When planning a landscape, something that is often overlooked until this time of the year is what the landscape is going to look like in the dead of winter. A winter landscape can be a great asset to your property.
There are various aspects of your landscape that can add interest in the winter season. Evergreens, perennials, shrubs and bushes, and hardscapes can all add to your winter landscape.
- Evergreens are the most commonly thought of item for adding interest during the winter season. It is true, they add a lot of value to the aesthetics of your landscape. They, as their name implies, are ever-green. This makes that plant visually appealing all year long.
- Some perennials are excellent for adding winter interest.
- When they are poking out of the snow, it breaks up the monotony of just white snow all over your landscape. Plants like ornamental grasses, sedum, mums, etc. are great examples of perennials with winter interest. They stay fairly erect over the winter allowing the plant to poke out of the snow.
- However, not all perennials are good for the winter though. Perennials like daylilies, hostas, peony, etc. which die back during a frost and freeze, and fall to the ground will not make good perennials for winter interest.
- Shrubs and bushes can add value to a winter landscape.
- Plants that have colorful bark. Bark that is a vibrant color like the green oiser dogwood or the red oiser dogwood is a great example.
- Other ways that bark can be interesting is bark that is flaky on a bush. Paperbark maple, paper birch, and ninebark are great examples of plants with interesting bark.
- Plants that hold on to berries throughout the winter are also interesting to look at. Blue girl holly is a good example with the red berries in the blueish-green foliage.
- Hardscapes primarily being retaining and sitting walls can add color to a landscape in the winter. The color helps to break up to landscape of white when there is snow on the ground.
The winter landscape is often overlooked during the planing process. However, here in Michigan, winter can last from late November into late March. So why not plan and plant something that will create interest in the winter. Four plus months of blah can be boring, but a good winter landscape can help to spice things up.