Shop plant sales. Community plant sales are a great way to find bargains while supporting local organizations like garden clubs. Find out what's available in your area and mark you calendar so you know when to go — be ready for some good-natured jostling at the start as everyone rushes in! Some of my favorite plants were divisions bought at local sales with their names written on popsicle sticks.

Grow more heirlooms. Old-fashioned plant varieties — like these, sold by the Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants at Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia — are often overlooked but deserve a place in your garden. By ordering seeds from plant centers like this one, you also help to support the great work these organizations do to interpret historic sites and preserve plant records.

Go online and check out heirlooms from companies like Harris Seed, Landreth, Johnny's and the Thomas Jefferson Center for Historic Plants.

Go native. If this is the year to rip out an overgrown spirea hedge along a foundation wall, consider using native plants when you redesign. The lovely oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia, zones 5 to 9) is one of my favorites, with big and lobed leaves that color nicely in the fall, interesting exfoliating bark and bold flower panicles.

Native plants are widely adaptable and often do well in poor soils or problem areas, and many are important host plants to insect larvae.

Support local beekeepers. With the honeybee population in decline, it's more important than ever to help support local apiary operators.

Bees need lots of flowers to produce honey, and wildflowers like goldenrod, aster and Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium maculatum) are critical to sustaining the work of hives. The aptly named bee balm (Monarda spp) is a great perennial for woodland edges, meadows and mixed borders that's available in a wide variety of colors.

You can also buy honey at the farmer's market and give beeswax candles as winter gifts.

Have fun with salvage. Find ways to use old storage boxes and other containers found at antiques emporiums or junk shops — and mix up the look with bold colors in combinations you haven't tried before.

Look at your doorway and entrance garden and make an effort this year to have fun using unusual textures and colors in containers like wagons, wheelbarrows, wine crates and old boots.

Join the Garden Conservancy. You can tour private and public gardens across the country through the Open Days program of The Garden Conservancy, a nonprofit that supports historic landscapes.

Look in the guidebook (mailed to members) to find properties in the U.S. Northeast or elsewhere and go with a notebook and camera to get great ideas.