If spending time out in your garden is grounding for you, as it is for me, winter can be a tough time. While it rarely snows here, cold weather makes spending time outdoors unpleasant for a lot of days. However, if you see winter as a time of rest and renewal instead of dormancy, it makes life easier.

During cold weather, gardening can shift to observing the garden in the winter to see what things catch the eye. Gardens look different during the winter, so you can see yours with fresh eyes. Putting up bird feeders can increase your viewing pleasure as you watch birds flit and flash by.

Winter can also be a great time to review the past year in your garden journal. Look at what looked and what didn’t. What plants died and need to be replaced? Look at different plants you can put in their place. If you vegetable garden, plan the next year’s vegetable garden. Order your seeds and plan how you will plant them. In my area, the worst winter weather is in January and February. Both months are a time to start seeds inside and nurture part of your garden while you can’t go outside.

In addition to starting seeds for outside, you can grow herbs or microgreens inside all winter. Actually, you can do that all year. Basil, rosemary, sage, thyme, oregano, and parsley all grow well indoors. Lettuce and other greens will also grow well indoors.

Late fall and winter are good times to perform yearly maintenance on your houseplants. What plants need to be repotted? Even plants that don’t need repotting can benefit from having the potting soil replaced once a year. Simply slide the root ball out of the pot and shake gently to remove all the dirt. If roots are circling, clip them to stop that and repot into a bigger pot with fresh potting mix. If the pot size is still appropriate, dump the existing potting mix out and put in fresh mix, then replace the plant. Be sure to water the plant well so the new mix doesn’t suck the moisture out of the plant.

One of my favorite activities in the winter is looking through my garden journal for successes and things to change next year. As mentioned, any dead plants will be replaced, so I dream about what to put in the newly available slot. I use the plant selectors on the Lady Bird Johnson Wildlife Center website to find native plants that fit my garden openings. The advanced search lets you specify light and other needs, so you can more quickly find another plant for that spot.

Since vegetable gardening is my first love, I get excited when the seed catalogs start arriving in late November. I go through them, plant out my next year’s garden, then go through the next one to arrive and plan where I am going to put everything again. I buy enough seed for the cool-season planting in the spring, the warm-season planting in late March, and the fall planting, so I get exactly the varieties I want. I always end up with more seeds than I can possibly grow, but still manage to have fun. I donate excess seed to library seed libraries for others to enjoy.

While I would rather be outside gardening in the winter, I make the best of things by using it as a time to reflect on the last year and plan the next one. Consider it a vacation from daily garden tasks and a time to rest up for the busy spring season to come.