Gardens don't have to be a riot of colour in the summer time only to die away to nothing in the winter. A garden that is firstly designed to be spectacular in the winter and has summer superimposed on it will have appeal all the year round.
There will be times when it is too cold to work outside, but gardens need not be forgotten in the winter. Position the plants that will perform the best through the cold months in a place that they will be seen from your windows and passed by in the front garden.
Flowers can come and go, but plants that offer colour and texture with their bark, stems and foliage have a more enduring appeal; even leaves that are deciduous can last a good while through the seasons.
In most gardens space is at a premium. So plants that add interest in more than one season are welcome residents. The key to success is to fill each position with plants that will thrive in the growing conditions there; whether sunny and open, shaded and wet, dry and stony, acid, neutral or limy. Choose plants that linger into the autumn, start in early spring, or are at their best in the winter in addition to the summer stars in order to obtain all-year-round interest.
When you design your garden, if you use tall and broad structures as a starting point, the rest of the garden can then be formed around them. Trees and shrubs give height and lower-growing species can spread out between them. The garden is inevitably more colourful in summer but when the autumn leaves disappear, the view from the house is longer and the bare bones of the garden are exposed. If a garden is designed to look good in the winter, it will never completely lose form, colour and interest.
Start building the structure of the garden with evergreens. They can produce green focal points in a garden. You will find they can have silver, purple, cream, gold and bronze foliage as well as green.
Conifers come in many different shapes and hues. Yew also has red berries to add more colour. Piceas have an attractive texture. Creeping junipers are useful to create ground cover. The dark colours of conifers can also offer a wonderful backdrop for jewel-coloured tulip flowers in the spring.
Other garden features become more prominent in the winter too, such as statues and sculptures, urns and benches and of course waterfalls. They may be partly hidden by foliage in the summer but take on a more dominant role in the winter garden so make sure they are placed well. Box topiary will also remain green in the winter and looks especially interesting when covered in snow.
Otherwise, plants can be grouped in pots to create a display that is easy to look after. Green plants such as rosemary can be mixed with flowering plants such as cyclamen. Plants that thrive only in one specific type of soil, like pieris, can be grown in pots too. Willows are in leaf for a very long season but their roots can be invasive which will prove to be a problem in a small garden. A smaller variety like a corkscrew willow can be confined in a large, decorative container.
Some plants that flower in the winter months have very muted colours. These dusky colours often suit winter light. You may want to group these together: skimmias, heathers and sedums for example. The colour of spring flowers are often much brighter. If you don't like the clash of the bright yellow of daffodils with these dusky tints then make sure they are not planted together.
Daffodils mark the beginning of spring flowers. Their leaves should be left for about six weeks after the bulbs have finished flowering, so you may want to plant them in a place where their leaves and perhaps the long grass left unmown around them will not look too scruffy and obvious, like along the base of a fence or hedge. If you don't like the bright yellow of daffodils planted under pale, pink blossom, you might find the softer hues of blue Chionodoxa to be a more pleasing match.
The winter flowers like snowdrops, cyclamen and pansies will continue to flower as the spring flowers appear. With careful thought, colour can continue through from autumn to spring - only to occasionally disappear under a blanket of snow.
As spring turns to summer, a crescendo of verdant, summer growth and vibrant colours will further fill the garden.
Christina Sinclair is a lecturer and self-published children's author with qualifications in design.
She is now writing 'The Salty Sam Fun Blog for Children' which is to be found on her website. The blog has articles about history, science, nature, gardening and environmental issues. It also has free craft downloads, knitting patterns, easy recipes and other projects for children. Visit it at http://www.christina-sinclair.com/blog/
Article provided by Christina Sinclair
There will be times when it is too cold to work outside, but gardens need not be forgotten in the winter. Position the plants that will perform the best through the cold months in a place that they will be seen from your windows and passed by in the front garden.
Flowers can come and go, but plants that offer colour and texture with their bark, stems and foliage have a more enduring appeal; even leaves that are deciduous can last a good while through the seasons.
In most gardens space is at a premium. So plants that add interest in more than one season are welcome residents. The key to success is to fill each position with plants that will thrive in the growing conditions there; whether sunny and open, shaded and wet, dry and stony, acid, neutral or limy. Choose plants that linger into the autumn, start in early spring, or are at their best in the winter in addition to the summer stars in order to obtain all-year-round interest.
When you design your garden, if you use tall and broad structures as a starting point, the rest of the garden can then be formed around them. Trees and shrubs give height and lower-growing species can spread out between them. The garden is inevitably more colourful in summer but when the autumn leaves disappear, the view from the house is longer and the bare bones of the garden are exposed. If a garden is designed to look good in the winter, it will never completely lose form, colour and interest.
Start building the structure of the garden with evergreens. They can produce green focal points in a garden. You will find they can have silver, purple, cream, gold and bronze foliage as well as green.
Conifers come in many different shapes and hues. Yew also has red berries to add more colour. Piceas have an attractive texture. Creeping junipers are useful to create ground cover. The dark colours of conifers can also offer a wonderful backdrop for jewel-coloured tulip flowers in the spring.
Other garden features become more prominent in the winter too, such as statues and sculptures, urns and benches and of course waterfalls. They may be partly hidden by foliage in the summer but take on a more dominant role in the winter garden so make sure they are placed well. Box topiary will also remain green in the winter and looks especially interesting when covered in snow.
Otherwise, plants can be grouped in pots to create a display that is easy to look after. Green plants such as rosemary can be mixed with flowering plants such as cyclamen. Plants that thrive only in one specific type of soil, like pieris, can be grown in pots too. Willows are in leaf for a very long season but their roots can be invasive which will prove to be a problem in a small garden. A smaller variety like a corkscrew willow can be confined in a large, decorative container.
Some plants that flower in the winter months have very muted colours. These dusky colours often suit winter light. You may want to group these together: skimmias, heathers and sedums for example. The colour of spring flowers are often much brighter. If you don't like the clash of the bright yellow of daffodils with these dusky tints then make sure they are not planted together.
Daffodils mark the beginning of spring flowers. Their leaves should be left for about six weeks after the bulbs have finished flowering, so you may want to plant them in a place where their leaves and perhaps the long grass left unmown around them will not look too scruffy and obvious, like along the base of a fence or hedge. If you don't like the bright yellow of daffodils planted under pale, pink blossom, you might find the softer hues of blue Chionodoxa to be a more pleasing match.
The winter flowers like snowdrops, cyclamen and pansies will continue to flower as the spring flowers appear. With careful thought, colour can continue through from autumn to spring - only to occasionally disappear under a blanket of snow.
As spring turns to summer, a crescendo of verdant, summer growth and vibrant colours will further fill the garden.
Christina Sinclair is a lecturer and self-published children's author with qualifications in design.
She is now writing 'The Salty Sam Fun Blog for Children' which is to be found on her website. The blog has articles about history, science, nature, gardening and environmental issues. It also has free craft downloads, knitting patterns, easy recipes and other projects for children. Visit it at http://www.christina-sinclair.com/blog/
Article provided by Christina Sinclair