by Jeanie Merritt

One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides.” – W.E. Johns, creator of ‘Biggles’, 1893-1968

W.E. Johns was the creator of a series of books geared towards young adults featuring an adventurous pilot. But it seems he also had a handle on gardening as well.

Just like Christmas, half of the fun of gardening is in the planning, preparation, and anticipation. Think about all the fun you have at Christmas time.  Most of it comes from the days preceding the big event!

Dreaming and planning

January is the perfect time to collect garden ideas and journal them. I have three sections to my yearly winter gardening journal.

1.) Things I want to change that didn’t work out so well last year.
2.) Ideas I have seen from other gardeners on the Internet (Flea Market Gardening) that I want to try this year.
3.) A section for pictures and sketches.

Old door inspiration

This is a picture of something I plan on duplicating, in part, this year with a little bit of a tweek. I loved the picture, but I want the door outside.

Since the space I have available is along a solid brick wall on of my home facing the east garden, this addition will bring beauty as well as unexpected character to a very plain and underdeveloped area.  So, I am on the search this winter for an old door with a window that I can set up against the brick wall, adding curtains to give the illusion of a passageway. I am very excited about this project and believe I will put some morning glories seeds at the side to sort of meander around the top of the door. Maybe even a short and curvy path of stone in front of the door to give an illusion that there’s an entryway there for sure!

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Many of my online gardening friends have sent me seeds in the past and some of the areas where I planted them were perfect spots. Some were not. So I have written down the names of the new seeds my friends have sent and made notes where they need to go, or not!  I planted some cosmos too near a side walk last summer and although they were very pretty for awhile, they eventually drooped over the sidewalk and had to be cut back.     Note in Journal:  ‘Cosmos needs to stay away from sidewalk and pathway.’

Too ‘friendly’ cosmos

This picture, below, is of a winter garden plan in 2011. I knew I had this bright yellow daylily that bloomed so beautifully every year in my front garden bed.  I picked up a wrought iron, 6 foot tall, piece at a yard sale that had been discarded from an old carport, so I journaled the idea to place it behind where I knew the daylily would be coming up and added a note for reference  there, to search for a contrasting color  vine that would make the daylily pop!  In the spring I found this pretty white mandevilla, with a bright yellow center. You can see the result was absolutely stunning!!

Plan for color echoes

Have some gardening fun this winter and do some planning. Although some of the prettiest gardens happen by accident, many are planned that way! If you have a way of planning for your Spring garden, please share it in the comments!  ~~ Jeanie