensure you consider the following:

Give high-protein bird food, like sunflower seeds
Put up a nest box in early spring if you haven’t done so already
Ensure clean water is available and doesn’t freeze in event of late frosts

View our collection of wildlife products

Monthly Garden Tool Checklist for March

Some of the essential garden tools and products we recommend to have ready in your shed.

Growing potatoes:

Seed trays for chitting, compost, potato planter or large pots (if not planting in the ground)

Sowing indoors:

Seed packets, Seed trays / pots (fibre seed pots are available as an alternative to plastic), Seed sowing compost (e.g. John Innes), Board / levelling tool, Watering can with fine attachment, Polythene / thin layer of glass to cover seed trays, Mini greenhouse / propagator, Dibber, Follow-on compost (e.g. John Innes No.1), Root trainers, plant labels