Are You Ready For Spring Gardening?

I don't know about you but I'm ready for spring. Notice I said spring not spring gardening. I haven't done everything I need to do to get ready for the new gardening season but I'm already lamenting the cold temperatures that we are destined to have for the next two months (January and February). When March comes we usually have some nice days mixed in with the cool ones but until then we'll just have to bear the frigid temperatures, cold winds, and snow. Oh did I say snow? We'll see about that one! But now it's time to start thinking about getting ready for spring gardening. There's always something to think about while the garden and gardener is dormant during the winter.

Tulips (Negrita) Front Garden

Here are three things I do to get ready for spring gardening:

1) Analyze. I don't make any formal analysis of anything but I take note of the things that worked and the things that didn't. It would be very helpful to write these things down so I can avoid them but I usually don't. Even if I did I would probably forget where I wrote them down! Generally I can keep the major things in my head. I take note of strange ideas like never plant more than 2 cherry tomato plants or never allow a tomato plant volunteer to grow where it wants!

2) Plan, plan, plan, and plan. I scheme and I plot. Sometimes my planning evolves around point one (Analyze) and other times my planning is based off of ideas I've seen on garden blogs, magazines or just out of some crazy notion in my head. I try to think about what I want, where I want it, and how to get there. I try to think about my vegetable garden and what raised beds to add each year. I make quite a few lists when planning in one of my notebooks. My project list for 2009  is one example of a list I made.  I'll review it later in the month to sum up the 2009 gardening season.

3) Decide on my seeds! This is the biggest task and probably the most fun. I check each seed catalog multiple times trying to see what I like, what I need, and what I want. It's mostly vegetables that I look for but all seeds are fair game. This year I'll be targeting heirlooms for many reasons but mostly so that I can save the seed each year and reduce my future gardening expenses.

I know this post is early but I couldn't resist. I was looking back at pictures from this spring and suddenly all I could think of was spring...and winter isn't even here yet!

Have you started planning for Gardening in 2010 yet?