From time to time my husband decides to trim and cut back some of the ornamental shrubs and trees in our garden which are in obvious need of direction. Last week he focused on an old, gnarled juniper one of whose lateral branches had stretched quite far to monopolize a good part of the garden next to it, and in so doing, freed up a considerable patch of garden.

He did this while he was busy laying down a thick layer of new mulch, derived from the removal of our neighbours' ash trees which had succumbed to the predations of the emerald ash borer, an introduced non-native species that is causing havoc in the province's inventory of ash trees. So we thought about what we could do with the newly-released space.

I had a fairly good idea what we might plant there, and so did my husband. Our thoughts didn't quite converge, but we both did consider planting new hostas. True, we could separate some of the many hostas already scattered around our gardens and of which we are extremely fond. But we also wanted to browse about to see what else might present itself to be introduced in the new space. I was thinking of a combination of hydrangea and hosta and perhaps something else, colourful more than textural.

While he was about evaluating the gardens, he also decided he would move a sundial that we had originally placed between an ornamental jade apple tree and a Japanese yew. Over the years both had grown considerably, shading and almost hiding the sundial, the top of which had been brought to us as a gift by our older son, from a trip he had taken to Britain. It now sits exposed to the sun in another part of the garden. Because it had stood for decades in its original place where compost and material had accumulated, it was well sunk into the area and required a considerable effort to extract it.

After our ravine ramble on Sunday we drove over to a place where we had shopped often over the years when we lived in another house, closer in proximity to Richie's Feed and Seed. We go there now to buy large 25-lb. bags of peanuts and birdfeed for the winter months. And we occasionally mosey through their garden shop to admire the quality of their garden stock.

Yesterday we went through row after row of showy perennials and annuals, some of them incredibly appealing to us, and some of them because they are exotics, obviously meant for one season's enjoyment, at a stiff price, not exactly our idea of a sound investment, although alluring.

In the end we both agreed on a pink-flowering hydrangea, and a large-leafed dark-green hosta of a type we don't often see but which I've wanted to acquire a sample, for quite a long time, along with a clump of Black-eyed Susan, because our old clump had, over the years, been diminished as it was overtaken by an aggressive Japanese quince.

We also succumbed to a planter-full of Canna lilies. We've grown them before, and loved their form, texture and gorgeous flowers. The corm-bulb can be cut away in late fall and stored through the winter months in the basement, just as we do with potato vines and begonias for eventual spring re-planting, though I haven't tended to do so in the past with Cannas. I will this year, however.

Meanwhile, we'll enjoy them for their lovely presentation, growing in a large white glazed pot my husband transplanted them into yesterday afternoon. After he had already planted the hydrangea, hosta and Black-eyed Susan clump into place, filling in that gap.