


This winter’s weather has been fairly intense, with large amounts of flooding across the North over Christmas and New Year, leading straight into temperatures of -7c, with snow and frost. The large areas of flooding in nature parks and our countryside has led to huge frozen areas with areas of snow and frozen snow.
In our country with its varying climate, we cannot even guarantee a period of snow over the winter, so it’s very unpredictable. Although our creaking train system and roads can grind to a halt, it’s the perfect time to step away from modern life into a winter wonderland.
Snow covered bare-branched deciduous trees allow you to appreciate the architectural structure of the branches. Spreading hawthorn trees still retain their spear-like thorns, with droplets of rain frozen solid. The cow parsley that is so rampant during the summer retains its umbel structure in death which creates stunning shapes, while silhouetted by the low glow of a winter sun.
Even during a frost, woodland birds are still plentiful, working extra hard to find enough food. Huge crows are squawking, magpies are annoying the other birds, while the tiny garden birds, such as great tits, blue tits and the solo robins, still hop around looking for small bugs or seeds.
The wild parakeets that are spreading across Greater Manchester provide an unusual flash of bright colour in the white-out landscape, while their distinctive loud squawk makes you turn your head.
One question that raises its head on a long winter’s stroll, is how do you ensure that your garden design looks interesting during the winter. Here’s just a few suggestions that I put into consideration during every garden design.
Keep seedheads and dead flowers
One easy way to provide structure during the winter is to leave all seedheads and dead flowers right through the winter. Not only does this provide texture and structure for your garden, but it also provides both habitat and food for insects and birds.
Plant coniferous trees
Planting evergreen trees in your garden ensures that you retain some greenery all year round, when everything else looks bare and skeletal. I love planting small conifers, like the mountain pine, which remain resplendent looking all year round.
Lighting plan
A lighting scheme is essential in all garden designs, which means that you can appreciate your outdoor space with the flick of a switch, even during the darkest, shortest days of winter.
It’s important to really enjoy the colder months by getting outside as much as possible. Nothing beats those deep breaths of cold air to clear the thoughts as we look forward to another trip around the sun.
Contact me to book a garden and landscape design consultation in.