Winter Gardening: Color (Part 5)

Color is the last winter gardening principle I will discuss. Color is usually the one thing in gardening people are passionately drawn to. We all love color and color in the winter garden is especially welcomed, although I think color is over rated.




Color can be grown in the garden or it can be placed in the garden. Either way color is always welcomed by gardeners. Blooms are not needed to provide color.

The first picture is of a Coral Bark Japanese Maple. This is Christine's tree and I have blogged about it before. This little tree has tremendous color. The stems and branches seem almost flourescent in the way the red color shines through in the winter time. I like this picture as I think the color of the maple stands out against the dark green of the deck behind the tree.



The second picture is one of a Camellia sasanqua in my "Chicken garden". Sometimes little what nots can be too much in the garden and I am not saying I am not guilty of this fauz pas, but I do try to add in the what nots tastefully. In this case the chickens are the perfect color against the tan of the vinyl siding. The chickens also contrast with the camellia quite nicely next to the dark green deck.


These are but two examples of color in the winter garden. Color is very important but it should not be the foremost consideration when designing a winter garden. I say this because truly you will not have a wide range of color. Variations of greens, browns, reds, blacks and grays are pretty much going to be your color palette. This palette is a far cry from the oranges, reds, yellows, blues, purples, lavenders, greens, browns, grays, blacks and other colors you can expect during the active growing seasons of spring, summer and fall. Therefore, pick your structure, form, and textures well and only rely on color once the other three are in place.


There is one more posting in the "Winter Gardening" series which will come within the next week or so. The last posting will give some examples of plants I find interesting in the winter garden.

Starting next Thursday the 10th, readers of the hardcopy version of the Leaf Chronicle will also be able to read and share in this blog. I am thrilled to be able to reach others and to hopefully inspire others to garden and share in the joys of gardening.


The editors will choose which post to publish and they certainly won't be able to publish them all! So you all will still have to log in here to get the daily version. Of course, there will be no comment section in the hardcopy version of the paper. I have found there are many people who NEVER pick up a hardcopy newspaper, then there are many other people who NEVER log onto a computer, so this is the best of both worlds for this blog and its blogger.


in the garden....