Columner Craziness

I have been incredibly drawn to columnar plants of all varieties over the last few months and thought I'd share with everyone what I am talking about.
I first saw this columnar apple in a mail order nursery catalog just a few weeks ago and have already placed my order!  These would be great for anyone lacking space (living in a condo with a patio etc.) or even those with larger yards. For me personally, I am going to use this to demarcate the entrance to my garden like sentries (I'll take a pic as soon as I receive them).

Another plant that has been fascinating me is the sky pencil holly (seen above). This evergreen shrub only gets to be about 2 feet wide and about 6 feet tall. Many describe it as being like an exclamation point in your yard. My plan is to use it to hide the large support posts of my fence then plant compact limelight hydrangeas between the hollys and use black mondo grass as a border in front all the way across for a mix of textures, while staying in a modern and simple color scheme.

The Notebook (Not the love story)

Every February / March I get the overwhelming urge to run outside and start planting in the garden, but I often get overzealous and plant much too early. This year to dissuade myself from doing such things I have turned to the internet and magazines to placate my need to go through the buy and die cycle with my annuals / veggies.
I have started create a book called Dream Garden and then I have another called Practical Garden. There are various ways to do this.

I have been purchasing large sketch journals from places like Barnes and Noble like this bound option.  Also, it is not terribly expensive either at $12.95, which is always a bonus. Though I have been eyeing this leather option for quite sometime.

So I purchase two journals and as I see things I like in magazines mostly, I cut out the pictures and break them into two groups, dream and practical. For example, I know that I can't have an olympic size swimming pool surrounded by bluestone right now, so that goes into the dream book. A picture of a new staking technique for the tomatoes I am going to plant is very practical though, hence earning it a spot in the practical notebook.
Having these notebooks allows you to keep track of all your ideas and on those cold spring nights you can pull out the dream notebook and flip through the pages and become inspired.