If you’ve been thinking about creating a new planting area in your garden, winter is the perfect opportunity to plan, plot and initiate that project. Wintertime is a sort of limbo; a window between the florid metamorphosis of autumn and the tumultuous rebirth of the spring garden. The bare bones of winter allow us a blank page on which to envision our ideas.
If you have been thinking of adding a new bed or border, there is little doubt that you have spent time thinking about what it is you want that area of the garden to be. Thinking, hoping, dreaming and wishing are all important aspects of gardening but they seldom come to anything without putting them down on paper. Planning is the most important step to take if you really want to bring your ideas to life.
Make a list of the plants that you have in mind for this area of the garden. Draw out a simple plan that includes all the plants as well as any ornamental features you have been thinking about. Try playing with a few different outlines to see what shape would fit comfortably within the garden that is already in place. Make the outline of individual plants you want to add using a scale that shows each mature plant at its most realistic size.
A planting border with all year interest will contain a mix of trees, shrubs, perennials, groundcovers and vines. To prepare the bed for planting, keep in mind some basic rules as you create your border. Begin by amending the soil with organic matter such as garden compost and well rotted manure. Rake the area smooth and then set in any large rocks, boulders or stepping stones. Avoid compacting the soil as much as possible.
Use an organic product such as gypsum to mark out each area to be planted. You can use the gypsum to divide the area into sections or to mark the spot where you will be adding specific plants. Later, when it’s safe to plant and you have collected all of the plants you will be adding to the border, start by positioning them in the bed while they are still in their nursery containers. You can move them as many times as necessary to get the layout that pleases you most.
Think of adding needled evergreen trees and shrubs that look good in every season and deciduous, flowering shrubs with strong architectural branching for an attractive winter silhouette. Picture a long, gently curving area within the border for perennial color. Two examples for this elongated sweep would be an assortment of mixed daylilies or a group planting of one long blooming variety of daylily such as the golden yellow Hemerocallis ‘Happy Returns’.
Stagger the plants in a well spaced natural zigzag pattern rather than in one continuous row. Think of daisies in a meadow or grasses on the prairie. In the spaces behind the daylilies, add an additional, contrasting zigzag of fall flowering Japanese anemones. As you plant, keep in mind that when the daylilies have finished flowering, the remaining foliage will frame the taller, later blooming anemones.
Finish the bed by filling all the spaces between these plantings with an assortment of favorite spring blooming bulbs. Plant as many as you can fit along the entire length of the sweep. In spring, the daffodils will be the first to bloom, nodding their Easter bonnet blossoms on long, straight stalks. As the daffs fade, the emerging daylily foliage will hide the daffodil stems which need to die back naturally.
Play with this idea, planting any combination of your favorite spring, summer and fall flowering plants. Try pastel tulips, bleeding heart and chrysanthemums. How about the blue and white striped, Crocus vernus ‘Pickwick,’ a large pink peony and a triangular group of Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’. By adding a backdrop of shiny, evergreen holly with bright red berries or the horizontal branching silhouette of ‘Shasta’ viburnum you can create a four season garden in one fell swoop.
Once everything is laid out as you like, walk away from the planting area. Now, put your imagination into high gear. When you approach the garden again, do so as if it is already established and in full bloom. Visualize. Take the time to try different approaches to the garden layout and don’t hesitate to make changes that might add a heightened degree of interest. As much as planting, weeding and digging; envisioning the garden in seasons to come is a fundamental skill that every gardener needs to cultivate.
Robb Rosser is a WSU-certified master gardener. Reach him at Write2Robb@aol.com
