MARCH IS IF-AND-WHEN MONTH: I’ll do things on this list if and when the snow melts, the ground defrosts, and the muck it leaves behind starts to drain off and dry. If and when. Which means I’m starting the month indoors this year, with a last pass through the seed catalogs; finishing up my bare-root and tuber orders (any berry bushes, strawberries, asparagus, roses, potatoes and sweet potatoes), and getting out the seed-starting gear to be ready in a couple of weeks. This month’s to-do list—if and when you can get to it:

CALL IT TRANSITION TIME right now here in Zone 5B. It can be garden-cleanup season, or still deep winter, or some of both. Sticks and stones picked up or raked away—if you can even get outside at all—often are replaced at once with another supply from on high, as if you really needed a do-over. Oh, well.

HOARD CARDBOARD AND NEWSPAPER while you wait, to smother areas for new beds, or thwart weeds under fresh mulch in existing ones.

WHILE INDOOR CHORES such as seed-sowing commence on schedule regardless of weather, outdoor chores sometimes wait until April. Caveat emptor: Be sensible and don’t muck around in too-wet soil or walk unnecessarily on sodden lawns. Love your soil, and protect it.

YOUR PLANT ORDERS should be in the mail, or heading that way. When things arrive, bare-root woody plants will take priority in planting, so think ahead.

GET YOUR JOURNAL, calendar or notebook ready to record bloom times, timing of tasks, successes and failures, and valuable information from catalogs or seed packets.

TAKE A WALKABOUT (IF AND WHEN): Check to see if mulches are in place or heaved, or if burlap and other protectors have come loose, exposing vulnerable plants. Once soil drains, pull and dig up perennial weeds now, before they get a foothold. After some sunny, dry days, rake snow mold off lawns.

EMPTY BIRDS BOXES of old nests.

MUCK OUT WATER GARDENS of fallen leaves and other debris at the earliest opportunity, using a net. Keep an eye out tadpoles and salamanders in every heap; return them to their watery hideouts.

CUT DOWN ORNAMENTAL GRASSES before they sprout anew. Cut back old foliage of earliest bloomers like epimediums, or things that emerge fast and would then prevent easy cutback, like tall sedums. Cut back evergreen groundcovers whose leaves will fade when new crop pushes, including epimedium, hellebores, and European ginger (Asarum europaeum). More on these earliest of all garden chores.

SEEDS & VEGETABLES

STIFLE THE URGE to start seeds too early. Small, compact seedlings are better than older, leggy ones for transplanting. Only leeks and onions should be started indoors before mid-month. After that, the pace quickens: Sow cool-season crops such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kohlrabi and Brussels sprouts mid-March, to set out six weeks later. (Tomatoes and other warm-season vegetables get sown here April 15. Patience! If you are already at tomato-starting time, read on.)

GETTING READY for seed-starting provides a distraction, and one could always order a few more packets to soothe the soul. Did you do your germination testing yet to see what leftovers are viable?

HELP PREVENT DAMPING OFF, a fungal disease that kills seedlings, by starting with clean containers and sterile soilless mix. Wash previously used flats, cell packs or pots with a 1:10 solution of bleach and water.

IF YOU HAVE A COLD FRAME, sow an early crop of spinach and lettuce. In fact, you can start spinach in the open ground if snow has melted.

AROUND ST. PATRICK’S DAY, or as soon after as soil can be worked (sometimes as late as the first week of April here), sow peas. Lettuce can follow shortly, along with radishes.

DON’T CULTIVATE till soil is beginning to be crumbly, not sodden, which might even be April. When the time arrives, turn in several inches of compost and an all-natural, organic fertilizer rated for vegetables.

HOUSEPLANTS

HOUSEPLANTS ARE AWAKE again, nudged by longer days and stronger light. They will need more moisture and an occasional half-strength fertilizing, but overwatering is still the biggest danger to their health; feel around in the soil for guidance on when they need more. Be brutal with any leggy messes: haircut time.

KEEP AN EYE OUT for signs of pests like spider mites, mealybugs, and scale insects. If tackled promptly, nonchemical methods work: a simple shower, insecticidal soap spray (as directed on label) or with the most tenacious (like mealybugs) sometimes an alcohol swab and Q-tip.

TREES & SHRUBS

PRIME PRUNING TIME for deciduous trees and shrubs (including fruit trees) is now, while they are dormant. Don’t paint wounds—let them heal naturally. Always use sharp tools to make clean cuts, and be on the lookout for dead, damaged, or diseased wood and prune out. Remove suckers and water sprouts, too. My pruning FAQ is here.

WINTER DAMAGE is severe here this year from heavy, wet snow. As soon as it melts, assessing and correcting, if possible, will be my first order of duty.

PRUNE GRAPE VINES to no more than four fruiting canes with 7 to 10 buds apiece.

CUT OUT CANES OF raspberries that have borne fruit, and any that are thinner than a pencil. Shorten the remaining young canes by at least a foot.

DID YOU CLEAR TURF OR WEEDS from the area around trunks of fruit trees and ornamentals to reduce winter damage by rodents? Hardware cloth collars should be in place year-round as well.

MOLE AND VOLE PATROL continues, in perpetuity: I am still setting out mousetraps under boxes, buckets or cans in gardens where I see activity, to rid them from beds and borders.

FORCE BRANCHES of spring-blooming shrubs and trees like pussy willow, forsythia, apple and cherry once buds begin to swell. Cut on an angle and put indoors in water. I submerge them overnight, then place them in a bucket of water in my mudroom, draped with plastic, until the buds push off their coverings. The closer to actual bloom date, the higher the success rate (no big surprise).

FLOWER GARDEN

FEED SPRING BULBS with an appropriate all-natural organic fertilizer as green tips push through the ground.

LIKE TUBEROUS BEGONIAS? Get them going indoors late March for setting outside late May. Start them in trays of moistened vermiculite, then pot up individually in a month. Grow in a bright, warm spot.

EASY ROSE-GARDEN groundcover: Scratch up soil under roses or elsewhere to sow sweet alyssum seeds as an annual flowering carpet.

ANNUAL POPPIES can also be sown now, right in the garden. Don’t disturb them during cleanup!

• On using this list in your garden: The monthly A Way to Garden chores and based on my Zone 5B Berkshire MA/Hudson Valley NY location; adjust accordingly. NEW: If you are in a colder zone, refer to last month’s. Ahead of me? Have a sneak peek at the next edition.