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Christmas is over and your colored lights have probably come down by now and you’re wondering what you can do to make your landscape retain that festive mood throughout the winter. Though the celebrations are over, there’s no reason for your garden not to be a colorful place in the drab months of winter.
For softscaping, spruce, birch, hemlocks and other evergreens are your best options to bring color into an otherwise white landscape. Even if you’re not snowbound during the winter months, the beauty of autumn is long gone so if you have trees that are bare, these options provide excellent lighting opportunities as well.
Use evergreens to line the pathway to your home so visitors get the feeling of a ‘living’ garden even in the dead of winter. Besides, during the hotter months these will serve another purpose – shade. If you are lucky and it snows, you practically have a picture postcard effect for your frontage – great in terms of curb appeal to passers-by.
Another great winterscaping idea is the use of color-rich bushes such as American cranberry or even holly. These evergreen shrubs are ideal to take the dullness away from any winter day, and they contrast beautifully with snow. Dogwoods, junipers and even false cypress can be used creatively to make the perfect winter landscape.
Interestingly, you can even install a fountain in the winter despite below freezing temperatures being. During the colder months, they will be your sculptures, and in the summer, they’re back to functional fountains. Even your pond can act as a rock garden in the winter months. In fact, any hardscaping element that serves a function during warmer months will be a perfect addition to your winter garden just as it is. The trick is to purchase items that look good with or without being operational.
Winter is also the perfect time to work on planning for spring. Things that you usually don’t get done during the rest of the year can be managed during this time – for example, pruning. Winter is the right time to prune any fruit trees or rose bushes in your garden. In the case of the latter, pruning needs to be done before the buds start to show so this is definitely a good opportunity to get that done.
The other major winter work involves renovating your lawn. Rake it thoroughly, re-soil the lower reaches of the lawn and re-seed where necessary. It will take the entire winter for the seeds to come out of dormancy anyway, so now is a good time as any. If you do it now, the seeds can germinate without the help of additional water you would normally use during other months.
For any of these landscape ideas, the right kind of lighting will ensure that after sunset, your garden is transformed into a magical and alluring kingdom. Use a professional landscape lighting company if you want the job done right, and be sure to ask about cost and power saving options such as low-voltage lights or solar landscape lighting.
Winter is a great time for working on your landscape whether you’re doing it for that time or planning for the coming year. Use the time to get things done right because gardens take time to grow, and you don’t want to rush things after you realize that spring is suddenly very near. With climatic changes being a regular feature every year, you never know when spring will hit – so prepare early.
