Now that the gardening season is about to start in earnest, Carbon County Master Gardeners will be at the Penn State Extension office on Tuesday mornings between 10 a.m. and noon each week to answer your gardening questions.

This year, we've added an advice column in the Times News so we can share your questions periodically during the growing season. We really look forward to hearing from you. We welcome all kinds of questions, so please don't be shy.Here are a couple of questions that have come in to us recently.From Annie in Albrightsville:QSomething is eating my Dahlia tubers each year. I'm tired of buying new ones. What is it likely to be?AMice are often the culprit. They will use mole tunnels to get at bulbs and tubers of many species. You can try scaring them away or baiting them, but it is often more effective to exclude them.There are small wire cages of ½-inch mesh for sale for this purpose. You can put several bulbs or tubers in one cage. Then bury the cage. Mice aren't able to chew through the wire, but the roots and stems can grow out.For large tubers, I recommend starting them in a container. You can leave them there all season if you wish. You can sink the pots into the soil, or use biodegradable pots.As the growing season advances, rodents may lose interest in the tubers when food is more abundant.From Sam in Jim Thorpe:QI want to garden with native plants this year. How should I get started?Atrees are a great place to start. Most of our shade trees are natives. Their blooms provide the first food in spring to our pollinators.You can extend that by planting some understory trees like redbud, and some food trees like Dunstan Chestnut (a hybrid of the American Chestnut).In May, we get spring blooming wildflowers. I would watch to see what comes up on its own. You may already have milkweed and daisy fleabane and other natives you haven't noticed before. In fall, most of us find goldenrod somewhere on our land.You can purchase wildflower seeds and plants online from native plant nurseries like Prairie Moon Nursery.If you want to start seeds, Prairie Moon has detailed information on how to germinate native seeds.IConserve PA is a great website for choosing native plants. The address is:

http://www.iconservepa.org/plantsmart/plantsdatabase/index.htm. It also lists native plant nurseries in Pennsylvania.IConserve has a list of nurseries at this address:

http://iconservepa.org/plantsmart/nativeplants/buynatives/index.htm.