Creating a winter landscape in a garden
Every homeowner wants a garden that looks good in all seasons. While a winter garden can be drab, here are some ways to add colour year round.
Even in the dead of winter you do not need flowers for colour - just look at the Nandina warming the heart with its fiery display in defiance of the temperatures!
In this winter garden the result is most striking without sacrificing restfulness and with layers of interest unfolding before you. A long and thin area has been visually ‘compacted’ by utilising a serenely flowing pathway curving through the garden. Strong visual accents lead the eye through the space.
The ancient yin/yang symbol was used as a departure point for the garden’s curvaceous ground pattern, to facilitate the much desired element of tranquility.
The gentle slope with contrasting foliage colours and textures, delicately tilted towards the viewing angle of the visitor for maximum effect, displays the subtle art of maximizing foliage power beautifully. Nature’s amazing palette of foliage colours also comes packaged very conveniently in vastly different textures – some are smooth to the touch, almost waxy, and others are textured and rough.
The well-planned garden should always look good, and when the full foliage spectrum of nature is employed, this is easy to achieve!
The gardener should never be entirely dependent on flowers to provide colour in the garden, as this will likely result in periods where there is little to stir the senses.
janice anderssen - sa gardener - fennel and fern - flickr