Winter Gardening? Get A Jump On Spring Cleaning

DETROIT (CBS DETROIT) - The warm weather may have some people thinking about planting flowers, but Rick Vespa of English Gardens says it's actually a better time to think about your lawn, get out and give it a gentle rake.

"You could go out and gently rake the lawn," says Vespa. "Be careful you're not pulling out the turf, and it's best if you let it dry a little bit - you can gently rake the lawn it will fluff it up again. If it's long, you could actually go out and give it a mowing right now and shorten it - and that will only help things as we progress into the spring."

Vespa says you can plant Pansies now, but plant them in pots.

The other thing the warm temperatures allow you to do is to see check plants to see if they suffered any damage during the winter months.

"One thing you need to be careful of, with any spring-flowering plants - if you are pruning the entire plant you may actually prune the flowers off - so selective pruning of trees and plants -- it's a good time for that," he says.

If there is still a cold spell you can easily move them into the garage. The weather is still to unpredictable to put plants in the ground -- so hang on -- it's just a matter of time before you can get your hands in the dirt and start planting the impatiens.