For many, the garden retreats in winter. But with thoughtful design, it can become a serene and beautiful place in the quieter, colder months.
“What if winter becomes your garden’s most magical season?”
Why Design Your Garden Specifically for Winter?
Even if you cannot get out into your garden in the winter, it’s important to create a view worth looking at from your window all year round. Working with the Scottish climate can be challenging but you can still create authentic, resilient beauty in your outdoor space.
Winter time helps you to see the bare ‘bones’ of your garden with beautiful structures, and you can enjoy a different, more peaceful kind of garden experience even if it’s only from your window!
The 5 Pillars of Winter Garden Design
1. Structure & Shape
Evergreen shrubs and perennials can be used to give year round structure and colour to your garden. Repeat planting them will provide a sense of continuity and rhythm to your borders.
Seedheads provide interest and structure in the garden during the winter. They are also a source of food for birds and other garden wildlife when temperatures drop. So add plants to your borders with interesting seedheads keeping them on the plant over winter and then chop them down in the spring
Garden features such as arbours and pergolas even without planting on them can create focal points and frame winter views in your garden.
2. Texture & Foliage
Plant tall ornamental grasses in your borders and leave the flowering stems over winter to give depth and texture to your space. They also add a ghostly feel to the garden when they have been frosted. Calamagrostis × acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’ is a good choice for a sunny or partially shady spot in your garden.
Plants with different types of evergreen leaves will also add texture to your garden. Bergenia have smooth leathery leaves. Evergreen ferns have finely cut foliage which will look beautiful with frost on.
Choose trees or shrubs with interesting bark. For example, Himalayan birch trees have a beautiful white bark which peels. Euonymus alatus, known as the winged spindle, is a shrub or small tree with attractively winged bark as well as beautiful autumn colour.
3. Colour Pops
> Stems and bark: Choose plants with colourful stems, such as certain dogwoods or willow and evergreen leaves such as heuchera.
> Winter berries: Select shrubs with colourful berries.
> Surprising winter flowers: Yes some plants do flower in winter! We would recommend hellebores as our top flowering plant and they are also a great nectar source for early pollinating insects. Hamamelis or Witch Hazel is also a beautiful with scented flowers in hot colours of red, orange and yellow.
4. Movement & Sound
Ornamental grasses give movement and sound to your garden as they rustle in the wind. Stipa tenuissima (Mexican Feather Grass) is a drought-tolerant and very popular grass that works well in borders and gravel gardens, providing movement even in winter.
Choose sculptural seedheads on tall architectural plants to add movement to your borders. For example, Phlomis russeliana or Turkish Sage is a hardy plant for a sunny border and features hooded yellow flowers on upright stems in summer with seed heads in winter which look magical when dusted with frost.
5. Outdoor Lighting & Heating
Strategic garden lighting highlights forms at dusk and at night. Hang string lights, festoon lights, or pendant lights from a pergola, trees, or poles to create a warm, ambient glow.
Add a chiminea or fire pit to create a warm and inviting gathering space for the winter time.
Practical Design Tips for Winter Impact
> Placement: Position plants with winter interest close to your windows where you’ll see them daily from your home.
> Think in Silhouettes: How will plants look backlit by low winter sun when the days are short?
> Embrace the Elements: Use winter weather conditions such as frost and snow as design partners to highlight textures in your garden.
> Plan for Care: Ensure access in your garden for easy essential maintenance over the winter without damaging dormant plants.
How Gerbera Designs Masters Winter Interest
We design with winter as a key season for your borders, and not as an afterthought, ensuring paths, walls, and structures complement your plants for winter interest in your garden, and selecting proven, resilient hardy plant varieties which will tolerate our winters in North East Scotland.
Ready for a Garden That Shines in the Scottish Winter?
We can help you make sure that winter is one of the most magical seasons in your garden. Book a consultation or enquire about garden and planting design with Gerbera Designs to begin your winter-to-wonderful journey.
