To me the garden in winter is fraught with deliciously poetic angst. That all-encompassing deep freeze, wiping out colour, lushness, life, really, brutally exposes the bald truth about one’s gardening ambitions which then need to be wrestled with through many a dark and unfruitful day. But, with the freedom of not being able to do much about anything when you’re up to your knees in snow and ice, there comes the license to sit back (indoors) and indulge in some truly creative pondering. “That dreadfully dark and boring corner over there,” you think, “might be easily transformed into a shell-lined grotto. What a sight to see next winter complete with brightly painted mermaid sculpture peeping out from the snow!” Sigh. Well, you get the idea.

But where to start? Here’s a quick kickstarter guide to changing up your garden so that next winter you’ll be enjoying your own unique and eye-catching winterscape.

My friend’s garden in Naramata, B.C., with its stunning view of the setting sun.

The first step in making changes in your garden so that it looks great year round, not just during the growing seasons, is to take full advantage of this year’s winter to assess the situation. Start with these five inspirations.

5 ways you’ll want to improve your winter garden

1. BLOCK A BAD VIEW: Bad views are bad all year long but when winter strips away everything that might serve as a diversion (a colourful bed of flowers, a blooming fruit tree), then that bad view can stick out like a really sore thumb.

2. ADD A NECESSARY PATHWAY: Adding a new, meandering path in the garden is always fun. But snow gives you the clearest indication of where a path really needs to go. All those foot prints pressing a slushy path from Point A to Point B can’t be ignored. In landscapers’ parlance they are called desire lines – the garden routes that you and yours take all the time when you’re doing mundane things like taking out the garbage. They can’t be ignored but they can be beautiful.

A dark wire sculpture of a bird is discreet in spring, dramatic when covered in snow or frosted with ice in winter.

3. ADD SOME EYE-CATCHING INTEREST: It’s in winter that those dark, uninteresting spaces in a garden loom largest. This is your opportunity to install something fun, quirky, elegant, whatever, that will complement your garden in summer and elevate it in winter.

4. HELP THE LOCAL WILDLIFE: If there’s a spot in your garden that looks unloved in winter, why not bring some attention to it while lending a helping hand to the other residents of the property at the same time. Birds need shelter, insects need overwintering options. Solo bees need places to stay; you can help these hive-nots.

5. STOP BATTLING ICE AND SNOW REMOVAL: This winter, take notes. Where is that plow pushing excess snow? Where is that plant-killing salt de-icer really going? Maybe a protective fence is needed to keep dirty snow out. Maybe your driveway could use a wide, flat edging of brick that keeps salt from spreading onto the lawn.

Now that you’ve identified the areas that need work, the fun begins.

• There’s no reason a garden shed can’t look really nice. Ok, at least a little less of an eye sore. Add a wall-covering trellis that will look like white lace during a snowy winter. Add a faux window and a window box filled with evergreen boughs.
• Paths, both the decorative kind and the necessary kind (see Desire Lines, above), can be accented with edging, given a textural surface, or highlighted with an arch. Think of each path in your garden as an opportunity to add a dramatic, eye-catching line to an otherwise blank carpet of snow
• Fences and walls covered in climbing vines look marvellous in summer, of course. Choose vining plants that will deliver terrific interest in winter, too. Climbing hydrangeas, for instance, often have a lovely shaggy bark that intensifies the texture of all those twining branches.

Fast fixes for a winter garden with pizzazz

ARCHES, TRELLISES AND PERGOLAS

• Perforated and latticed structures offer a wonderful sense of mystery to a garden. You can see a hint of what’s behind it but you’re beckoned to go to what lies beyond. They do the same thing in winter but add an extra helping of volume when the flower beds are empty and shrubs and trees are leafless.
• They work wonderfully for blocking a bad view, too, of course. If you’ve got an enormous apartment building just beyond your back garden that disappears from sight when all your trees are in leaf during the summer, a pergola or arch can effectively block that bad view in winter, as you sit gazing out of your window. It’s all a matter of situating it closer to the window so that the structure acts as a narrowing frame that guides your eye to a part of the garden, not up to that eyesore.

SCULPTURE

• I put bird houses in this category because a brilliantly designed bird house is indeed a work of art.

Two bird houses I discovered in private gardens in Ontario.

• Driftwood is the found art of the garden world. They evoke beachy-ness in the summer and wildness in winter. The leftover stump after you’ve had to take down a tree can be equally wild and sculptural. Whether it’s used to showcase a container planting or left on its own to sprout its own collection of moss and mushrooms, a stump can act as a dramatic punctuation point in the winter garden. (More on Starting A Stumpery in an upcoming post. Stay tuned!)

LARGE CONTAINERS

• When you arrange a grouping of large containers (the kind that are so large that you have no intention of moving them ever again once they’re in place), keep in mind what they’re going to look like in winter. Fill them up with lengths of cut branches. String some fairy lights through the branches for extra wonderment.

OUTDOOR FURNITURE

I admit that most of the gardeners I know store away their patio furniture come fall and bring them all out again in the spring. But heavy, weather-proof outdoor furnishings can add interest to the winter garden. Try:

• Furniture made from deliberately rustic materials like logs or textured concrete.
• Furniture in a bright colour. I have friends who invested in very heavy plastic Adirondack chairs that are built to withstand the rigours of winter. They are bright red. They look fantastic in winter, brightening up the snow covered view.
• Furniture that doesn’t look like furniture. Sculptural furniture that is as much art as seating, such as giant chaises longues that look like leaves, will take you through the entire year with great style.

And now for some extra fun ideas that will take your winter garden over the top.

Romancing the winter garden

These solar powered bronze lights from Wayfair light up a fence with intricate patterns. Can you imagine how magical this would look on a snowy night?

SEXY LIGHTING

Yes, a string of fairy lights is always a good thing. But there are other options that can really up the romance of the winter garden.

• Subdued downlighting: Lighting up a garden at night with a few well placed, downward focused spotlights is not a new thing. For a twist to this classic garden look, try light bulbs that give off a cool blue cast and turn down the intensity of the light. This creates a look that’s less ‘spotlight’ and much more ‘moonlight’.
• Patterned lighting: Lanterns with a patterned shade (like the ones in the photo above) look wonderful all year long but really come into their own when the shards of light play on a blanket of snow.

DANCING TREES

• When you buy a deciduous tree, make sure the tree will look wonderful without its leaves as well. Japanese Maples are famous for their sinuous branches and elegant, arching silhouettes in winter.
• Evergreens are the heroes of the winter garden, of course. When you want a little bit more, look for a Weeping Conifer that speaks to you of whimsy or world weariness – whichever pulls your heartstrings more.

Finally, set the scene for a faster spring

A mound of sedum in early spring.

Making room for lots of plants that are early spring sprouters – from snow bells to hellebores – is a no-brainer for impatient people like me. The trick, I think, is to ensure there are plenty of these early risers in direct line of sight from indoors and along the pathways you take every day as you hurry from door to car. Winter can be wonderful but spring can’t ever come soon enough.

For inspirations on placing spring flowers in eye-catching ways, see 6 Out Of The Box Fall Bulb Planting Ideas