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The last average frost date is this month so this is a busy month! Peas, cabbage, lettuce, Brussels sprouts, broccoli and spinach are available as starts in garden centers to save time. This is also a good time to plant radish and carrots seeds. Onion sets will also be available. If your soil is still too wet to till or amend, then use a planting mix such as Lane Forrest Products Natures Best and place it 4-6 inches on top of the existing soil to plant early season vegetables. This material can be worked into the soil for planting warm season vegetable after you harvest the cool season crops. This soil prep is better done in fall if possible but the above method works also. After the soil has been in place for a while, apply Lane Forest Product compost tea a couple of times about 2 to 3 weeks apart. This material will help your "new" soil leap ahead and produce an enhanced harvest. Liquid compost tea is produced overnight for the weekend, so you should call ahead to see if it is available. Perennial vegetable crops such as artichokes should be top dressed with compost. Raspberries, grapes, blueberries and other fruiting plants would also benefit if a layer of compost was placed over them. This month is an important time to fertilize your lawn if not done already. Spring and fall are the times when cool season grasses grows the most. It is best to use a lawn fertilizer that is partially slow release so that all the Nitrogen has a chance to be used by the lawn instead of being washed away by the rain. Lane Forest has a very good lawn food called Pro Spring Plus. Not only does it have a good slow release quality it also has quite a bit of iron which will combat moss and provide more greening effect than a fertilizer without iron. Summer flowering bulbs such as begonias are available in garden centers this month. These are perennials in warmer climates and often dug in late fall and stored for planting again in late spring. Often in the Willamette Valley they are left in the ground and are seldom killed if mulched deep enough and do not rot in poor soil. Obviously soil preparation is very important in this situation. Spring flowering bulbs such as daffodils which are planted in fall might need flower removal at this point. Leave the foliage until it begins to yellow in summer so that energy can be created for next years show. Slugs and snails are very active now as you probably have already noticed. Control now will save you much grief later. Eggs will soon be produced and the population will only grow exponentially. Night time and cloudy days are their most busy time. If you wet the area you want them to seek the bait, you will provide them even more encouragement to seek the bait. In recent years an organic bait has been developed. Non-organic baits can be attractive to and fatal to pets. Accidents can happen even if the bag of bait is within reach in a storage situation.
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