Tips for Winter Gardens
But there are tricks to make your gardens look great during the winter as well as during the summer. Here are a few basic suggestions you can do right away.
Focus on Structure
When we talk about "structure" in the garden, we usually mean things that exist year round- that provide the "bones" on which we hang our pretty pictures (flowers). Big stuff. Or interesting stuff.
Hardscape
The "hard" material in your garden - paving stones, statues, chairs, tables, walls etc are important in this because they provide the overall look of the garden year round.
This is why landscape plans usually focus on these kinds of things first - and frankly this is the expensive part of gardening.
Ice on Fountain
Evergreens
Plants that don't lose their leaves form a really important part of our winter gardens. The more interesting the evergreen (blue or silver needles) the more interesting the "look" of the garden when there are few flowers around.
Snow on Evergreens (Hint - when designing your garden - the flowers are the absolute last thing you put into the plan - they're like the icing on the cake - the final decoration in the garden. Get the rest of the plan to work first - then add flowers.)
Perennials Left Unpruned After the Winter
A lot of folks like to leave their garden perennials unpruned for the winter to add "winter interest". I've never been a big fan of this style of gardening although I do leave grasses alone for the winter (one of their strong points) as much for the design as an aid in successfully overwintering them.
Fluffy snow on grasses.
Woody plants
Once shrubs lose their leaves, some are more interesting than others. A shrub that sits straight up and down might not add a lot to the winter garden but one with contorted branches or one with horizontal shapes that catch snow create different looks.
Crabapples
Sumac Covered in Snow
Bottom line
If your garden looks good in the middle of the winter - it's going to look fantastic in the middle of the summer. Great gardens look good year round - good gardens look good in the summer.
Click here if you have a question about winter gardens
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