Garden plotting

Plotting - get it? :-) I think I found a "plan" to build off of and fool around with in the yard. Of course, once I find/buy/plant stuff, it won't look anything like the one in the magazine, but I suppose that's half the fun. :-) We have a lot of trees in our front yard - two large maples, and 4 flowering crabs in front of the house. On the other side of the driveway there's an ash, and a red maple. Needless to say we rake a lot. Uffda.
Shade gardening is me! We bought the house nearly 5 years ago. The last few years have been rough, so hopefully I'll be able to get a start on making the yard look better. Or at least like I have something planned and in process.
A lot of garden publications say to just use ferns and hosta. I like ferns and hosta, but not enough to use them exclusively! The yard does get some afternoon sun, so I think that gives me more options anyway. I went to the Friends Garden sale last year at the fairgrounds, but by the time I got there much of what I was interested in was gone. I do like their catalog, though, so will use that to plan. There are some others I like too - Chaska Farm and Garden has some neat lists that have color, height, growing season, etc, all in one place. I got quite a bit of stuff there last year and it did well. I also tend to just buy stuff that looks neat and plop it in and hope it does well. So much for planning!
I might just plant something as a distraction for the squirrels to eat - maybe they'll leave my "expensive" plants alone. Yeah. They will!