Happy Spring! We hope you find these tips helpful for a happy and vibrant garden this season!

1. Weeds. Pull small weed seedlings. To stop weed seeds germinating, cover most areas of bare soil with a 3 to 4-inch layer of wood chips. The mulch will also make it easier to remove weeds that grow from seeds deposited by the wind or passing birds.
2. Bare soil. Leave some bare soil, especially on sandy south-facing slopes, so solitary, beneficial, native, non-aggressive ground-nesting bees have a place to set up house.
3. Slugs. Handpick at night or early in the morning, set beer traps, destroy any eggs you find (they look like clusters of translucent fish eggs).
4. Rain gardens. As much as possible, avoid entering your rain garden while the soil is still wet. Use planks as walkways if you must, to reduce soil compaction. Leave leaf litter and woody debris covering the soil as a mulch and add more wood chip mulch if necessary. Remove aggressive weeds but, preferably, cover the soil surface with mulch and plants to leave no room for weeds. If more plants are needed, plan to add them once the ground has dried out.
5. Although it may be tempting to dig up a native plant for use in your yard, it is always better to buy from a reputable nursery that grows the species from seed or cuttings or, better yet, try growing it yourself from seed or cuttings. There are resources online to help you learn:http://courses.washington.edu/esrm412/protocols/protocols.htm
6. Use the moist conditions in the spring to divide native plants in your yard to fill in the spaces between. Goatsbeard, maidenhair ferns, and sedum all divide well right now.

For more information visit: http://gardening.wsu.edu/