The Garden in Winter

By Jane Dungan (Reprinted from The Garden Gate,   Fall, 1997)

After all these years creating my own garden, I still have difficulty with the topic of “Winter Interest” that we read so much about in new garden books and magazines.  After a full year of spring, summer, and fall gardening, quite frankly, I am relieved when frost comes so I can take a rest.  Never being much of a polar bear, I’ve always said that “I had no interest in what’s in the garden in winter.  It’s cold out there!”

But now this dimension of gardening has insidiously crept up on me, forcing me to pay attention to what’s happening in the cold, cold months of winter in my garden.  All sorts of little occasions have forced me into searching about the garden during the darnedest cold months of the year.  For example, there’s the need for centerpieces and decorations for Christmas.  Once I even boasted to a friend that “I could make an arrangement anytime of the year from things in my garden.”  Then she (in an unsportsmanlike way as far as I was concerned) made me do it!  So, unwillingly and only out of need I found myself in the midst of my garden in the cold and, sometimes, snow--and discovered a new world.

I found that things that looked really good in the summer can be really ugly in the winter.  Some things that didn’t impress during the hot months took on a beautiful luster with a bit of frost on the tips.  I also learned that I needed to do some rethinking about my garden design as a whole because, in the winter, you see the garden in its essential form--its underwear so to speak.  And, if you’ve spent much time in the dressing room while clothes shopping, you know things can appear much different depending upon the view.

So, I’ve been working on improving my “winter interest” in the garden and discovering that a lot of the plants I want to incorporate improve the structure and form of the garden the remainder of the year.  It’s easy for you to get started doing the same.

Take a walk about the garden some cold, frosty day this winter and look with an objective eye.  You want to look at the “bare essentials”.  How do the walls and garden structures look?  Are they only props for summer plants and then winter eyesores, or do they look intriguing on their own?  How are they situated in relation to evergreens and other interesting trees and shrubs in the garden?  Is there balance?  Are there gaping holes?  Can you see too much of the neighbor’s trash cans and not enough of the beautiful, natural bare tree branches in another lot across the road?  Would a weeping or contorted tree break the monotony of all evergreens?  You get the idea…asking questions of your garden at this point can spark many new ideas and ultimately change your whole focus for your garden.

Another thing I learned is that it wasn’t really necessary to clear the entire garden to the soil in my perennial beds.  While it might appear “scruffy” to some, I provided shelter for small animals and birds and made interesting shapes with a snow cover.

There are so many variations on what you could do with your own garden space that the only limitation is where your imagination (and, sometimes, pocketbook) wants to go. There’s a wide sampling of plants that do well in our area and are available at local garden centers.  You have all winter to cozy up to the fire with a good garden book or two and decide what will be at the top of your “wish list” next spring.