Posts Tagged ‘Winter Interest’

Yes, Good Landscape Design! Oh, and Conifers aren’t Just Green Anymore

Conifers provide winter interest and gives something for the pretty snow to fall on and drape over. There are many, many more evergreen varieties that provide all shapes, sizes, and colors. So much for just forest green, add some color to your yard, even in the dead of winter!

Now there are Junipers, Arborvitae, and Cedar that provide burgundy foliage in the winter: Creeping juniper ‘Youngstown’; Arborvitae ‘Degroot’s Spire’; or White Cedar Red Star ‘Rubicon’. All of these varieties turn either bronze or plum-colored in the winter.

If you want chartreuse to add a little winter interest, choose from Sea of Gold Juniper and Sawara falsecypress ‘Lemon Thread’.

Or still like that blue-green foilage? You can go with Dwarf Alberta spruce ‘Blue Wonder’ or Dwarf Himalayan pine ‘Nana’, both with blue-green needles.

If you can’t have flowers, you might as well have color. Good design stands out in every season. Get a good designer (that’s us) and a good design that offers structure to show off winter and all its wonder and beauty. Oh, don’t forget to invite the birds. Plant conifers, shrubs with winter berries, and ornamental trees — add a birdfeeder and they will come.

Still Looking For Fall Chores To Do?

Lawn Patching

It is too late to see patches of dear or damaged grass, but you an use pieces of sod to repair lawn areas. The sod grows quickly in cool weather and knits together with existing turf. WATER WATER WATER – Keep the sod moist for about 3-weeks until established or winter sets in.

Spring-Flowering Bulbs

Plant spring-flowering bulbs now and up until you can’t get the shovel in the ground anymore. Root growth occurs until soil temps dip below 40 degrees.

Mulching

Use shredded and mulched leaves into the turf. Mowing over the leaves will chop them finely, and those pieces will filter into the turf. Mulching leaves into the lawn will not harm the grass and will improve the soil.

For The Birds

Leave the seed heads on coneflowers and black-eyed Susans for the birds (and winter interest).

Winter Interest

Leave ornamental grasses to flow with the wind this winter. Cut them back in the spring instead. Plant cool-looking shrubs and trees with branching structures that add to the winter beauty of your front or back yard.

Water Water Water

Especially this fall, it is very dry out there. Continue to water any new plantings right up until the ground is frozen. Water evergreens (even established ones) as needed throughout the fall until the ground freezes Evergreens lose moisture through their needles and leaves (yes, some evergreens have leaves) all during the winter; so they need lots of moisture going into the winter season.

Start a Compost Pile

Before you know it, you will have black gold in to spread over your beds and expensive perennials.

Call Us

If all of this is a bit too much for you to mentally and physically tackle, just give Ganshert’s a call (274.2443), and we will do the whole works for you. Or if you have the time and run out of things to do in preparing your yard and plantings for winter, give us a call; we’ll find more for you to do — you can always paint the shed and put in a dog run.