Winterthur Garden Blog

Winter is neck in neck with autumn as one of my favorite seasons. Spring’s beauty is unrivaled hands down but in the gardening world, is fraught with a hefty to do list and although summer’s long days are invigorating the heat and humidity dampen my enthusiasm. Fall is in a league of its own—cooling temperatures, return of rainfall (this year a little too much) and a symphony of color peaking at the same time. I enjoy and anticipate the time when I can put the garden to bed—especially after a tough gardening year. Autumn though comes with a “beat the clock” mentality; do this before the first frost; do that before the leaves drop; do the other thing before the ground freezes. Then comes winter…ahhhh.

Most people do not like winter—especially gardeners; but not this one. First off, I love the cold. I like to play a game with Mother Nature—her cold temperatures vs. smart layering of clothing. Sorry Mother Nature but wool, fleece and down win! Winter provides for me what most who garden relish; time for quiet contemplation. It makes one have to search for beauty and savor it—the long, narrow shadows in a forest, silhouettes of plants, still, sunny days, the emergence of flowers that brave the cold temperatures, and the ever so slight increments in daylight. For those who have experienced it there is nothing like walking through a woodland filled with beech and seeing the lowering sun shine through the persistent, tawny colored leaves. And let us not forget the wonderful muffled silence of a heavy snowfall.

Winter is filled with all of the structure and beauty of a garden without the distraction of color or the cloak of leaves. It allows us to see the bones of a garden—as if we were viewing a picture in black and white—to see its composition and what makes it good or what it might need to make it better. For most plants it is a perfect time for corrective pruning since the framework can be easily viewed and without haste. It is a time when we allow our brains instead of our bodies do the work; browsing plant catalogs, attending lectures, reading gardening books for more than 15 minutes at a time—all this without a nagging, never ending chore list hanging over our heads (except for the one that we create for ourselves for the springtime).

For many the winter is far too long but for me it goes by much too quickly, especially at Winterthur where the garden comes alive so early in the winter. For those who need that first shot of “spring” a few snowdrops have popped throughout the garden (I won’t tell you where so you’ll have hunt for them) and the winter jasmine had already started is sporadic flowering. I however am going to divert my eyes to these “signs of spring” and bask in the quiet off season.