After suffering through a long winter, we plant lovers are often guilty of going berserk at the nursery in spring. We buy too many different kinds of trees, shrubs and perennials all at once -- one of this, one of that.... This, despite the fact that landscape designers tell us that masses of the same plant have a bigger visual impact in planting beds than a mish-mash.

Admittedly, it's more satisfying to walk into the nursery and buy a smörgåsbord of individual plants. But that's just for one day. How to derive maximum satisfaction from your plants over the long term is an issue of much greater importance, don't you think? There's something to be said for turning our attention to more fully appreciating each and every plant we end up growing in our gardens.

And there are so many small details worth admiring! I find I derive maximum satisfaction from my garden when I slow down long enough to admire what's already there properly, before adding too much more just yet. To that end, I recommend carrying around a magnifying glass when in the garden, at the very least. You'd be surprised at the details you miss walking by small plants growing on the ground -- details that you can appreciate down on all fours and armed with a magnifying glass. If a bad back precludes such activity, consider growing your plants in raised beds, which effectively bring the plants up to your level.

But don't stop there! At the next level of commitment, the plant lover keeps a garden journal. Keeping a garden journal will allow you to record the changes in your plants, as they progress through the seasons -- and from year to year, if you have the discipline to stick with it that long!

And if you're even a bit more committed to deriving maximum satisfaction from your plants, snap photos of them at different junctures along the way. A closeup lens comes in handy for this but isn't absolutely necessary. The photos can be incorporated in your garden journal. I find the easiest way to keep such a journal is on the computer. For instance, to chart the progress of a forsythia bush, create a "Forsythia" folder, which would then contain:

• A text document to hold the garden journal entries on your forsythia
• Image documents (photos of forsythia at various stages)

Multiply this process by all the types of plants you have in your garden and you can see how much is entailed in deriving maximum satisfaction from your plants. Such an approach is challenging, but it's worthwhile. After getting to know your plants up close and personal, you'll start to think of them as your "family in the yard."