My garden path is paved with good intentions. Last fall I intended to cut back some particularly floppy native grasses. I intended to till up some vegetable beds and sow some spinach and other seeds for early spring. I intended to divide some perennials that are overgrown and too shaded. I intended to "heel in" a tree rose which is still in its pot and most likely dead by now.

None of those things actually got done so now from my kitchen armchair I am still making garden resolutions for the New Year.

Number One is to keep a garden journal. For several years I tried, only to abandon the effort once the season is begun and we are overwhelmed with work. A journal, even if there are not entries every day, would help me remember what was successful and also to keep the failures in perspective.

No 2 is to label my plants so that I can actually remember what is in the various beds. We've tried this once or twice and sooner or later the lettering on the little metal labels wears away in our harsh winters and I am left wondering about the color or variety even if I know the common name of the plant. One of our friends has had success using a label-making gadget from the office supply store and I plan to try the same this winter.

Third on my list is a resolve to plant more vegetables. We've always grown herbs and a few salad vegetables that are hard to find in the markets. This winter I've been reading Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food and have determined to grow more food for our table. If you haven't seen his work, and are interested in the problems connected with our food supplies and how they are processed, you might want to check them out. Both books have been on the best seller lists, are available in paperback and from our local libraries. Pollan says "Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants." I plan to follow his advice, but still want an occasional burger. I just want to know more about the source of its ingredients.

I have been looking in the garden catalogues for shade plants to add color to our gardens; as the trees get taller some perennials that did well in previous years don't look so good. I found a website www.greatgardenplants.com that has Heucheras (coral bells) in interesting new colors that can brighten a shady corner, Hellebores, which I have never grown but plan to this year, and an interesting plant called Tiarella (foam flower) which is new to me and which blooms in the shade. There are also some ferns in intriguing colors of pink and yellow that should do well with enough moisture.

I've also been playing war games from my armchair, strategizing about how I can defeat my two greatest enemies in the garden: weeds and squirrels. Creeping Charlie (or ground ivy, Glechoma hederacea) is current Plant Enemy No. 1 here and I hope to start early. This year I plan to try the Borax treatment, rather than the chemicals that have not worked in the past. We have pulled lots of the stuff by hand and if I had only known we could have been making our own beer. Apparently the plant was first imported as a beer-making ingredient, probably by the same guy who brought us the dandelion as a garden flower. As Dave Barry would say, "I am not making this up."

I read recently that the British have a problem with gray squirrels too. It seems the grays are crowding out red squirrels, which the Brits really like, so many people are hunting and eating the pesky gray squirrels, which have become the delicacy de jour in England. I don't think we can hunt in our backyard, but I have a plan, which involves shipping our squirrels to relatives in England. I realize there might be a few problems with this, such as quarantine laws, etc. Barring that, Dave Shadow, the hunting and fishing columnist, surely knows how to lure our city squirrels into the country and into the stew pot. Esther Lutz who is a Master Naturalist for the University of Illinois Extension in Coles County had a long article on tree squirrels just this month and promises to tell us in February how to defeat them. I can hardly wait. (If you missed Esther's article go to http://web.extension.uiuc.edu/coles/ and read all about sciurus carolinensis, which is Latin for Public Enemy No. 1.