When is the best time to start a garden? Okay, I'm sort of cheating here... this question was not asked on-line. A co-worker of mine, who was nice enough to check out my web site, took a bit of an interest in starting a garden of her own. And of course, me being the gardening zealot that I am, I probably scared her off the hobby for good with my enthusiastic response. The answer, in my mind, is always "NOW". It reminds me of something I read in a book about pruning. The author, before delving into the technical aspects of pruning, explained that "the best time to prune a plant is when you have the secateurs in your hand".  Which maybe isn't what you'd expect to hear from an expert in pruning. Certainly there are more and less advantageous times to prune a plant, but I think what he was trying to convey is that we all have limited time. It's easy to procrastinate about something like pruning. If a plant truly needs pruning, prune it when you have the opportunity, and even if you miss the optimum time by weeks (or months), your plant is still probably better off than if you had missed it altogether. I apply the same logic to planning and planting a new garden. Yes, it'll be a bit awkward to start a garden if there's snow on the ground, and there's no plants available in the garden centres... but that really only applies to a brief portion of our year here on the west coast. Even so, it's a great time to plan a garden... when you can spend a little time to draw out a quick plan, or wish-list some plants you'd like to try. Right now, however, (and I write this in early March) we're already seeing spring bulbs in the garden centres and grocery stores. It won't be more than a couple of weeks before the better nurseries are expanding their selection of perennials and shrubs. That opens a window of opportunity that expands straight through to next winter. And yes, I know that when it heats up in the summer, it's less advisable to put new plants in the ground... but I still risk it, because it's more fun to try a new plant that I'm excited about than to wait and worry about the perfect timing. So, as far as planting a new garden goes, IMHO, the best time to plant is when you have the trowel in you hands, and you're enthusiastic about getting your hands dirty.