A couple years back, the pop psychology press began to pick up on a condition that became known as “Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).” Although the malady has been given some credence by the mainstream medical community, most of us know it as the familiar old winter blues. Or maybe the winter “browns” would be a more accurate term.
How about you? Was your foliage brown this winter, your flowers withered, your skies gray – just hanging on until spring for dear life? Or are you one of the neighborhood residents who have discovered that some of the most beautiful (and insect-free) days in our community come during those supposedly non-garden months?
You know them – the neighbors who are perennial inhabitants of Eden. This is the time of year to spy on them and formulate a game plan to beat the blues next winter.
How do they do it?
“We’ve really enjoyed sitting out on our deck during some of those 70-plus days this winter,” says Chris Brumley, a landscaper who does work throughout our neighborhood.
“This is the time of year to neatly mulch your flower beds, and go with container plants and some winter annuals.”
Brumley walks up to a towering cast-stone pot by the front door of a house.
“Here’s a good example. We used red camellias surrounded at the base by variegated ivy, cyclamen and dianthus. In the flower bed, we went with kale, pansies, snapdragons – and an assortment of tulips that will bloom in March.”
Dwarf Burford hollies provide a backdrop to the color.
You, too, can muscle in on what most professional, and some hobby, gardeners know: Your garden can be an oasis during each season if you plan properly.
There are a myriad of creative approaches to gardening success in winter and early spring, but here’s a six-prong attack that’s a good place to start (for details, see sidebar).
- Bulbs – Consider color, variety and blooming seasons.
- Early budding trees – Check out saucer magnolias and pears.
- Container plants – How about small evergreens for year-round use? And winter flowers, pansies and camellias, are favorites.
- Bed preparation – Nix dead foliage, and don’t forget to mulch.
- Evergreens – Hollies and yaupons give some relief from bare limbs. Possum hollies have great berries in cold weather.
- Ground cover – Don’t settle for brown.
Just try to tell winter from spring at Barbara and Sterling Williams’ home. The front garden has a path of Pennsylvania Lilac stepping stones surrounded by mondo grass and a curving bed of winter annuals. Here, evergreen foliage joins with sentiment – Brumley says the magnolia was a gift from the homeowner’s father, and she takes it with her wherever she lives.
A perimeter of magnolias in the back garden carry the theme onward by the dozens, completely surrounding the small garden with its statuary, fountain and winding beds.
Brumley’s last stop is a house where bulbs are king. Swirls of yellow daffodils are taking center stage even as various tulips begin to push their stems up into the early spring sunshine.
So that’s the ticket – the B’s. Baskets of pansies. Banks of evergreens. Bulbs. And birds.
“Don’t forget to feed the birds in winter,” says Brumley, who knows that birds and gardens are natural companions, both in aesthetic and practical value.
Lastly, take a walk as often as possible – even a short one will infuse your psyche with some fresh air and daylight. Too many of us take winter as a signal to hibernate, and our energy level naturally plummets.
As you prepare to walk around your block, tuck a small notebook and pen in your pocket. Don’t hesitate to steal the best ideas from those sly neighbors you’ve observed boldly reading the newspaper on their porch in recent months – greenery and blooms all around, looking for all the world like “Winter, what winter?”
And don’t forget one of the area’s best sources of gardening inspiration – The Dallas Arboretum. A walk through the Arboretum’s imaginative and well-tended grounds will be a source of inspiration.
Then, come next October or November, you’ll be ready too. Put your plan into action, and you can become an object lesson in offseason cheer – strolling by your pots and window boxes full of pansies, sitting under your yaupon holly.
SAD? Not you. Let the pop psychologists write about someone else.
