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Thursday 26 February 2004

Just Talks

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Hello ^fname^,


This is Nucha Aquino from Thailand/Philippines.  
Welcome to our Small World. We are sending this 
ezine to 3000 readers today.


We publish weekdays. The schedule is roughly like this:
 > Monday - Culture Shock
 > Tuesday - Traveller's Insights
 > Wednesday - International Recipes
 > Thursday - Q&A and Miscellaneous Talks
 > Friday/Saturday - Paid Solo Ads 

Any comment is welcome. Please write to me

Good things to read and to think about... And see you again 
in April as I am leaving for Thailand in a couple of weeks
:-) 

Enjoy!

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A Landscape for All Seasons

By Carrie P. Williams



We have a privilege here in the continental U.S., though we 
frequently take it for granted. We have the luxury of a 
climate that changes dramatically season to season. It is 
like a sampling of the different environments provided on 
Earth. And yet, even the best of us can falter, and have 
wishes of living in a place where it's 72.5 degrees 
Fahrenheit year round, a place where 'freeze' is something 
the refrigerator or computer screen does. After all, in a 
climate like that, your gardens would look good all year 
long. You would have something interesting to view outside 
your kitchen window, even in January. You would not have to 
live in this barren winter wasteland that is your landscape 
now. Here in the temperate zone, nothing can look good in 
your gardens this time of year, right? 

Hey, put that phone down; you don't have to call your 
realtor just yet. Thankfully, you don't have to move so you 
can have an interesting landscape throughout the year. Many 
plants that look their best, even during the most dreary 
parts of the freezing winters here, can be found at many 
gardening centers. Whether you are looking for greenery, 
winter blooms, architectural lines, or fragrance in your 
garden, there is a plant out there that offers it's best 
show during the worst of the cold weather. All you have to 
do is look. 

To make your landscape put on a show no matter what the 
season, take a page out of a financial advisor's ledger and 
diversify, diversify, diversify. A sweeping vista of azaleas 
will look amazingly colorful in spring, but what about the 
rest of the year? The colorful vista would fade painfully 
into the background during the other eleven months, leaving 
nothing to tantalize your eyes for three long seasons. 
However, if you take out a few of those short-flowering 
azaleas and replace them with a mix of shrubs that are at 
their peak at different times of the year, your vision will 
be treated to a spectacle no matter what month you look. 

"Oh, sure, this is all fine and dandy, but what in the world 
will fill up those cold winter months?" you wonder. Perhaps 
surprisingly, there are quite a few specimens that you can 
select from. Granted, the farther south you live, the more 
choice you will have, but unless you call the tundra home, 
there is a plant for you. 

One of the easiest plant finds for your winter garden are 
evergreen plants, or plants that retain their leaves 
throughout the year. Some readily-available plants of this 
type are hollies (Ilex spp.), junipers and other coniferous 
shrubs, evergreen azaleas, and cherry laurel (Prunus 
laurcerasus varieties). These plants offer a solid mass of 
green all year round. However, to get the most out of your 
winter landscape, green mounds are not enough. By using 
evergreens as a background to set off other, more colorful 
plants, you will be able to make your gardens as 
eye-catching as any other time of the year. 

Adding a plant that provides blooms or berries in winter is 
a great way to add beauty to your landscape. The hard part 
is finding such a plant. Though the majority of available 
shrubs and flowers do bloom during the more 
favorably-conditioned warmer months of the year, there are 
those plants that put on their show during the stark winter. 


Here in the South, one of the most gorgeous flowers of all 
blooms in winter: the camellia (Camellia spp.). Some other 
winter bloomers are winter honeysuckle (Lonicera 
fragrantissima), winter daphne (Daphne odora), and witch 
hazel (both Hammamelis species and Loropetalum species). The 
honeysuckle and daphne also add a fantastic fragrance to 
your property. For winter berries, try adding some plants 
like the aptly-named winterberry (Ilex verticilliata), 
hollies (Ilex spp.), pyracantha (Pyracantha spp.), and 
viburnums (Viburnum spp.). By adding some of these and other 
plants to your gardens, you will be provided with some 
winter blooms and berries to brighten your landscape into 
early spring. 

Another lesser-used method to add interest to the 
winterscape is by using the architectural characteristics of 
a plant in it's winter state. There are many trees and 
shrubs that, though they have lost their leaves for the 
winter, can retain a very artistic look to them throughout 
the colder months. For example, let's say you have a 
nicely-branched japanese maple in your garden. During 
spring, summer, and fall, it fills your landscape with 
colors of green, orange, and red. But what about in winter, 
when there are no leaves at all? If presented correctly, the 
branching habit of this small tree can be absolutely 
breathtaking. 

First off, observe the background behind the tree. Is it one 
solid color, like an evergreen hedge or stuccoed wall? 
Having a background that is not visually chaotic or busy 
will show off the tree's structure more aptly. Secondly, is 
there any sort of light accenting the tree during the 
evening hours? Since there are less daytime hours in winter, 
providing a nighttime lighting source will make the tree an 
accent in your landscape day and night. Try experimenting 
with different lighting techniques, like uplighting or 
backlighting. Lastly, don't forget about location, location, 
location. No matter what month of the year it is, if your 
accent plant is not placed in a noticeable spot in your 
garden, it is not an accent plant; it is a plant that 
attracts attention to a less desirable area of your 
landscape. Make sure your prized bit of flora is residing in 
the location that is best suited to it, both culturally and 
visually. 

Once you've got your accent shrubs properly highlighted and 
your plant selections properly sorted out, you will have a 
landscape that will form a fantastic composition no matter 
the season. A diversified landscape that always has a bit of 
something at it's peak at any given time can be more vivid 
than a landscape where all the plants are at their most 
intense all at once. So don't despair during the winter 
months with daydreams of tropical horizons. Embrace your 
temperate zone privilege and create an all-year landscape.

 

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Carrie P. Williams is a professional landscape designer 
with Turf Tamer, Inc. She has written many informative 
landscaping articles for Turf Tamer's Tip of the Week 
program. Want to learn more landscaping tips and 
tricks? Go to http://www.turftamerinc.com/tip.shtm 
to sign up for the 'Tip of the Week' and learn more tips!
              

 

 

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I guess this is it for today. Tell me if you like the ezine
or what else you'd like to read about. 


See you again in our next issue, ^fname^.

It's nice to have you along.

Nucha Aquino

Editor/Publisher

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