What do you see when you look out your windows during these winter months? Silhouettes of trees and shrubs, walkways through barren flowerbeds, sidewalks, and brown lawns. Perhaps your eyes come to rest on a blue spruce, its limbs swaying in the winter winds, or a lime-green cedar shrub spreading luxuriously across the barren garden. Is there a holly tree with polished green leaves and shiny, red berries within sight? What about a Sparkleberry bush, or are those delicate, red leaves still clinging to your Japanese maple?
Midwinter is an ideal time for reflection. And I suggest that one such consideration might be the re-evaluation of our lawns and gardens. Whether we’ve labored over the garden for years or just acquired a new house and garden, winter gives us the opportunity to see the bare bones of a home’s landscaping. Doing a thoughtful evaluation of the garden may lead to a few fresh ideas to enhance what’s already there, or looking at the garden with fresh eyes may lead to a decision to scrap what’s there and redesign and replant.
As you entertain the idea of starting over in your garden, let me suggest some considerations before committing yourself to this major project. And, if you’re still prepared to go ahead after reviewing those concerns, I’ll recommend some things to think about as you start over in your garden.
Before redesigning, try these five preparatory activities:
- If you have lived with this garden for a while, make a list of positives and negatives in the existing design. For example, the ornamental plum drops its leaves, which smother the Shasta daisies beneath. One corner of the garden is always a bit too moist; plants never do well there for long. The holly tree next to the patio is messy, but you enjoy watching the chickadees, wrens, and finches flit in-and-out. The pink wisteria is lush and fragrant, but it needs a trellis or arbor to keep it from drooping into the neighbor’s yard.
- It’s winter; what do you see now that is lovely to your eye, and what memories of blooms and clustered plants remain vivid in your mind, even months after those blooms have faded, and the plants have gone dormant? List the flower beds you can recall and the colors you associate with those beds. Perhaps you have some photos of those beds in their summer splendor. Are there particular views, vistas that you’ll want to be left undisturbed?
- Look at the sidewalks, driveway, garden paths. What is the condition of these pathways? Sometimes cracking, discoloration, or general deterioration leaves walkways and driveways unsafe and unsightly. What is protecting or blocking the walkways you need to traverse in the winter and during the growing seasons? Are more paths needed? In the driveway, is it easy to avoid stepping on plants while getting into or out of your car?
- Make a list or diagram of the trees and shrubs on your property, or at least in your garden. Note the shape and health of each. You may be able to identify pruning and shaping projects for spring, opening up areas to sunlight and clearing dead and dying limbs that detract from the garden’s beauty and safety.
- What is your timeline? When could you begin this project? How long can you tolerate the garden in muddy disarray? Make a list of any social commitments ahead that might be held in your garden—a graduation or wedding party on the horizon? If the winter permits, some projects can be done before the early growing season, while other things will need to wait for spring’s thaw.
My suggestions are preliminary to sitting down with a knowledgeable landscape architect or gardening service. The more thought you’ve given to the project, the easier it will be for the professionals to fulfill your vision for the garden—not to mention, they can point out issues you may have overlooked, such as permits, electrical, and irrigation concerns.
If after looking over your notes from that preliminary analysis, you’re still ready to move ahead, consider dividing the designing or redesigning of your gardens into a two-step project. The first step is any structural changes you want to make. That would include buildings such as pergolas, planting sheds, trellises, and arbors. You may have plans for a terrace or patio. Fences, paths and stairs, a watering system, and lighting also fall under the structural plan.
The second step in the project is horticultural. This may be where the real fun begins. Horticultural changes may include the pruning and shaping you listed in your preliminary notes. Changes and additions of perennials and annuals will hinge, in part, on issues of color, texture, and height.
Structural Design Considerations
Electricity and plumbing: You may need or want to add directional lighting to enhance the dramatic cluster of crape myrtle or improve safety around the garage entrance. Underground piping may be required or a drainage bed installed to provide appropriate moisture throughout the garden.
Building: Now may be the time to expand or add a patio or deck to the garden. You may have your eye on the perfect place for a pretty and useful potting shed. Fencing may be needed, or existing fences replaced or repaired. A well-designed arbor could become a focal point in the garden.
Passageways: If there are paths in your garden that don’t work, that lead nowhere, or worse yet, bring you to the neighbor’s compost pile, redirect that path. Lay out walkways that are useful and enhance your garden’s beauty. Maybe some paths need to be wider so a wheelbarrow or a child’s tricycle can navigate them. And there’s that pesky hillside where you slip-and-slide down and pant-and-tug uphill again; now’s the perfect time to add a few steps of wood or stone. Now’s the time to replace that discolored and cracked concrete in the driveway and front walk. You might use instead permeable material that looks more attractive and allows for natural water disbursement.
Horticultural Design Considerations
Look down. Have your soil checked for pH levels and any other hidden problems? And, be sure to find out how to mitigate those problems, so your flower beds and lawn are lush and healthy.
Look up. Go back to that list or diagram you prepared for pruning. Set up your appointment with the tree trimmers for late winter. If you have decided you need more evergreens or privets, early spring planting gives the plants’ roots time to adjust to their new home before the heat of summer. A fun project is adding a few well-placed pots filled with pampas grass, tall bamboo, or canna to disguise a flaw or draw attention to a particular area of your garden. Pots are ideal while your new plants and shrubs are still small and spindly. A lush potted palm or japonica can fill-in until the new plants grow large enough to stand alone.
Look ahead. There’s an old adage about planning for growth in the garden, “First year they [perennials] sleep. Second year they creep. Third year they leap.” And that’s often true. Think about plant placement visualizing each plant three-times its size. Move plants back from the edges of your flowerbeds and back from paths and sidewalks. Never fear moving an overgrown or misplaced plant; if it doesn’t die, it will flourish, and soon take over its designated patch in your garden.
Look back. What do you remember about the colors, textures, and fragrances of your spring, summer, and autumn gardens? If you can’t recall a particular part of the garden, that’s a spot in need of a facelift. Consider planting a Fragrance Garden; some mint, chamomile, four-o’clocks, and freesia will afford both visual and scented memories. Perhaps you’re ready to change your garden’s color scheme. Instead of the lavender and blue flowers, try a summer of bright orange marigolds, yellow daisies, sunflowers, chrysanthemums, and dahlias.
After all that preparation, you’re ready to confer with your horticulturalist, landscape architect, and/or gardener. You’ll come to those meetings prepared with information and ideas that will provide a foundation for the work ahead. You’ll save time and money, and help to insure a successful redesigning of your garden.
Next winter, sweet memory-photos will float across your inner eye year around, extending the joys of your garden from the past, into the present and future. I think that’s probably what you’re aiming for.
