Plan a Garden

January and February are the best months to start plotting your garden, so you can order the seeds in anticipation of spring. (You can start some plants indoors as early as mid-February.)

If you're digging in for the first time, check out Virginia State University's guidelines for locating and planning your vegetable garden.

Novices should also bone up on Better Home & Garden's 10 steps to beginning your gardening adventure, including some basic do's and don'ts about soil improvement.

And who better than the U.K.'s Royal Horticultural Society to run you through the paces of growing your own veggies (with bonus videos)?

Meanwhile, Organic Gardening wants you to think outside the rectangle and add visual appeal by forming plots into circles, triangles, and octagons, or saying no to rows and planting in patterns.

For a scale drawing of your proposed garden, lay it out in Microsoft Excel. (Think of it as the world's largest graph paper, except that you can add clip art to illustrate your plants.)

If you're sticking to herbs this year, pick up Herbal Remedy Gardens: 38 Plans for Your Health & Well-Being and Herbal Tea Gardens: 22 Plans for Your Enjoyment & Well-Being by Dorie Byers (1999, Storey Publishing) for suggestions such as a Headache Relief Garden, a First Aid Garden, and a Relaxation Garden.