Comments on: Winterscape, Not Winter Garden

By: Winter Garden Design — Cold Climate Gardening

Winter Garden Design — Cold Climate Gardening — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 01:28:31 +0000

[...] get yourself a copy of Prairie Winterscape: Creative Gardening for the Forgotten Season. I reviewed Prairie Winterscapes here. It may be too late to design your garden for this winter, but it’s the perfect time to plan [...]

By: Daryl

Daryl — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 18:47:29 +0000

I live in the region that this book was written for. It certainly helped change my perspective of gardening from something that was reserved for the warm weather to something that’s a year-long activity, even when things don’t grow. I intend to fill my garden with many of the plants suggested for their qualities in winter.

By: Gloria

Gloria — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 19:54:18 +0000

Sounds like an interesting take on winter in northern gardens.I will check it out. I am with Annie on this.Here in Chicago snow cover has been intermittent at best these last years.
A garden that is more than lawn probably already has many of these elements.Redtwig dogwood with evergreen boughs and berries is quickly becoming a cliche used every winter, everywhere. New ideas are WELCOME.

By: Annie in Austin

Annie in Austin — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 00:32:28 +0000

Call me nuts, but this is exactly the stuff I did in Illinois – we put a low, dark brown wooden rail fence around the 50-foot square front garden, giving it a frame all year long; we used lots of smaller/dwarf evergreens [Birdsnest spruce, arborvitae, small pines, Chamaecyparus, etc., left ornamental grasses, seed heads and pods of prairie plants in place, and had some large sandstone rocks adorned with evergreen creeping phlox, thymes, etc.. and I even carried the snow around to bare spots. Because this was a front garden, I could walk on the sidewalk and not mess it up with footprints!

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

By: Kathy Purdy

Kathy Purdy — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 00:22:42 +0000

Unfortunately the book went back to the library today, so I can no longer quote directly. But, as I remember, it was in a chapter about things you could do when you had cabin fever. Not had to do, just could do. And it sounded more in the spirit of what tardis said up above: you put a shovelful here or there to pamper a favorite plant, not relocate all the snow off the driveway onto all your garden beds. I thought it was worth considering under certain circumstances, such as when you get a winter with very little snow. In that case, you might very well pile it up where it would do the most good, especially if you thought you might not get any more snow. I just don't want anyone getting the wrong impression about this book. The authors did not at all sound like make-work gardeners, but like they walked the walk and were qualified to talk the talk.

By: The County Clerk

The County Clerk — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 21:33:25 +0000

Snow harvesting?????????

What kind of INSANE idea is this? Move the snow from the driveway to the garden?

(I like the IDEA of the book though.)

By: Tracy

Tracy — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 17:41:09 +0000

Kathy – Thanks for your review of this book (and thanks to Tardis for bringing it to your attention). Living in Minnesota, I am definitely a scoffer at “the winter garden.” Around here, that’s always seemed to be an oxymoron. The closest we usually get is making sure to plant an evergreen within easy reach of an electrical outlet so that there’s something to hang the Christmas lights on. I’ll definitely have to take a look at The Prairie Winterscape.

By: tardis

tardis — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 16:15:33 +0000

Don – IMHO only crazy people cart snow any distance from the driveway to the garden. The rest of us just heave it as far as we can.

Besides, walking around the garden tracks up the pristine snow and ruins the elegant look

That said, I sometimes do move snow in the spring from the shade to garden beds or tree root zones where the snow has already melted.

By: tardis

tardis — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 16:02:35 +0000

You’re welcome

tardis

By: Don

Don — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 15:58:47 +0000

I’ve always considered myself to be a fairly positive, perky person, but the thought of shovelling snow off the driveway in the middle of winter and carting it out to the garden just makes me tired.