It should come as no surprise that winter is descending upon the area. As soon as the first frosts roll around, even the most vibrant cottage garden can quickly be reduced to a sad huddled lump. While this can sometimes make a space an eyesore at first glance, a closer look reveals the true value of winter detritus.
When it comes to beneficial wildlife, the dried stems, leaves and seeds in a winter garden are invaluable shelter and food during the colder season. Some plants rely on the dead or dying tufts and shoots from previous years to help insulate their precious roots from harsh winter winds.
These plants are of course also slowly enriching your soil as they break down, feeding a high diversity of creatures big and small that help recycle nutrients into the ecosystem. The most sustainable and enjoyable gardens are those that work to not only feed themselves, but also help supply room and board to the various local wildlife that help your outdoor spaces with the pollination, pest control and other essential services they need.
Even though few sights can truly match the beauty of a dead seed head kissed with frost as it glints in the morning sun, it’s understandable that not everyone appreciates the vibe that a completely untamed mass of wildflowers gives off in the winter as much as local wildlife. Luckily, it’s relatively easy to give even the most haggardly winter landscape more than a touch of dramatic flair during the colder months. As per usual, this will be accomplished through the use of locally native plants.
The first ingredient that every proper winter landscape needs is simply a little color. The bright stems of Red or Yellow Twig Dogwoods can help draw the eye towards areas of interest and away from unsightly patches. Standard practice is normally to trim off the older branches of these shrubs after 3-5 years, opening the way for younger and more vibrant shoots to take over.
Bright berries are another option for color, with Hollies and Beautyberries taking up the brunt of the wintry displays here. American species tend to be the most beneficial to wildlife- and they’re often less overall maintenance as well. Birds and other garden dwellers tend to prefer letting these berries break down over the winter, becoming more palatable as they freeze and thaw multiple times.
This makes berries both critical food sources and long-lasting aesthetic showpieces. Talk about feeding two birds with one scone!
In many situations, simply providing some color in the rear and fringes of your outdoor spaces is enough to bring out their true winter potential. If that isn’t enough, or if there are areas that look great in the growing season but just stunningly depressing after fall, it’s also possible to just cover the whole thing until spring.
A diverse collection of evergreen plants can work wonders at keeping just enough of these rough patches out of sight until they come into their own again. Trees like American Holly, American Arborvitae, Hemlock and Eastern Red Cedar are all excellent additions to the rear and periphery of an outdoor space. These large sentinels can be used to screen neighbors and/or roads while also providing a nice backdrop for the bright stems and berries in the space.
Large evergreen shrubs like Rhododendron and Mountain Laurel can provide some additional height and texture to a space, while lower evergreen plantings like Winterberry Holly, Christmas Fern, Dwarf Mountain Laurel, Bearberry and Leucothoe can act as “foreground” accents. Add a little cheer for everyone in and around your outdoor spaces this year and bring in a few of these colorful additions if you aren’t already well equipped.
Brannen Basham and his wife, Jill Jacobs, operate Spriggly’s Beescaping, a business dedicated to the preservation of pollinators. He can be reached at brannen.basham@gmail.com.
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