We are about to start our garden; we're just waiting impatiently for the final frost-free date in our area. There are so many reasons to garden: The taste of fresh vegetables, the pleasure of watching new things grow, the smell of tomato plants and the color of chive blossoms. That's enough to make us look forward to getting our hands in the dirt.

But we've also been seeing some really great products for gardening that make us even more impatient. Here are a few inspiring things.

• 1 Food Map Containers - Containers on wheels! These are so great for apartment-dwellers and those of us in cold climates. You can wheel your herb garden in and out to avoid the cold. Also, these are currently on sale.

• 2 Garden Dibble - Do you know what a garden dibble is? It's a little tool for making evenly-sized holes for planting seeds and bulbs. You can just use a stick, of course, but this hand-turned and elegant little tool (that happens to look like a carrot!) would make a great gift for a gardener. It also has lines to help you poke holes at even depths.

• 3 Sunset's instructions on building a raised bed - We're taking over part of the little lawn to be a vegetable garden this year, and so raised beds are the way to go. We are also planning on attempting some cold-frame gardening later this year, so I really like these instructions that include inexpensive PVC pipe framing.

• 4 Avant-Gardener - Haha. Nice play on words, and nice design. Perfect for planting tomatoes in the sunshine.

• 5 Bionic Women's Garden Elite Gloves - Wow! These aren't high-tech sports equipment, appearances to the contrary. They're garden gloves! I usually just use an old pair of canvas gloves, but I have a ton of extra-spiky and difficult yard clearing to do this year, and I wonder if a $40 pair of gloves would make it easier. Any thoughts?

What's getting you excited about gardening this year?

Related: How To: Make a One-Pot Indoor Herb Garden