March Garden Calendar

• Plant cool-season flowers. About six to eight weeks before your region's last average frost date, you can put in pansies, violas, lobelia, snapdragons and other cool-season flowers. They thrive in cool weather and tolerate frosts well. They're especially good in pots.

• Plant cool-season annual edibles and perennial herbs outdoors. These include seedlings you've started indoors or purchased at a garden center: parsley, cilantro, broccoli, cauliflower, onions, and Brussels sprouts.

• Start seeds indoors as desired. Most vegetable and annual flower seeds should be started six to eight weeks before your region's last average frost date -- and for most of the Midwest, that means starting seeds now. Check package directions for suggested timing, however.

• Begin planting trees, shrubs and roses. You can plant both bare-root and container-grown types as long as the soil is well-thawed and you can work it easily to the needed depth.

• In the southern Midwest, plant radishes and spinaches as soon as the soil is thawed and you can work it easily. You also can plant potatoes -- St. Patrick's Day is the traditional planting day in this part of the country.