I know that it's far from spring and most thoughts of spring planting. However, this is actually the best time to start planning your garden and landscaping ideas. You can think about your ideas all Winter and before you know it, it will be time for prepping the soil for the spring garden.

Moving ahead to early spring, most of us will head to the nurseries and garden centers like kids to the candy store.

Here's a little tip that can save you lots of money when that time comes:

Plants generally come in containers of 2, 4, 6 inch, 1 gallon, 5 gallon, etc. sizes. Plant price increases proportionately with the size of pot. And planting in our gardens and landscaping can add up in price very quickly.

What most people don't know is that the plants in the small containers will reach almost, if not the same size as the plants in the 1's and even some 5 gallon containers by mid season.

With this in mind, you can save lots of money at the nursery and still have a beautiful landscape or garden by Summer even if you choose plants in smaller pots.

Of course, most of us want a full looking landscape right now and if your budget allows for larger pots and price, I say go for it.

Just keep this in mind if you need to spread your landscaping budget out into different areas.