Traditional
Winter Garden
Few people think about planning their garden for year-round interest. Most of us just think about how our flowers will look and smell in the spring, summer and autumn. But when winter comes, those lovely flowers will have gone, and all that remains is bare earth and a few tired stems. So how do you create a garden that looks really good all year round?
The first rule with a winter garden is good structure. The garden must have shape and design to provide interest through the winter months. In traditional gardens, this kind of structure is provided by walls, paths and hedges. In more contemporary gardens, decking and well-designed planting will often produce the same effect.
Get more inspiration from the Royal Horticultural Society Gardens, Wisley.
Get more inspiration from the Royal Horticultural Society Gardens, Wisley.
Get the structure right
Hedging is one of the easiest ways to create geometric areas or 'rooms' in your garden. The best plants are yew and box, which produce fine dense evergreen hedges, giving year-round colour and shape. Yew is not as slow-growing as you may think: if well watered in, it will grow at least one foot a year. Plant about a foot apart in the autumn. Plants cost about £1.75 each from Buckingham Nurseries. Box hedging makes marvellous low-growing hedges that neatly define the edges of borders. Box hedges are particularly good in a geometric design, clarifying the shape of the garden. The best variety is the small-leaved Buxus 'sempervirens' - from £1.35 each from Buckingham Nurseries.Our Programmes
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