Planing ahead.....

Now that the holidays are over and the holiday decor is packed away until next year, I have begun pulling out my new seed catalogs and garden magazines to begin gathering ideas for the upcoming gardening season.  I love kicking back in my favorite comfy chair with a good cup of tea, my yellow highlighter in hand, and a pile of garden magazines at my side (having the cat curl up on my lap is a bonus!).  I swear I could spend an entire week doing nothing but this and be as happy as a clam! 

Although it's hard for me to pass up any new garden magazine, a few of my all-time favorites are: Garden Gate, fine Gardening and Horticulture .

Fine Gardening's February 2010 issue has a great article on pg. 49 called "Vines: The Missing Piece of the Puzzle".  I came across a clematis vine that does well in full sun to full shade: 'Alpine clematis' (Clematis alpina) - (zones 4 to 9) that I am considering incorporating this year into a mostly shade bed that sits on the edge of a woodland area on our property (see above picture).  I'm thinking this will add some vertical appeal and additional color interest in this large bed which includes a variety of hostas, ferns, astilbe, bleeding heart and japanese anemone. 

Time to get back to my dreaming, uh, I mean reading!  Until next time......