Structure in the Winter Garden

So here we are in early December, one snowfall already behind us. This creates all kinds of havoc for the landscape design firm where I work. You can’t blow frozen leaves, or easily extract them from gutters.

Gardens blanketed in snow, however, have their own special charm if they have been well-designed — which makes photographing them especially rewarding. The structure often comes from trees, grasses, or other plants that don’t disappear in the winter. That’s what gives the front garden shown above an arresting presence even though many perennials on the streambank have disappeared until spring.

Another way to provide structure for the winter garden is to place a bit of what garden designers call “hardscape” – a built element, like a bench, obelisk or eye-catching urn – in a central place. Here, in my own front garden, I’m lucky enough to have both a great crabapple tree with architecturally arresting branches and a small teak bench underneath, on a landing area near the front steps of my house. And it was this view that drew me out on a snowy day, to capture the tree, the season, and the design that pulled my eye. Hooray, I thought. It works. And it does.

The weekend forecast is for more “wintry mix.” If we get snow and not ice, I may well be out, camera in hand. Gardens have their own beauty in winter, if you look hard enough.

Explore posts in the same categories: General, landscape

Tags: design, garden, hardscape, structure, winter

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