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Here’s how to create a winter garden anywhere

From berry pops of color to late winter bloomers

Person smiling while gardening outside in the cold against a yellow background. Credit: Reviewed / Getty Images / AleksandarNakic

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Gray skies colliding with chilly temps and sleety conditions can lead to winter doldrums. But, when the gaze out your window to see a winter garden and find cheerful blooms and bright red berries popping against a white carpet of snow, you’ll instantly feel happier.

Planting your own winter garden can add texture and detail to an otherwise dull outdoor season. Don't be afraid to try, even if you're a beginner!

First, how do you create a winter garden?

Person kneeling down outdoors to tend to plants.
Credit: Getty Images / freemixer

Contrary to popular belief, plants and flowers can be cultivated during the winter.

Justin Hancock, a horticulturist at Costa Farms, says, “It’s all in the planning.” In most areas, a winter garden won’t be as lush and colorful as the spring and summer ones, but that doesn’t translate to boring. This just means plant choice and placement become extra important to success.

The planning stage is time to zone in on what you want. The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone was created to define a certain range of climatic conditions that gardeners follow to determine which plants will most likely thrive at that location.

The U.S. is broken into 11 zones, each 10°F warmer (or colder) in an average winter than the adjacent zone. Find your zone, then start looking at which plants survive and thrive in that climate.

In the Deep South, your winter garden may be filled with colorful, cool-season annuals like pansies, violas, sweet alyssum, and snapdragon, and winter-flowering shrubs like camellia. In the cold North, it’s more likely to rely on color and texture from bark, evergreens, and plants with colorful berries.

Where to plant your garden

Once you’ve decided what to grow, the decision then turns to where. Make your decision before the first frost (tender roots will be weak from a fresh planting and unable to survive the cold right away), and before the ground freezes.

Since most of us spend more time inside during the winter months, Hancock suggests focusing your winter efforts on one particular bed or border that has good visibility out a window, or integrate plants with abundant winter color or texture throughout your landscape.

Hancock says, “Think about how and where you spend your time, what windows you look out the most, and what the view is from your driveway and front door.”

What to plant in a winter garden

Person smiling while planting flowers outdoors.
Credit: Getty Images / AleksandarNakic

Nothing is better than seeing vibrant greenery or lush berries during a season that is usually with filled brown grass.

As beauty is in the eye of the beholder (or the gardener, in this case), Hancock believes it’s helpful to begin by identifying the plant qualities that are important to you for your winter garden.

Do you want a bright color, like the crimson berries from a holly bush? Or perhaps the fuzzy texture of a pussy willow?

“Keep those traits in mind as you come up with a list of plants to incorporate into your yard,” Hancock says. Also, consider how you’ll be viewing them. “A plant like the red-twig dogwood is highly visible from across the landscape, but you might want to put plants with more subtle texture closer to pathways you use or to windows you look out from.”

Lastly, accomplish your vision with plants that will grow in the zone where you live.

Hancock says, “When I lived in Minnesota, the types of plants I’d look to for a beautiful winter garden included red-twig dogwood, winterberry, sculptural evergreens (such as pinus strobus ‘Pendula,’ pinus strobus ‘Blue Shag,’ Abies concolor ‘Blue Cloak,’ and Tsuga canadensis ‘Moon Frost’), ornamental grasses, and paperbark birch. Here in Oregon, my winter garden features some of the same, but also more colorful (and decidedly less hardy) plants like loropetalum, camellia, mahonia, violas, and witch hazel. And back in Miami, my winter garden was filled with passion flowers, lantana, Bolivian sunset gloxinia, evolvulus, and salvia.”

Cyclamen is a late-winter bloomer, with pink, white, lavender, and fuchsia blossoms that you may recognize from insideas it’s a popular house plant. But, in mild climates (zones 5 to 9), cyclamens can be used as a cheerful ground cover. In the same range of climates, cozy-looking pussy willow can be the perfect sight when the winds are chilly and you need some comfort. These cute furry catkins on long bare stalks let you know that spring is on its way.

In zones 3 to 7, snow drops pop up in late winter with bright green leaves and small white, drooping, bell-shaped flowers. Winter aconite is one of the first spring bloomers. Just when you think the dismal nature of winter is here to stay, this flower pops into sight with its cup-shaped yellow blossoms.

And in all zones, ornamental cabbage’s color pops and becomes more vivid as temperatures drop. The lush leaves add a great texture to any area of the yard, especially along walkways.

Berry-bearing trees and shrubs offer tiny but plentiful pops of color. Not only do winter whites play well with reds and oranges, your neighborhood’s hungry birds will thank you.

Winterberry is a popular choice for zones 3 to 9. This deciduous holly loses its leaves in the winter, but boasts gorgeous berry-laden branches. Other popular berry bushes include holly, firethorn, coralberry, American cranberry bush, and hackberry.

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Taking care of your garden

Person watering flowers next to dog outdoors.
Credit: Getty Images / SolStock

It's important to be observant over your garden as they grow through the harsh winter months.

Winter gardens are just as needy as summer ones, and even more so, as you fight the harsh elements while tending to your specimens.

There are plenty of online learning platforms to help you figure out what to do. The What To Do Each Month in the Garden class from Skillshare includes a helpful winter bloom guide.

Winterizing your gardening tools helps, too. Try to acquire items such as the Vermonter Glove with its merino liners for toasty cold-weather pruning.

Buy at Skillshare

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