Winter is the best time of year to take stock of your gardens and plan for the long term. It’s the time of year when gardens are laid flat, exposing their bones and letting you see the foundation of the structure. Make the most of this time to restructure your design, arrange new plants or start strategies for new hardscaping.

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The Garden Consultants, Inc..

1. Rock walls and paths. The opportunity to look at your garden in sunlight allows you to find out what a vital role hardscaping plays in the overall backbone of your garden. These gorgeous stone walls give a traditional sunken courtyard feeling to this backyard, framing the views outside.

Noel Cross+Architects

2. Structural evergreens. Evergreens which may be pruned into different shapes, like boxwood and yew, can serve the identical function as hardscaping. If your backyard is already blessed with hardscaping or structural evergreens, you’re two steps ahead of the game!

Huettl Landscape Architecture

3. Grasses. Recall these ornamental grasses? You’d be smart to select a few for your winter backyard. When the grasses dry in fall, they will stay tall stalwarts of the winter , even under a cover of snow. Only cut them down into the floor in spring, and the display will start all over again.

Gates & Croft Horticultural Design

4. Sculpture. Adding art in the backyard is another means to make sure there’ll be strong interest in the backyard once the perennials have disappeered under the earth and flowers are a long-lost vision.

The Garden Consultants, Inc..

5. Fencing and furniture. Even when the climbing vines have long since died away in the fence posts, and no straps are pausing to sit on the bench, those dreams remain. Even bare, the shapes add structure to your garden annually.

LandscapeLens

Wooden structures and deciduous trees are wonderful additions to the winter garden only for the way in which the snow coats each division, like a tiny vanilla frosting on each piece.

Architects, webber + Studio

6. Boulders are another option for producing a visually stimulating winter landscape. These boulders create a rugged winter that perfectly complements the house design.

John Maniscalco Architecture

7. Trees. Sometimes all that’s left at a winter are big trees. Surrounding your house with these specimens provides a practical windbreak, but in addition provides a visual sense of enclosure. Look at planting smaller evergreens to fill out the picture.

Forum Phi Architecture | Interiors | Planning

When thinking about the winter landscape around your house, do not neglect to bring both evergreen and decidous trees. Evergreens provide a little bit of green at the lean months, as well as supplying home for all woodland creatures. Deciduous trees can provide striking traces from the winter snow because their trunks stretch upwards and their arms stretch .

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COOK ARCHITECTURAL Design Studio

8. Bushes. In this garden, big trees and smaller shrubs provide a framework that doesn’t vanish if the snows come falling down.

U. of Maryland Arboretum & Botanical Garden

9. Bark. Bushes and trees with beautiful bark, like redtwig dogwood, river birch or sycamore trees provide a dash of colour and texture in an otherwise white on white world.

See how to propagate your redtwig dogwood hedge.

Beertje Vonk Artist

10. Blooms. Add a couple of winter blooming bulbs into your garden. There is nothing quite like a tiny little blossom popping up from beneath the drifts of snow. Fantastic choices for early bloomers comprise chionodoxa (glory-of-the-snow), snowdrops (pictured), hellebores and the familiar crocus.

Amy Renea

When it’s grasses, evergreens, backyard furniture or other additions to the backyard, be certain you provide interest in the winter months. When you’re gazing out your chimney over a blanket of snow, you’ll be encouraged to see your picket fence located in a stylish heap of snow. The sight of your pampas grass waving in the wind will remind you of summer breezes. And the blossom of a hellebore or snowdrop will remind you that spring is just around the corner.

More: Let It Snow: A Winter Postcard in the Houzz Community
Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful
Style Photography: When the Fog Rolls In

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