Ah yes, Winter Interest: The goal of nearly every northern gardener who doesn’t escape to Florida or Arizona in the dark months of the year.
I have been attempting to create winter interest on and off for years, with varying success, and fortunately there is no lack of help in gardening publications. Here, for example, is an article from Fine Gardening magazine, which offers 12 ways to create winter interest. Come along and let’s take an inventory on how my garden measures up!
1. Rely on plants with winter flowers
OK, that sounds good! The only zone 4 plant on the recommended list is the Hellebore, which blooms in early spring, not winter, but whatever. I have a hellebore! I’ll go out and take a picture of it:
Hmmm. Ok, maybe we will skip the first suggestion. What’s next?
2. Feature winter berries
Aha! This should be better. A recommended plant for winter berries in my zone is the viburnum. I have lots of viburnums! Let’s go look for some winter interest berries:
HMMM. A whole bunch of viburnums but NO WINTER INTEREST BERRIES!! Well, duh —
The birds ATE all the winter interest berries! What’s the next suggestion?
3. Include plants with interesting leaves
4. Emphasize intriguing bark
OK, here we go! I’ve got this!
Of course, the bark would be more intriguing if you did not have to bundle up like an Iñupiaq and leave the house in order to be intrigued by it. However, beggars can’t be choosy, some winter interest has finally been discovered! What’s next?
5. Highlight unusual branch structure
Fine Gardening suggests red twigged dogwoods for my zone !!! Oh goody, I have them!
I am not sure that this qualifies as unusual branch structure though. It looks pretty usual to me.
But the color is nice. We can count this as winter interest! And I have high hopes for the next suggestion:
6. Attract birds by leaving seed heads of perennials
Black eyed Susan, coneflowers, Autumn Joy Sedum — Oh yes, I have tons of all of these, and I always leave the seed heads for the birds. Birds?
7. Prune evergreens into compelling shapes
I am not fond of pruning, nor am I good at it, so the thought of trying to prune an unforgiving evergreen into a compelling shape fills me with understandable dread.
But fortunately for me, if not for him, last summer one of our many grey squirrels went “nuts” and became completely berserk. He ate all the buds on the ‘Jane’ magnolia before it could bloom; he climbed shrubs where other squirrels feared to tread, and he had a great time shredding the top of this arborvitae into this compelling shape:
8. Invite motion with plants such as grasses
Hm . . . I think the only motion we are likely to see with this stand (?) of Karl Foerster grass might be the mice burrowing underneath. But mice are pretty interesting.
9. Create a sensory splash with chimes, mirrors and pinwheels
I’m afraid that mirrors would just fog up when it’s 10 below zero, and the only pinwheel I have is safely stored away in the garden house for the season, but the wind chimes that hang by the tarped-for-winter gazebo are still there!
10. Showcase large garden ornaments such as planted pots and sculptures
11. Use interesting landscape elements such as fences, gateways and trellises
12. Increase impact with multilevel patios or terraces
Well, if we add it up according to the suggestions proposed by Fine Gardening magazine, the winter interest rating is about 4.5 out of 12, so I guess my garden falls low in the magazine’s winter interest rankings. HOWEVER . . .
Who needs Fine Gardening? I have decided to establish a new standard for winter interest:
SNOW AND ICE!
Then we don’t have to do anything at all! We can just let Mother Nature take care of winter interest, and the garden, until spring.