Winter gardening - with creativity in spades
With the right plants, great structure and a spade or two of creativity, a garden can look fabulous all year, says Tom Stuart-Smith
Seasonal scent: Winter wondersHow to grow: Winter pansies and violas
My garden is not a winter garden. There are no coloured stems, very few berries, no variegation nor spikey phormiums and yuccas to liven things into a state of subtropical delusion.
How miserable, you probably think - the garden must be a mush of rot and decay, brown on grey. Well - yes and no.
I have always wanted the garden in winter to look as though it is in the grip of winter and not in a state of seasonal denial; a dialogue with the country that surrounds it rather than an exotic archipelago. This approach seems to suit this little scrap of Hertfordshire.
So, I stop short of pyracantha and stripey elaeagnus and try to achieve some effect by creating contrasts between things that are ordered, clipped or formalised, and others that appear to be more random and natural.
Contrasts of form and space are thrown into much sharper relief by a good bit of cold weather. Most important are the structural bits and pieces - the antidote to the mush of decaying and dormant plants.
Tags: plants, rta0
