Plants with wintertime interest

Many people don’t consider winter a season in their gardens but there are a good number of plants that look good or interesting or attract wild life all year round.  These plants generally have wintertime berries, beautiful bark, hold their structure in the harsh winter months or have great textures.  Below are some ideas for plants that at least one if not many of these characteristics:

viburnum

crabapple tree

 
crab apple

Miscanthus

Miscanthus

red dogwood

red dogwood

amur cherry tree bark

river birch bark

dwarf blue spruce

spruce

spruce

Design Project – St. Paul

This project just finished up about a week ago. It’s a beautiful home in St. Paul with a site design concentrating on creating outdoor spaces, organic-northwoods-aesthetic, and rainwater managment.  

This backyard has two different gathering spaces; one a bluestone seat-wall set amidst pine trees and a shade garden heavy with fern, Solomon’s seal, goats beard etc.  The second gathering space is a terraced patio system surrounded by rain garden that deals with the water coming from the roof as well as the ground-plain.  We’re looking forward to seeing this space next year when the plants have begun to fill in.