As the first real snow arrives, I am glad we pushed a little to get winter greens (and reds and yellows) into pots before the soil in them froze.
But don’t fret if you have yet to get around to this, you can always completely empty your pots now (you might take them in for the night to thaw the soil, so let’s hope your pots are not too heavy!) and plant up an insert which you can just pop into the container at any time.
Have you made up your planters yet? What did you use? Send us a picture and include the types of branches you chose, and whether you added anything unusual to make the container sing out in that landscape.
I cheated this year and had Eric from Mood Moss come and do my planters, and he sure did a better job than I ever do! He used very fresh greenery and yellow dogwood, tucked three short white birch logs in to give a nice contrast of texture, and worked with the fuzzy beautiful brown leaf backs of Magnolias to break up the different greens. I had placed the containers in spots where they would catch the winter sun, either from the side or backlit. I can hardly wait for the day when the sun comes around and lights up the view from our kitchen/family room.
I think one of the things we don’t do well around here is to make winter gardens. We should try to do more of it…find the parts of the garden which can be seen from inside and make them pop! Interesting plant material, whether for colour or texture; a beautiful sundial sitting above the ground, say on a pith (so nothing is buried if we get a lot of snow); a dark spot in the garden lit up at night to show the shape of a trellis. Take a look at the empty space and dream a little!
At one point a couple of months ago when I first started to realize that winter really was just around the corner, I thought that instead of Christmas lights in our large shrubs it might be fun to have long colour fun streamers of fabric a la Christo (saffron streamers. Google Christo, Central Park) or like some of the ones dreamed up by the designers at the Garden Festival at Les Jardins de Métis.
(Photos by Louise Tanguay, of the installation The Line Garden by designers Coryn Kempster and Julian Jamrozik)
This would not only add colour, but also movement in the garden in winter.
Now am I using lights or streamers? Well, I guess I chickened out and I have defaulted to white lights…maybe next year?