GARDEN: Look out the window. In just a couple short months that snow will be melting and those bare trees will begin showing signs of new life.

An article in Penn State Extension’s recent Home Gardening newsletter, “Evaluating the Garden,” encourages people to “stop and take a few minutes to assess the successes, challenges and disappointments of the past growing season. Evaluating your garden now will save you time, money and frustration next spring.”

So, put on a hat and boots and take a stroll through your yard. What do you want it to look like this summer?

The author, Monroe County Master Gardener Pamela T. Hubbard, uses photographs, a garden journal and a stroll through the yard to review the last growing season.

She suggests asking these questions to assess what steps you need to in the spring to make your garden shipshape.

• Did family members like specific varieties of vegetables?

• Did certain vegetable varieties take up too much space?

• What vegetables failed and why? Insects? Disease?

• Which flowers did particularly well this year?

• Which flowers failed?

• Did some flowers require more watering?

• Which plants need to be divided?

• Which plants should be moved to a better spot?

• What task was too time-consuming?

• Is the lawn too much to maintain in time and cost?

• Have some shrubs or trees grown too close together?

Pamela advises gardeners to write down their answers.

We always think we’ll remember things. But we never do.

She also suggests that homeowners test their soil if they haven’t in a couple of years. Note if there any pests or diseases that will require attention this spring, too.

Make plans for all the plants in your yard, including vegetables, flowers, shrubs and trees and even your lawn.

For more detailed information, visit extension.psu.edu/evaluating-the-garden?j=182101&sfmc_sub=34417118&l=159_HTML&u=3566486&mid=7234940&jb=17.

Happy planting!