End of the Year at Carla’s

Today we’re in Malvern, Pennsylvania, in frequent-GPOD-contributor Carla Zambelli Mudtry’s beautiful garden. If you don’t remember her garden, you can see her woodland garden here and see how it looks in spring here.

But today she’s looking at the garden in winter.

Well, here we are at the end of 2020. What a crazy year it has been! I thought I would show you a little of my garden in winter. Winter is about the architecture and structure of the garden and less about the blooms of the three other seasons. However, it is no less beautiful. Best wishes for a peaceful 2021 to all of the gardeners out there!

A beautiful scene of snow on the garden, with a statue of Buddha serenely seated in the middle.

Sometimes fall color lingers into early winter, as with this viburnum, still blushing rosy red.

A bundle of cut evergreen branches and berries makes a long-lasting winter display.

Planters filled with evergreens and branches look all the better with a light dusting of snow.

A dwarf Alberta spruce (Picea glauca ‘Conica’ Zones 3–6) in a container looks particularly festive wearing a colorful ribbon and a dusting of snow. Remember that plants growing in containers will have their roots exposed to much colder temperatures to those growing in the ground, so choose hardier varieties or move the containers into a sheltered spot for the winter.

Cinnamon fern (Osmundastrum cinnamomeum, Zones 3–9) is a wonderful native fern. These are the fertile fronds that produce the spores for the next generation of ferns, and they persist throughout winter, giving great structure to a shade garden in the off-season.

Hydrangea flower heads also hang on for a long time, looking perfect with snow resting on them.

Enjoying a northern garden during the winter is all about the details, like the beautiful latticework this shrub makes against the white snow behind it.

A Cooper’s hawk paid a visit to the garden, looking for a winter snack.

Another bird of prey in the garden sits more still.

Have a garden you’d like to share?

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