My New York Rose Garden, photo taken on Jan. 14, 2009.

Winter has finally arrived and since it is our downtime, it is a great time to plan and design your garden. If you have an existing bed, maybe it is time to redesign it. What can you do to improve the garden next spring?  It is too cold to work outside so you can do some planning work inside. 

I usually pull out my gardening books especially those that deal with garden design. I have four books that always come up this time of the year. “Beautiful American Rose Gardens” by Mary Tonetti Dorra is great for planning a rose garden. There are some formal plans in the book where you can get an idea of planning a formal garden. “Landscape with Roses” by Jeff Cox has more informal beds incorporating other plants.  Penelope Hobhouse’s “Garden Designs”…