The Gardens in Winter

GARDENS BY THE BAY

THE GARDENS IN WINTER

What sight could be more perfect than the garden in winter. Evergreens and shrubs touched by snow! Ornamental grasses in their tan-coloured glory! Hardscape features in full view! And yet a winter garden picture provides even more .. a perfect opportunity to assess the overall structure of garden beds.

We left the cottage on Halloween night, with everything cut back for fall, leaving only the Ornamental Grasses to put on a fall and winter show in our absence. Just over a month later we returned. With camera in hand, Gary braved the snowdrifts blocking entrance to the driveway and made his way around the beds, snapping pictures from various angles. What a difference a month can make in a garden!

My favourites above show the view from the compost area immediately south of the garage looking to the southeast. Both show the view through the cedar trunks, across the North Bed, with the East Garden to the left of the arbour and the Corner Garden to its right. There are Ornamental Grasses in all beds now, although only the tallest are visible.

The new North Garden was created to drift around 3 Korean boxwoods originally planted in individual holes in the rocky ground east of a Pine tree. The picture on the left faces east toward the East Garden. The one on the right shows the East Garden to the left of the arbour and a glimpse of the Corner Garden to its right.

The East Garden shown above contains the largest number of grasses of all the beds. The Miscanthus floridulus, a blur in the distance here, will be the tallest we have, expected to reach a height of about 10 feet with a similar spread. I recently read that a tractor will be needed if I ever hope to lift it once it reaches maturity. Hopefully it's located where it can stay for many years. Just to the left of the photo are three Calamagrostis 'Karl Foerster' plants. They are only about one and a half years old here and will make even more of a statement in all seasons after they have had a chance to clump up even more. The grass closest to the right of the photo is Miscanthus sinensis 'Gracillimus', which hasn't yet produced flowers. It retains a bit more green colouration than the other grasses. Also in this bed are 8 grasses of much shorter stature that put on their best show earlier in the year and leave nothing standing to poke up through the snow drifts in winter.

The Long Garden above has the fewest grasses, none of which is yet putting any great show in winter. Seventy-five feet in length, little of it is visible in this picture, taken from the neighbour's property looking to the northeast. The North Garden is visible above a section of cedar rail fencing. The East Garden is to the right.

The left photo above shows the North Garden viewed from the south. There are 3 Miscanthus sinensis 'Variegatus' to the immediate right of the pine tree and 3 Miscanthus sinensis 'Strictus' further to the right of that. The photo on the right shows both the North Garden parallel to the side of the garage and the East Garden along the rail fence to the right.

The Corner Garden view on the left is taken from the southwest. The arbour is nearly hidden by Miscanthus sinensis 'Silberfeder'. The photograph on the right was taken from the northwest and captures the East Garden to the left of the arbour and the Corner Garden to the right of it.

STRUCTURE ASSESSMENT

People seem to find the cedar rail fencing in three of the beds charming when partly hidden from view by summer's bounty. Will they feel the same when they are so much more visible in these winter shots?

Never have the boxwoods been more visible to me than in these winter photos. During the rest of the year they provide green colouration as a backdrop to the colours of many perennials. But surely their dark green presence in the snow is a wonderful winter highlight.

The dark green of the cedar trees on the neighbour's property provides a lovely backdrop for the tan flowerheads of 'Karl Foerster'. Yet another bonus!

The various evergreens have all grown in size until they are now large features in several areas. Although they've been a long while reaching this point, I wouldn't want to be without them now.

Finally, the arbour Gary built a few years ago creates a feature between the East Garden and the Corner Garden to break the solid lines of the rail fencing.

All in all - a success, I think.

Although this is the last in our garden tour pages, there are many more links below to provide useful information to assist with the care of your plants, the design of your beds, the colour or foliage combinations to create, the ornamental grasses that will add a new element to your plantings and just generally a lot of information I collected over the years and thought could be of use. Browse at your leisure and come back often. Happy gardening!

All of our own Gardens By The Bay pages can be accessed by clicking on the links below.

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GEORGIAN BAY VIEW

BOTANICAL LATIN - BASICS

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CORNER GARDEN CONSTRUCTION | CORNER GARDEN PLANTING | LONG GARDEN

EAST GARDEN | HOSTA GARDEN | NORTH GARDEN | WINTER GARDENS

PLANT PARTNERSHIPS

BLUE PERENNIALS Aconitum - Geranium | Iris - Vinca

BULBS Allium - Hyacinthus | Narcissus only | Tulipa only | Minor Bulbs