January can be a depressing time for gardeners. When you’re used to feeling the soil between your fingers and the warmth of the sun on your face, spring seems too far away. But there really is more to do than twiddle those green thumbs.

“This is a great time a year for the Midwest gardener,” says Sharon Weiser of Troy, Kan., who is well known for the bountiful “rooms” of gardens around her home, which have appeared in Midwest Living magazine and the News-Press, among other publications.

“My favorite thing to do this time of year is to reflect and plan,” she says. “As I receive all of the seed/plant catalogs, I envision how my garden can be better next year with the promise of the new plants. Of course, I can’t have all of the ones I first circle — but a girl can dream.”

Bob Stubblefield, owner of Moffet’s Nursery and Garden Shop in St. Joseph, says January is when the business gets in all of its new vegetable and flower seeds.

“Some folks that want to be the first one on the block to start their tomatoes or whatever, starting their seeds indoors,” he says. “You also have the best selection at this time.”

For gardeners who want to get physical, here are few more suggestions from our experts:

Clean your tools. In a perfect world, when you are done with your tools you would clean all of the soil off and spray them with oil or WD-40 to keep them from rusting, Mr. Stubblefield says. But if you just hung them in the shed last fall, clean now rather than dealing with it in March. Gardenhelper.com also recommends giving your weed-eater and power mowers a tune-up and possibly giving that wheelbarrow a coat of fresh paint.

Test your soil. If the soil is warm enough to dig, Mr. Stubblefield says January is a great time to find out what happened to your tomatoes last year and what you need to add to your soil this year. Just bring a pint of soil to the University of Missouri Extension Service in St. Joseph. For $12, they will send if off and have it analyzed. Pam Dexter, with the extension service, says they send the samples to the lab on Fridays and it takes seven to 10 days to get the results. For the best results, take in a pint of soil by digging down 6 inches in two or three places in the center of your garden and two or three areas on the outskirts of it, then mix it all together. Call 279-1691 for more information.

Fertilize. If you forgot to add manure to the soil last fall, now is a good time to do it if the ground is thawed. Mother Nature will help you pull that down in the soil, Mr. Stubblefield says, through the natural freezing and thawing of the ground.

Prepare a new garden area. Ms. Weiser says the first year at her house, she prepared her front yard on New Year’s Day. She laid cardboard all over the frozen ground and covered it with 3 inches of mulch. Come spring, the cardboard had disintegrated and the soil beneath it was ready to be planted. “The grass and cardboard turns into a beautiful compost,” she says. “This really cuts down on the weeding. There is also a great deal of research now on the beneficial bacteria being harmed when tilled.”

Prune and cut back overgrown shrubs. Ms. Weiser says she walks through the garden with clippers in hand clipping off old sedum stems and other perennials left for winter interest but that have now had their day and would look better gone.

Lifestyles reporter Sylvia Anderson may be reached at sylanderson@npgco.com