Take a look at your garden in January. Rather than with the optimism of someone preparing for spring, with the clarity of someone observing what is actually there. The majority of people, even committed gardeners who invest a lot of time and money during the growing season, discover bare stems, empty patches, and the overall feeling that nothing is happening. This isn’t a catastrophe. In nearly every case, it is a problem that could be solved, but was ignored because the solution would require considering winter in May when the nursery is full of flowers.
Structure is lacking in most winter gardens. Neither ornamentation nor color, nor a complex intervention. The fundamental structure of a garden that keeps it cohesive after all the seasonal performers have gone. As garden designers refer to plants and other components that define shape and add visual interest, they are the “bones.” The concept is abstract until you stand in a garden with it and feel, almost instantly, that even in its quietest season, the area makes sense. You notice a difference when you stand in a garden without it, but you can’t quite pinpoint what it is.
Intentional evergreen planting is an example of this in the real world. A dependable choice for this purpose is the box, or Buxus, which clips into any shape required and maintains its shape despite wind, frost, and the general humiliations of a northern European winter. As the garden evolves, it can be planted in pots as spheres or cones. It creates a kind of recurring, punctuating form that unifies various beds into what appears to be a garden rather than a collection of individual plants. Boxes and structural evergreens in general require repetition. Coherence is created when three or four clipped balls are placed thoughtfully across various beds.
Lavender grows along the edges of paths in a similar manner. It appears genuinely lovely under frost when clipped into low domes, maintaining its grey-green foliage throughout the winter. In a time when little else is in bloom, it provides a different texture and flowers. When grown against a sheltered wall, Fatsia Japonica produces large, glossy leaves that appear almost tropical. All of these plants are common. Most reputable garden centers carry them all year round. In winter gardens, structural evergreens are underused because most people purchase them in the spring and summer, when they are up against everything in bloom.
Imagine any plant in January before placing it in the garden, a design principle used by professional garden designers. Is it going to stay? Is it able to maintain its shape? Would the area surrounding it collapse into an empty space if you mentally removed it from the image? By applying this test, a garden’s construction is consistently altered. In October, a Japanese maple with vibrant fall hues is easy to fall in love with. Its branches, however, are bare by December, and something needs to be done. On a chilly morning, Sarcococca’s tiny, fragrant white flowers and dark berries would be a pleasant scent to smell. During the coldest weeks of the year, Hellebores silently bloom in hues ranging from white to deep plum. Alternatively, Red Dogwood is grown for the deep red stems that capture low winter light in a way that is difficult to photograph.
Experienced gardeners consistently leave spent flowerheads standing through winter rather than trimming them back in the fall. Echinacea seeds were covered in frost. Hydrangea flowers fade from cream to tan to parchment in color. Phlomis seed cases exposed to the afternoon sun after being dried. At first glance, they appear insignificant and untidy. It takes a season or two to fully appreciate their subdued beauty, movement, texture, and bird feeding stations. In October, everything is cut back to the ground, leaving nothing but bare soil until spring.
Observing gardens that function in the winter, it’s hard to ignore how little of them are accidental. Deciduous plants leave spaces where evergreen anchors are positioned. No area is completely dormant due to the uniform distribution of structural shrubs. Seed heads were left with a purpose instead of being overlooked. The effect feels natural because it was planned. Although it wasn’t intricate or expensive, it acknowledged that winter lasts for six months, and a garden that disappears for six months isn’t doing its job.