Winter Interest in the Garden

Some of us truly love winter, especially the mild type that we usually see here in North Texas. We have ample opportunities to enjoy our outdoor spaces, but with the dormant season it can be challenging to maintain attractive, interesting settings.

Nandina Domestica

Hollies and nandinas are often taken for granted, but in winter they can be big players with glossy green or red foliage and red berries, and of course they are a summer landscape staple as well. Several shrubs will bloom during the winter months. Include a few quince, camellia, mahonia, and winter flowering honeysuckle for periodic flowers. Certainly pansies and violas are the stars of winter, and an over-seeded lawn of lush rye grass really sets off flowers and shrubs.

A water feature such as a fountain or waterfall entices the senses year- round, and brings a special excitement during hard freezes when impromptu ice sculptures form.

The outdoor living craze has brought the element of fire back into the landscape in a variety of forms, from fireplaces to fire pits to chimineas. Now is the time to really make use of these accessories.

Cedar Wax Wing

And don’t forget to hang a few bird feeders for a stream of colorful, busy visitors all winter. 

So, there you are, on a brisk clear winter day, sitting next to your roaring fire pit, enjoying the splash of your fountain and your colorful flowers, watching the cedar waxwings clean the berries off you mahonia bushes.

Fill your yard and your life with interest!