Apply these best winter gardening tips and you will get a head start on your spring and summer yard care. There are moments when you look outside during winter and wish desperately for the warmth of summer. Don't fret. Make winter the season of preparing for a long relaxing summer.

These winter gardening chores are the first steps to making a relaxing summer possible is to prepare your garden and what better time than mid to late winter.

• Trim the shrubbery and tree lines into something of beauty with light pruning
• Mulch your perennials and win the fight against weeds before they have the chance to infiltrate
• Sketch your new garden ideas for the landscape and start building.

It sounds easy when you really think about it, and it is. Gardening can be very time consuming in the spring and summer and most everyone wants to enjoy the beautiful warm weather doing other activities not worry about the landscape.  A little planning ahead and a few days of clean up work and prepping can make gardening and yard care so much easier for the growing season.

A few planning tips for your garden can be as simple as:

• Building a raised bed for annuals or vegetable planting.
• Drawing out a new plan for plant placement.
• Jotting down ideas for new plants to add in.
• Start your own compost.
• Protect animal attracting plants with wire cages.
• Wrap thin bark trees that are susceptible to cold weather damage.

After making your garden plans, start doing a few things that will help will upkeep that would otherwise be difficult in the spring and summer.

• Pruning plants that have lost their leaves (except spring flowering shrubs/trees).
• Cutback ornamental grasses and perennials.
• Protect evergreens from winter burn.

After you have protected delicate plants for the worse part of winter and the early spring temperature fluctuations and, then have a plan for your garden design, it's time to put everything into action. This will definitely be an achievement you will certainly be proud of and, when spring hits, you can relax knowing that your garden is in great shape.

We'd love to hear from you about how you prepare your yard and garden for late winter weather. Leave us a comment or email us.