Do not let the cold weather and snowy days ruin your passion and enjoyment for your garden or landscape. By making a few careful design and plant choices, your winter garden can turn into your favorite passtime.

First consider how you will be viewing your garden and from which favorite window you want to cozy up with a cup of cocoa. Or instead, wil you venture out into your winter wonderland? 

For those who want to enjoy their garden from a distance during the winter months, consider creating a picturesque view from your window, filled with a combination of nature’s finest treasures, from colorful twig and tree barks, as well as, shrubs filled with bright, plentiful fruit for both you and the birds to enjoy, and don’t forget the bronze casts of left behind perennial plumes and graceful ornamental grasses.

For those who would prefer a closer look and would enjoy a stroll through the garden, a stone path with seating along the way will guide you though your landscape and make this walk more enjoyable. You must not forget a few suprises of stone sculpture or garden art to remind you of warm days gone by. All of these features create the foundation of your garden and spark visual interest and depth in their textures and various heights and sizes.

Our days are often filled with more overcast than sunny days with much less color to enjoy during the winter months, for this reason I have comprised a list of my favorite garden plants to help change your drab perspective of the winter garden. Often times, the attributes of these plants often go unappreciated during the Spring and Summer months when the colors of the season are competiting with one another.

 Evergreen Favorites/Some with Berries:

Great for Structure/Form:

Juniper Varieties (Juniperus varieties)(blue berries)

 Yews  (Taxus varieties)(red berries)

Holly Varieties (Ilex varieties)(red berries)

Boxwoods (Buxus varieties)(traditional favorite)

Falsecypress (Chamaecyparis varieties) (golden foliage varieties)

Rainbow Leucothoe (Leucothoe axillaris)(variegated spotted/white, purple and green foliage)

Canadian Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis)(graceful form)

Deciduous Shrubs/Some with Berries:

Interesting bloom, berry, stems:

Winterberry Holly (Ilex verticillata) (red berries)

Bayberry (Myrica pensylvanica) (blue berries)

Red Twig Dogwood (Cornus sericea) (bright red twigs)

Dwarf Euorpean Cranberry Bush (Viburnum opulus ‘Compactum’) (berries)

Cranberry Cotoneaster (Cotoneaster apiculatus) (berries)

Hydrangea varieties (Hydrangea quercifolia, tardiva) (Perennial bloom)

Rose of Sharon (Althea syriacus)(seedpods)

Trees

Interesting Bark/Form:

Corkscrew filbert (Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’)

Paperbark Maple (Acer griseum) (exfoliating bark)

Trident Maple (Acer buergerianum) (bark, form)

Snake Bark Maple (Acer pensylvanicum)

Lacebark Elm (Ulmus parvifolia) (exfoliating bark)

River Birch (Betula nigra) (exfoliating bark)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The landscaping company I work with, Bramer Brothers, has this seasonal tip:

Cold weather is approaching fast. Most of us think we are done with the yard work. For those newly installed plants, we can’t forget about watering. The first year of care on newly installed plants is critical. Check the ground around your plants. If it is dry 2 inches below the surface, they need water. Just remember to water thoroughly versus shallow and often. Also, stop watering when temperatures are below freezing.

David Beaulieu of About.com provides these landscape design ideas of “problem areas:”

1. “My Land is Too Rocky”: Rock Garden Designs
2. “My Land is Too Hilly and My Soil is Eroding”: Retaining Walls
3. “I have a problem area pounded by the sun, and it dries out”: Landscape Solutions for Drought
4. “I have a wet spot on my land”: Dealing With Drainage Problems
5. “I have a spot too shady to grow plants”: Coping With Shade
6. “My Neighbors Can See Everything I Do in the Yard”: Landscaping Solutions for Privacy
7. “Something Keeps Eating My Plants”: Pest Control Strategies
8. “Weeds are taking over my yard”: Mulch as a Landscaping Solution
9. “I don’t have much time for maintenance and prefer a long-lasting landscaping solution”: Hardscape