The winter is a great time for you to start planning out your spring and summer garden. You can take time to think about the fruits and vegetables you want to grow and how you will help to defend them from pesky insects and/or other creatures like deer and rabbits.

Garden Guidelines

The first thing that you can do to effectively start planning your garden is to have your soil tested by your local county extension office. This will test your soil’s pH levels, which determines ultimately how well your plants grow. Different kinds of fruits and vegetables thrive in different types of soil, so knowing what soil you are working with in your garden is helpful when choosing what to plant.

A soil test will also reveal what nutrients are missing from your soil, giving you an idea   what you kind of fertilizer you should be using. If you use your local county extension office your results might take a few weeks to process, which is why doing it in the winter   is useful, because you aren’t missing prime planting season. Alternatively, you can buy     self-soil tests at your localLowe’s if you do not want to wait.

Once you have your soil tested and know what you’re dealing with in terms of nutrients   and acidity, you can browse through seed catalogs to begin to plan your garden. You can also begin to prepare the garden by loosening the soil and adding organic matter as well as any nutrients that the soil might be lacking. We recommend you look at planting cold hardy vegetables like sugar snap peas, onion sets and winter lettuce.

If you choose more temperamental seeds to plant, you could always start the seedlings off indoors, and replant them outdoors when the weather warms. You can create a makeshift greenhouse right in your home by planting your seeds according to their package instructions and covering the containers with plastic. Make sure that you water your seeds carefully to avoid drowning your seeds or any type of fungus cause by overwatering.

Pest Control

Making sure to maintain pest control during the winter is as important as preparing for your future garden.If you’ve suffered from mealy bugs, aphids, scale or mites last year, you should apply dormant oil on your fruit trees and roses. Dormant oil is effective in killing pests even if they are already on your plant.

Just because you have a plant indoors, do not assume that it is safe from pests. Overwatering an indoor plant can lead to root rot, which attracts insects. Fungus gnats can also signify overwatering. Fungus gnats look similar to fruit flies and their small size can make them harder for the untrained eye to identify, so you should be sure to note if the gnats are appearing around your house plant.

If you find that your houseplants are suffering from insects you can use an oil spray, much like the dormant spray you use on fruit trees and roses, to suffocate the insects on the plant. You can also spray insecticidal soap on the soil and let the plant dry out completely to help kill the gnats. If possible it would be best to report the plant into fresh potting soil and sterilize the pot. And even though it sounds a little silly, remember to dust your plants!