Winter garden treasures
As November winds down, the bones of the garden step forward to carry our interest through the winter months.
Conifers like pine, spruce, juniper and cedar paint the garden with welcome shades of green, yellow and teal. Yellow and red twigged dogwood bushes, stripped of their summer foliage, now punctuate the border with welcome sparks of colour.
Shrubs like roses, chokeberry, holly, winterberry and barberry offer an array of colourful hips and berries offering points-of-interest as the season draws in. Berries that persist into the winter are often the last choice of food for the local birds, but they will eat them in a pinch.
Chocolate brown dollops of echinacea and coneflowers provide interesting texture and colour, while serving as welcome feeding stations for visiting finches and sparrows. Rust coloured spires of the astilbes and flattened heads of sedum will stand tall and support themselves when the snow blankets the ground in a few weeks time.
Ornamental grasses like miscanthus, panicum and calamagrostis offer warm, wheat-coloured tones to the late garden, they catch rays light and seem to glow from within when conditions are just right. Last weekend, a morning snowfall turned the back garden into a magical fairyland when the golden inflorescences of miscanthus were treated to a dusting of snow.
Despite their delicate appearance, pansies are surprisingly hardy.
My affair with pansies started many years ago, when my mother, who was living in a seniors’ home at the time, would come and spend Saturdays with us. Pansies were one of her favourite flowers, she enjoyed their pretty colours and delicate perfume; they also proved to be a springboard for conversation when words were hard to come by.
Today, I grow them in her honour, and like mom, they amaze me with their tenacity. It’s now late November and a September planting of pansies is still putting on a good show. Admittedly, they are growing in containers on the deck — the house offers some extra protection — but they are very resilient.
Before the weather turns cold, I’ve started to decorate for the holidays. Due to the restrictions with COVID-19, we won’t be hosting a large family gathering, but I’m putting a brave face forward and dressing up the front porch for the holiday sea-son.
To that end, I splurged on an armful of cut greens, B.C. cedar, pine, incense cedar (they all smell so good) and a natural wreath for the front door.
A quick trip around the garden, with secateurs in hand, yielded silvery dusty miller, sprays of orange/red rose hips and black chokeberries, fire-engine red barberries, plum coloured coral bell leaves, and twigs of red and yellow dogwood.
After filling the cement planter on our front step with sprays of mixed greens, I used the found treasures to dress up the container. A large head of ornamental kale, with a brilliant purple centre made a showy centre piece for the design. The point is to have fun with this, and use what you have on hand to make an interesting design — it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Natural and found materials were also used to dress up the purchased wreath for the front door. A box of bargain silver Christmas balls were wired together in groups of three, and then wired onto twigs to secure them on the wreath. Little sprays of rose hips (from the front garden) and pine cones sprayed with silver paint were tucked in around the form.
Abow fashioned from a roll of white ribbon covered with silver stars finished the arrangement. Matching sprays of greens, decorated with the same silver balls and ribbons, were fashioned for the front lights beside the garage door. A wreath, three sprays of greens, and a basketful of garden finds were enough to generously dress up the front entrance, and I have plenty of material left over to decorate the mantle when the time is right.
Consider adding a little extra colour to your front entrance this year, let the kids help you scavenge around the yard for found materials to personalize your holiday designs, recycle that box of underappreciated Christmas ornaments and ribbons — interesting designs don’t have cost a fortune — just let your imagination be your guide.