Winter Landscaping Tips

Winter may seem like a time to forget about your gardening and landscaping projects, as you cannot plant anything during this cold season. However, there are plenty of beautiful ways you can make your yard a winter wonderland with texture and color. If you carefully plan in spring, summer and autumn, it’s possible to create a winter landscape that adds warmth and color.

Here are some of our best winter landscaping tips:

Emphasize bark

Decidious trees lose their leaves in wintertime, leaving their branches and trunks completely exposed. Trees like dogwoods and birch trees have beautiful bark, which will add great texture and color to your yard. Luckily, these trees are smaller, so it’s easy to find spots for them amongst your other foliage.

Use berries

There are some trees and shrubs that hold berries during fall and winter, such as crabapple trees and holly bushes. These plants add a festive touch to your winter landscape and also provide food for birds in the area.

Feature evergreens

Evergreens are the quintessential wintertime trees, and this is for good reason. Along with the traditional green, you can find evergreens in yellow, blue and all the colors between. These beautiful trees are festive, smell wonderful and add a great focal point to your yard throughout the year.

Depend on structures

Enhancing your winter landscape might not involve plants at all, but structures instead. A trellis, bench, arbor or garden sculpture serves as a focal point and adds great visual interest to your yard.

Decorate summertime containers

If you have window boxes, hanging baskets or other containers, fill them with spruce and evergreen boughs or sprigs of holly and rhododendron. Anything with color will make your yard more visually appealing and less stark.

Think about birds

Birds bring life and activity to your garden. Consider planting dormant perennials like ornamental grasses or Black-Eyed Susan so the birds have something to eat. Next, you need to provide a water source for the birds. Use a bird bath with a warmer or heated dog bowl to provide a steady source of water. The best way to attract birds is by planting native shrubs and trees, since birds find food and shelter in the natural plants of the region.