If you're itching for gardening season to start, you're in luck. You can start now with the clean-hands-no-backache part. Whether or not you've grown a garden before, there are plenty of winter garden tasks you can do during the colder months to get ready for spring. Not using this more barren time means that your planting will be delayed, and your harvests will not be as good as they would have if you had been ready to go.

Planning your garden is a crucial step in getting a decent bounty at harvest time, but there's a lot more to it than just allocating space in your veggie plot. As I discussed a few years back in this interview, you need to work on becoming more self-sufficient NOW, regardless of where you live. You don't have to have 30 acres in the country to produce at least some of your own food.

Here are a few things you can do during the winter.

Some of these things require that the snow already be melted, while others can be done even if it's up to your knees.

1) Pick up any downed branches 

Chop them into the appropriate sizes and set them aside for firewood or kindling. They'll need to dry out for a season or two, but it's a good way to add to your wood stash for free.