By By SCOTT NOVAK / Dowagiac Daily News
Warmer temperatures have gotten people in the mood to start planting.
While it is still to early to start planting, there are some things you can do in order to begin preparing your lawn and garden for the upcoming season.
According to Gary Wesolowski, owner of Sunny Acres on M-152, the best thing to be doing right now is raking up leaves and getting them off the grass.
This is also a good time to aerate your lawn. While there are power tools to help with that project for bigger lawns, a smaller city lot can be aerated with a good steel tooth rake.
This is also a good time to think about getting rid of those pesky moles.
Milky Spore doesn't kill moles. It kills grubs in the lawn that the moles feed on.
An added bonus of using Milky Spore is that it kills the grubs which eat the roots of the grass. It also lasts between 15 to 20 years, which means you don't have to use it each and every spring.
The product, which is only made by one company, is extremely safe as well. Milky Spore is only harmful to grubs.
For those who mulched things in last fall, now is a good time to pull back that mulch and see if there is any new growth.
But don't take that mulch too far away because if the temperatures dip down once again, which the probably will, then those area need to be recovered.
Wesolowski also noted that it's too early to put down that crab grass killer.
Another item of importance is that the State of Michigan is emphasizing that people refrain from using fertilizer with phosphate in it. It is particularly important to those who live around lakes.
If you are still itching to get out there and work on your lawn, now is a good time to start pruning off the dead branches from the shrubs. One can also move trees and shrubs right now as long as they have not begun to sprout. Wesolowski feels that there is still a two or three weeks period left to move trees and shrubs unless the temperatures remain warm and they begin to sprout more quickly.
Now is not the time to move fall bulbs. But one can spray fruit trees with a dormant oil spray.
For those who just can't wait to start planting things, and Wesolowski feels that May 15 is probably as early as you would want to start, then make sure that your items are still dormant. Anything that has already sprouted, like plants grown in a greenhouse, are still in danger.