While the garden is at its most colorful during the summer season, it can be just as beautiful when the temps are freezing, and the surroundings are blanketed by snow!

Winter is a terrific time to enjoy the garden. And you’d be surprised how easy it is to transform your outdoor space into a winter wonderland with fabulous design ideas. Using available garden tools and supplies, you can enjoy gardening even during the cold months!

6 Ways to Transform the Garden During Winter

Cold weather can affect the growth of your plants so it is important to protect your garden during the winter. But not because it’s cold outside, you can’t do gardening at all. Just remember our winter gardening checklist and you can start transforming your garden into a fabulous one during this season!

Highlight Bare, Beautiful Tree Branches:

Their branches lay bare when trees and shrubs lay dormant in the winter. Create a great structure in your winter garden by highlighting the skeletal trees and shrubs. Use the bare branches to frame the house or the garden. Give form to bare branches by doing a little pruning using telescopic pruning shears.

It will be easy to prune trees and shrubs during the winter season because you can see the basic skeletal form of the tree. Also, the plants are dormant, so that they will recover quickly from pruning.

Trim Hedges as a Winter Backdrop

Hedges add structure to the garden, especially in winter when the entire outdoor space is blanketed by snow. Your garden should never be lacking in evergreens and shrubs.

In early fall, trim the hedges neatly to highlight the clean lines. Use extendable hedge shears to help you with this gardening task. When the winter season sets in, the garden will look alive with the neat, bright green borders.

Add Focal Points

Man-made structures will play a central role in elevating the garden’s look during the winter when most plants lay bare and dormant. These structures also take the eyes away from the bare soil. To decorate the plant beds and pathways, you can use different hardscaping materials like big rocks, small pebbles, decorative stones, etc. You can add arbors, decorative trellises, pergolas, benches, swinging benches, etc.

Want to entertain friends? Add a BBQ or fire pit in the garden. You can also create a cozy seating area in the garden to enjoy the surroundings during the winter.

Add Outdoor Ornaments to Create Interest

From ornamental grasses to garden lanterns, outdoor lights, birdhouses, bird baths, bee houses, and water features, these ornaments add warmth to a winter garden while being helpful to garden critters. For example, water features, bird feeders, and birdhouses are helpful for small birds seeking warmth and shelter.

Water features create a relaxing ambiance to the garden while also attracting pollinators. Adding ornamental grasses add a pop of color to your outdoor space, bringing some warmth to dark winter nights. The same goes for the lanterns; these will add a beautiful soft glow to your outdoor space at night.

Grow Winter Plants

Contrary to popular notion, there are many flowering plants that bloom during the winter. Fill your garden with any of these winter-blooming plants for a nice pop of color:

Colorful winter flowers planted en masse make the most visual impact on a dull winter. We suggest planting flowering plants alongside evergreens so your garden will look just as beautiful in the winter as in the spring and summer.

Plant for Wildlife

Winter months are hard on the local wildlife; every critter seeks food and shelter when the trees and shrubs lay dormant. Help your little friends find shelter by planting winter plants that produce berries and seeds. Invest in feeders and birdbaths and fill these with water and seeds. You can also attract pollinators by tossing leftover fruits, grains, and bread crusts for them to eat. Make this activity fun by asking family members to help you refill the bird feeders or bird baths.

Preparing Your Garden For The Winter With ECOgardener

A thriving garden will be a bright spot during winter’s dark, cold days. So go ahead and prepare your garden for the winter season. Experiment with different plant varieties and garden decors so that when the cold months roll in, you can enjoy your garden even more!

Don’t forget to invest in quality gardening tools to keep your winter garden looking its absolute best.