Winter Interest?
Report From PIA – January 1
Professional gardeners and garden writers/speakers frequently talk, write and speak about “winter interest”. Part of me finds this topic completely annoying, yet I can only partially justify my irritation. I must admit that the idea of finding appeal in dormant times is one that I embrace in areas outside of the garden. This is one of those times that if I’m being completely honest, I have to acknowledge that I’m being contradictory. Exaggerating
What bothers me about the topic of winter interest in the garden is that it feels like we’re laying it on a little too thickly, and I’m not talking about the snow cover. Yes, evergreens and people-made constructions are important in the garden. These are the things that hold the snow and provide structure in all gardens.
There are also some plants that appeal in other ways in the winter, although if we’re being honest, they really can’t stand up to a flower garden in full bloom. Put January’s red twig dogwood up against July’s Nikko Blue Hydrangea and there is no contest. The snow dusted rock wall in my entry garden is pretty, but the annuals that cascaded over that wall in August were stunning.
So I guess that to me the entire subject of winter interest seems like a matter of making do. We’re trying to find extended appeal in a season that is both beautiful and bothersome, and many people will say that the inconvenient aspects of the season far outweigh the splendor. There’s a reason I spend more time pouring over the seed catalogs than I do studying the ice and snow.
And yet, much of my musings on this blog and elsewhere concern the desire to embrace the whole. I call this blog Whole Life Gardening, after all. I speak about wanting to accept and celebrate the entire life experience, and that includes the times when we must manage with what we’ve got. I am (winter) interested to find that I’m inconsistent and a tad cranky.
All of that said, I find that that I can accept it all: winter, a paired down landscape, my opinionated self and my desire to love and live with the entire encounter. Once again I walk in a circle and find that I’m already home.
I thought about posting a shot of my gardens in the snow, and the same area in full, August bloom... but when I went to the photo library to pick out a summer shot, the colors were just too vivid and the garden looked so lush that it would knock the snow scene off the page.
January 2nd, 2010 at 11:03 AM
Your winter scene stands alone very well, not to be diminished by something from the summer.
Those of us in zones where it never snows have a different idea of ‘winter interest’ when cold winds blow from the north and temps drop in the 20s at night.
Yesterday DH mowed the lawn, not because the grass was tall, but to blow leaves off the newly sprouted ryegrass, emerald green. It not only is esthetically pleasing, the green stuff keeps the dry dead stuff from catching fire and spreading if someone throws a cigarette out a truck window.
January 2nd, 2010 at 1:11 PM
Nell Jean,
As the snow is falling today I’m jealous of your “green stuff”… I guess I’d like about three weeks of snowy weather, and then a shift to something closer to Northern California’s weather.
Hmmmm it just occurred to me that this could be arranged… if we could figure out how to make this affordable, we could stay on Poison Ivy Acres for the first few weeks of winter, and then relocate to Northern California for the duration.
January 2nd, 2010 at 4:48 PM
I am crazy about the garden in winter but perhaps it’s the relief from all of the visual input of summer. It makes me appreciate summer without getting immune or tired of maintaining it. Also it may be that the wildlife is very different in winter but they still make use of the garden. They are here because of the garden. I look forward to seeing some seasonal critters that only visit in cold months. Each season brings me something to be excited about which isn’t supplied by another.
January 2nd, 2010 at 6:27 PM
Karyl,
You are absolutely right – each season is desirable because it is unique and brings singular experiences. I just have to stop being cranky about it and remember to embrace it all.
And yes, we probably would either stop seeing, or tire of all that summer color if it were constantly around us…. do people in Hawaii get weary of all that green growth? Rhian?