Seasonal Interest
Today in Northeastern America the sun is shining and the air is warm. I get a sense of something on the horizon and can’t help but fantasize about my garden. Are you envisioning yours?
Late winter and early spring bulbs are among the first bold colors we see after a season of grays and twigs. If you look close too you can see the tiny muted flowers of witch hazel. Spring ephemerals shine in this time before the trees leaf out and they are swallowed up by the foliage of larger plants. As spring progresses, it seems as if overnight a flush of leaves appears and the air begins to smell of new green. Trees, too tall for us to witness their profusion of flowers, give us their scent as declaration of their awakening.
As the weather warms the garden continues its staggered profusion. More trees, shrubs and herbaceous perennials add their foliage and flower to the garden tapestry. Cool season grasses which flourished and flowered in the cool temperatures of spring fall dormant in the heat of the summer, just when warm season grasses begin to wake and shine.
The summer heat is sticky with abundance as flowers make way for fruit. Fruits of many colors attract beings of all kinds. Whose plumage, fur and skin stand out from the foliage that is slowly making its way from green to vibrant reds, yellows and purples.
In late fall and winter, when the deciduous leaves have fallen and flower stems have faded, the world is graced with the poetry of woody limbs. I love to hold off cutting back perennial plants until early spring of next year. This allows me to enjoy the beauty of the seed-heads in winter whose seeds also provide a snack for hungry beings.
It might seem so far off to imagine the garden in all its seasonal stages now, when snow still sits on the sidewalk, but it is important to keep all of this in mind as you begin your designing. A vibrant garden is one that morphs throughout the year and as it changes, different beings are invited in to feast and rest.
‘Planting Design: Gardens in Time and Space’ written by Piet Oudolf and Noel Kingsbury is an amazing resource for seasonal planting design that is filled with delicious garden photos!