Harvesting your plant:

When it is time to harvest your bud (patience is a virtue), you will want to get a bucket (possibly two), a trash bag, and small scissors that you feel comfortable using. You will also want some place to hang your buds; a piece of string attached to two walls via tape will suffice.

Setup: Lay the trash bag flat on the ground to catch any small pieces of leaf that fall. Put the bucket in the center of the trash bag. Turn on the stereo or pop in a movie. Crack your knuckles and prepare for one of the worst (albeit rewarding) parts about growing marijuana.

Step one: Using your scissors, cut a side branch off at the main stem.

Step two: Cut (or pull off with a downward motion) all large fan leaves and drop them in the bucket.

Step three: Using your scissors again, trim along the side of all of the buds to remove the smaller leaves. If you are not sure how far down to trim, use the pistils as a guide and try to go as close as possible without cutting too many of them off. Let the clippings fall into the bucket with the fan leaves, or into a second bucket for future hash processing. You can also use your discretion and choose to leave some of the smaller leaves if they have a lot of resin on them.

Step four: Check over the bud for any missed leaves and then hang, by the lowest bud, upside down on the string.

Repete from step one until your entire plant is harvested and hanging to dry. If you find that your fingers and/or scissors are too sticky to continue working, try washing them off with vegetable oil. Fold up the trash bag and throw it in the bucket for later use.

Drying and curing your bud:

The only additional items that you need here are glass mason jars. They are available from most any grocery store.

Check your buds daily by bending a stem. If it bends, check again tomorrow. What you are waiting for is for the stem to snap cleanly into two pieces when you attempt to bend it. It should not bend, even a little bit.

Once most of your stems snap into two, it is time to start placing them into the glass mason jars. Get the bucket that you put the fan leaves into and lay out the folded up trash bag. Remove the dried buds and stems from the line and start snipping the buds off from each stem and onto the trash bag. Throw the stems into the bucket with the fan leaves. Once done, remember to clean up and put all marijuana related garbage into the bucket for later disposal.

The buds will go into the mason jars. Only fill the jars about half-way though. Once all of your bud is in the jars, put them in a cool dark place.

Once daily for a week or two, shake the jars gently and then open the top for about a minute.

After a few weeks your buds will be at their full flavour potential and ready for your smoking enjoyment. You can now fill the jars to the brim with buds for long-term storage.

If I didn't cover anything here, please let me know.
If you have any questions, please let me know.