Spring comes every year and I am very excited to go out and plant my garden. I can just taste those fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, and all the other great products I'm going to grow this summer.

Why did you decide to plan your next year garden last fall

Robin explains why planning your lawn in the fall is a great idea, but it may need some changes by spring.

Spring comes every year and I am very excited to go out and plant my garden. I can just taste those fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, and all the other great products I'm going to grow this summer.

I stop at all the seed offerings and see if there's anything new I'd like to try and grow this year and I'm happy to dig in the dirt.

I watch the weather and make sure not to plant soon, and I don't want my plants to hang in late spring of course. Then there is a time when I can't stand it anymore, I head to the nursery to buy my plants. I, of course, get a lot of everything, then I patiently move them every morning to get some sunshine and then bring them every night until the big day comes.

I get my whole garden area alternately filled and ready and invest in some plant foods to help my dear little ones after I plant them. I have my horse and my strings ready to make tidy little rows of carrots and radishes. I've set out my wire cages to place over tomato plants and I'm just getting excited to start.

The day has finally arrived and I can plant my lawn. I start the morning enthusiastically and grow everything that way. It's a little more crowded than I like because I always try to put a lot of plants and seeds in the area, but I tell myself it was worth it.

Throughout June and July, I lovingly plant my plants, weeding and watering them with vengeance. August comes and we enjoy all the fresh vegetables. But by that time, it got a little hot and weeding was not fun anymore. Near mid-August, my vegetables are popping out of my ear and it's time to freeze all this fresh for the winter.

I start with the sauce and then move on to tomatoes and pickles. Then of course I need to put those strawberries in the freezer. I don't want the corn to ripen before I put it in the freezer. After a week or two, my kitchen is a wreck and I'm tired of spending the last days of summer indoors. If I have never seen another tomato or corn cob, I will be very happy. Between preparing for the new school year and freezing and canning all of my cool products, I feel very tired. Plus it looks like with my lawn getting heated up, not to mention the lawn is a never-ending chore.

But of course, we didn't want anything to waste, so I headed for more of the canning supplies and kept them safe. When everything is said and done, I have a lot of ways to use my family, so of course, I give it. You don't want those vegetables to go to waste, you know.

By this time, I look at peaches and apples and they seem to be well suited to picking and the process begins with them. While working on my fruit, of course, the garden is still producing, and even though I left the canning and freezing from there, I can't let it go to waste, so I make sure every morning and evening I pick out what's ripe and give it to those who will appreciate it. Because by this time the thought of eating anything outside the garden wasn't so appealing, and so was cooking in my kitchen that had become a disaster area for canning.

Then the next big day that I can't wait for, the big freeze. Finally, my horticulture business ended. Now all I have to do is have everything in the compost heap recycled and composted.

When I look at my kitchen and see all the fruits, vegetables, pickles, and jelly ready for winter, I feel proud, but I'm really tired. I pledge next year that I won't take much. I filed in last year and planned my garden in October and made specific charges for the amount I would plant. I've calculated how much I have frozen and canned to see how much we'll use in the next year. I made small margins for my thoughts on this topic as well.

Garden, horticulture, plant, vegetables, canning, freezing, garden planning, garden planning