March Gardening To-Do List: Getting Ready for Spring in Zone 7

March is a awesome month here in Middle Tennessee for gardeners. Zone 7, this is the time to shift from planning to actually getting in the garden. I’ve been out in my front garden tackling some essential chores to ensure a productive and beautiful growing season.

If you are looking to get your hands dirty this weekend, here are the most important tasks to focus on right now.

Pruning and Cleaning Up Perennials

Now is the time to clear out the winter interest you left behind in the fall.

• Autumn Joy Sedum: Cut back the dead wood all the way to the base. You should see new green growth already starting to emerge.
• Catmint: You can often save time by simply pulling and breaking off the brittle dead growth until you reach the live growth underneath.
• Salvia and Verbena: Snip these back to the base to clear the way for new stems.

Those are just a few perennials I demonstrate in the video below. It’s time to cut back any dead growth and shape up your perennials.

Trimming Ornamental Grasses

Don’t wait too long to prune your ornamental grasses. Once you see green blades appearing at the base of your switchgrass or other ornamental varieties, it’s time to cut them back.

• Trim them down to a neat mound about 6 to 8 inches tall.
• Use the trimmings as a brown layer in your compost bin or as filler for the bottom of new raised beds. By this time of year most of the seed heads will be gone.

Early Season Weed Control

Early pollinators love the flowers on weeds like dead nettles, but if they are in your cultivated beds, you want to pull them now. These weeds have shallow root systems and are easy to pull by hand. The key is to remove them before they go to seed to prevent a bigger headache later this summer. A couple other common early spring weeds are chickweed and hairy bittercress.

Mulching

A fresh layer of organic mulch keeps the ground cool, retains moisture, and eventually nourishes the soil.

• Around trees and shrubs taper the mulch out from the center.
• Avoid volcano mulching which is when the mulch is piled high against the trunk of a tree introduces rot and disease.

Planting Trees, Shrubs, and Hydrangeas

March is an excellent window for planting bare-root or potted trees and shrubs while the weather is still cool. It’s also the perfect time to prune Panicle Hydrangeas (like Limelight) because they bloom on new wood.

Note: Hold off on pruning your Macrophylla (bigleaf) hydrangeas until after they bloom. They bloom on the previous seasons growth.

Starting Seeds Indoors

If you haven’t started your tomatoes yet, get them in the dirt! Most varieties take 6 to 8 weeks to reach transplant size.

• In our area (Middle TN zone 7), the safe frost-free date is usually April 15th. I prefer waiting until May 1st–10th to transplant outdoors to let the soil dry out and warm up, which helps prevent issues like blossom end rot.

Additional Zone 7 Tasks for March

Since we are right in the heart of the transition, here are a few more tasks specific to our region that you can add to your list:

• Plant Cool-Season Veggies: You can still get peas, radishes, carrots, and leafy greens (like spinach and kale) into the ground now.
• Divide Perennials: If your Hosta or Daylily clumps are getting too large, March is a great time to dig them up and divide them before they fully leaf out. See this video on how to divide hostas.
• Soil Testing: If you haven’t done it yet, grab a soil test kit from your local extension office. Knowing your pH and nutrient levels now will save you money on fertilizers later.
• Dormant Oil Application: If you have fruit trees or shrubs that struggled with scale or mites last year, an application of dormant oil before the buds break can help manage those pests organically.