This is a great time of year to take a good look at your garden. Look out through your favorite “viewing windows” -- maybe through the sliding glass doors next to your favorite reading chair or more practically, the windows near the kitchen sink or next to your computer work station. Whatever the vantage points, look out with a critical eye, since these may be the most important garden views of all. The dormant season in Wisconsin lasts at least six to seven months -- that's an awfully long time to look at a bleak landscape!
So, what do you see? If your view is similar to what I see as I look out, it’s probably not too awe-inspiring - gloomy shades of gray tree and shrub twigs, some muted green and tan of my dormant grass, lots of bleached brown worn-out mulch and unflattering views of my neighbors stark white garage with piles of forgotten “stuff” piled up behind it, not to mention, an ugly telephone pole with black wires cascading from it in all directions. After the 92nd cloudy El Nino day in a row, I’ve finally realized that I need to re-think the way I select plants for my garden. I need way more color and interest to carry me through these gray months!
Landscape designers often refer to the structural elements as the backbone or "bones" of the garden -- they are made up of plants with good winter interest, garden structures such as fences, arbors, pergolas or benches, garden art such as stone statuary and freeze-proof containers and window boxes with interesting winter arrangements. With good bones the garden doesn’t have to be dreary and disinteresting, in fact with skillful planning it can be visually stimulating or at least very pleasant to view. I can’t ever imagine my winter garden being as exciting as my summer, but I can settle for an interesting tranquil look, especially when accented by the long shadows and fresh snowfalls of winter.
A good starting point is to highlight or borrow desirable elements from the surrounding landscape and hide those views that aren't so great. My backyard garden lies on a small city lot (40' x 110'), bordered by neighbors on all sides, so I unfortunately don't have any spectacular picturesque views of the countryside, but their are some pleasing elements to incorporate into my own landscape. The neighbors on both sides are good gardeners and all of our gardens complement each other nicely. In my neighbors back yard to the east grows a beautiful mature blue spruce that is not only wonderful to look at, but also blocks the view of the street beyond. A small cherry tree provides some interesting bark when the sun shines upon it. A shared picket fence grabs falling snow and creates intriguing shadow patterns in winter as well as making a great backdrop for feathery ornamental grasses.
A sizable paper birch provides bark interest in my neighbors yard to the west. Towards the back or north an old lilac screaming to be renewal pruned is somewhat appealing, but as borers and fungal decay take their toll I'm not sure how much longer it will be until it becomes year-round "bones".
Like most urban gardens, my list of views to hide is at least as long as those to highlight. The "stuff" behind the garage ranks high on the list as well as the telephone pole and direct views of surrounding garages (including the side of my own). The telephone pole will be impossible to hide, but maybe I can soften its base and detract attention from it with other pleasant focal points. A parked car or two, a central air conditioner and a neighboring compost pile are a few more to add to the list. Since space is at a premium in my small garden, I'll probably opt for some slender, upright growing evergreens to do the majority of the framing and screening. Two narrow growing cultivars of American arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis) immediately come to mind, 'Hetz Wintergreen' and 'Fastigiata' (aka 'Pyramidalis') are two readily available narrow columnar cultivars. American arborvitae is tough to beat for its ease of culture and quick growth, not to mention its reasonable cost.
The next step is to add some interesting elements to liven up the garden -- being a horticulturist, live art accented by the other inorganic elements is always my first choice. I think it’s harder to mess up the works with plants than it is with “decorations” -- more is not always better when it comes to garden art. Plants with interesting features during the dormant season, such as architectural form, colorful bark or foliage and attractive fruit all work well in the garden. The list of plants is quite extensive and somewhat subjective, but there are a few “tried and true” to start out with.
Few plants can boast better architectural qualities than the tiered horizontal branches of pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia) or the dramatic weeping habit of a red jade ornamental crabapple (Malus 'Red Jade'). The list of garden conifers with unique architectural form and foliage color is extensive, but a few of my favorites include, nest Norway spruce (Picea abies ‘Nidiformis’) with its flat-topped habit and emerald needles, yellow thread Sawara falsecypress (Chamaecyparis pisifera ‘Filifera Aurea’) brightens the garden with its golden foliage and last but not least, Montgomery Colorado spruce (Picea pungens ‘Montgomery’), a dwarf form of the massive landscape tree, which can’t be beat for its awesome shimmering blue needles.
Architectural plants don’t necessarily have to be woody -- many herbaceous perennials also fill this niche. Ornamental grasses, such as Chinese silvergrass (Miscanthus sinensis), little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) and Chinese pennisetum (Pennisetum alopecuroides) all add grace and beauty to the winter landscape. They add a welcome sense of movement to the garden, an often over-looked quality, rustling about in the slightest breeze. Seed heads of many perennials add interest if spared the wrath of pruners in fall -- purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) and the ever popular goldsturm rudbeckia (Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldsturm’) immediately come to mind.
A number of plants are available to add color to the garden with showy bark or fruit. It's hard to beat the bright red or gold stems of redosier dogwood (Cornus stolonifera) cultivars, especially when given a proper stage with a background of evergreen foliage like American arborvitae. Two excellent and popular cultivars right now are ‘Cardinal’ which sports orangey-red stems and ‘Silver and Gold’ with golden stems and green and white variegated foliage. Both should be renewal pruned regularly, since the newest stems are the most colorful.
Compact European cranberrybush viburnum (Viburnum opulus ‘Compactum’) is a great example of a shrub that adds life to the garden with its showy red fruit. On a larger scale, many of the ornamental crabapples offer colorful yellow, orange or red pea to marble-sized fruit. The best cultivars like ‘Ormiston Roy’ (yellow fruit), ‘Prairifire’ (orange fruit) and ‘Donald Wyman’ (red fruit), just to name a few, offer vibrantly colored spheres through at least late March.
I’m hopeful that next year at this time, I’ll be looking out over a much more interesting garden. After some thoughtful planning this winter, I’m going to scan the garden centers and nurseries early and get planting. I’ve got the whole summer to shop for a couple of tasteful “inorganic elements”. My biggest problem now is how I’m going to pass off the sandbox that I promised our two-year-old as garden art!