Regardless of whether your region's winters are a perpetual chill or pleasantly moderate, gardening can have a lot of difficulties, but it also provides opportunities. Whether you are planning for your summer or spring planting, looking to grow fresh herbs and vegetables, or simply want to keep your favorite plants alive during the colder months, winter gardening provides a lot more options that you probably ever realized. There really is no reason for you not to keep your thumb green throughout the entire year. A lot of gardeners just hang up their gardening tools for the winter and wait until the weather becomes warmer, but this should not be the case. Depending on your local weather, gardening during the winter may simply be less than the ideal, or you may be working with frozen soil which can remain rock solid for several months. Winter is also the best time to stock up on gardening supplies as most gardening centers usually offer great discounts to boost their winter sales.