Peter Dowdall: Winter is an ideal time add the wow factor to gardens
Every winter, without really setting out to, I notice the same thing. The garden looks bigger. Not better in the usual sense, not more colourful or more impressive, but calmer, more open. The space feels less busy, and my gaze isn’t pulled in ten different directions. Winter strips the garden back. Once the growth slows and the leaves fall, what you’re left with isn’t emptiness, but structure. Hedges, walls, trees, paths, levels, boundaries. The bones of the garden are suddenly visible, and when they’re clear, the space naturally feels more relaxed.In summer, our gardens are generous to the point of being unruly. Growth is fast, plants push outward, nearly in front of our eyes, borders bloom, and climbers scramble for height. Winter removes the distraction. Without the noise of foliage and flowers, you see the garden as it really is.Hedges become lines rather than backdrops; you can see their height properly, their thickness, how they work in the space. Some do exactly what they’re meant to do, sheltering the garden from wind and enclosing it, but others may feel wrong, too big, cutting the space in half or blocking light unnecessarily. It’s a time to look at the “hard” elements in your garden too. Stone and brick aremuch more obvious and maybe even harsh when they’re not softened by growth. Sometimes winter allows us to see how bare or exposed a boundary really is. Fences that disappear behind planting in summer are naked for all to see their age and state of disrepair inwinter. Perhaps their time is up, and the planting in front of or behind has negated their need, or perhaps they need to be replaced.Trees, particularly deciduous ones, show their shape and beauty most clearly at this time of year, with no leaves to hide behind. In smaller gardens, especially, winter is often when people realise just how dominant a poorly placed tree can be, or how valuable a well-placed one is in giving height and proportion without crowding the space.And yet, for all that, winter gardens are not empty places. There are always a few quiet stars taking the limelight.Hellebores are doing a lot of work at this time of year. They sit low and steady, flowering without fuss. Snowdrops appear almost as punctuation marks, defining edges and paths rather than filling space. They don’t fill the garden, but they catch your eye, and they lift it.There are other beauties, too. The scent of viburnum on a cold, still morning. Witch hazels like this bring much beauty to the winter garden without overpowering a space, says Peter Dowdall. File pictureWitch hazel catches weak winter light with its strange, spidery flowers. Hazel catkins mare oving gently in the breeze, adding softness without clutter. These aren’t showstoppers, but they do bring life and beauty to the winter garden.Overpowering the garden with winter colour isn’t the right thing to do; a few well-placed jewels will allow the structure to remain visible, and at the same time, bring some bling.In suburban gardens, you might want to open out into the wider landscape, or you may want to soften or obscure it, or perhaps just catch glimpses of it here and there. In winter, with the leaves gone, what lies beyond your own boundaries suddenly comes into view. A mature tree in a neighbouring garden, a distant hedgerow, a stretch of open sky, sometimes even rooftops or chimneys that were hidden all summer.These borrowed views can make a garden feel larger without adding a single plant. They extend the space visually, giving it depth rather than clutter. In summer, they’re often screened by growth.If we pay attention during winter, then many questions about our gardens can be answered. If we notice things like where water sits after heavy rain, where wind cuts through, which corners stay cold and damp, and which feel surprisingly sheltered, then this can often explain why certain plants thrive, and others struggle.I always think of winter as a time for understanding rather than action. There’s very little pressure to do anything. The garden isn’t demanding attention, thankfully, as the recent weather wouldn’t encourage us out into it.If your garden feels bigger now, then that is probably a good thing. It usually means the structure is working, the boundaries are doing their job, and the proportions make sense. If, on the other hand, it feels exposed or not right, that can point to where the bones need to be redesigned.Very soon, everything will burst forth from the magic that we call soil once more. Growth will return, borders will fill, and the garden will feel smaller, busier, louder with lots of hustle and bustle, but now, in winter, we have a brief, valuable window to see what’s really working.Got a gardening question for Peter Dowdall? Email gardenquestions@examiner.ie
