How to have a beautiful winter garden

Winter is often seen as a time away from the garden when the harsh weather drives gardeners indoors, but the cold weather brings both opportunities and challenges. A frost that can harm tender plants may also create the stunning spectacle of a crisp white lawn, frozen seed heads and branches dusted with ice.

The splashes of colour from evergreensand winter-flowering shrubs are all the more vivid for their rarity. Red holly berries, fiery orange cornus stems and vibrant purple crocus petals pop out from the cold, muted surroundings.

Spectacular seedheads for winter interest and wildlife

Cyclamen and hellebores nestled beneath the red stems of dogwoods make a welcome picture

Six key elements of winter garden design

RHS Chelseadesigner Naomi Slade advises on how to choose planting which blends the seasons, rather than seeing the garden coming to a juddering halt in November and not pick up again until March.

1. Height

Think about vertical accents and where they would be desirable. Consider the role of trees in screening and how they might also provide shelter, shade, or a sense of being enclosed.

2. Repetition

When many different elements are mixed together they often look haphazard and bitty, but repeating a particular plant, colour, or shape will add strength to the design and keep it grounded.

3. Pace and Journey

Upright or spherical forms can be used as “full stops” to indicate the end of one theme and the beginning of something new, while a change of pace or sudden non-sequitur can have a look-at-me quality.

4. Depth and Distance

Using screens and voids to break up the space means that not all the garden is visible at once. Layers of planting add depth, and the different elements can act in concert, with new points of interest emerging as the season waxes and wanes.

5. Framing

When a view or focal point is framed, it adds theatre and intensity to a design. The uprights of a door or pergola, or a gap between the trees, will lead the eye to the object of interest, providing something to get excited about.

6. Time

Seasonal fluctuations aside, gardens operate in three dimensions of space and a fourth dimension of time. Plants grow and alter the landscape around them, so visualize how big they will be in the future and give them space.

"In garden design it makes sense to think of winter first"

Naomi Slade

10 award-winning scented plants for winter

10 award-winning winter plants

RHS winter advice

Plants for winter interest

Apples and pears: winter pruning

Overwintering plants in conservatories

Overwintering tender plants: lifting or mulching

Overwintering tender plants: wrapping

Wildlife: helping through winter

Containers: winter selection

Preventing winter damage

Naomi’s winter gardening jobs

Winter is the perfect time to prune apple trees

How to grow bulbs

Introducing perennials

How to care for your soil

How to grow hardy annuals from seed

Winter-interest shrubs

• Bulbs
  

  These are fleshy, rounded, underground storage organs, usually sold and planted while dormant. Examples include daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, lilies, onions and garlic. The term is often used to cover other underground storage organs, including corms, tubers and rhizomes.

  : planting up containers and spreads of bulbs in autumn and early winter ensures there will soon be flowers to enjoy. It can also help to link the winter and spring gardens, so there is not an awkward pause. Feed bulbs in containers to keep them going until the following year.
• Tender perennials: some plants are borderline hardy and these can be lifted and brought into a greenhouse, or moved under cover wholesale if grown in a pot. Alternatively, if the soil is sufficiently well-drained, they can be left in situ, with the crowns protected with a thick layer of mulch
  

  Mulch is a layer of material, at least 5cm (2in) thick, applied to the soil surface in late autumn to late winter (Nov-Feb). It is used to provide frost protection, improve plant growth by adding nutrients or increasing organic matter content, reducing water loss from the soil, for decorative purposes and suppressing weeds. Examples include well-rotted garden compost and manure, chipped bark, gravel, grit and slate chippings.

  or insurance cuttings
  

  A method of growing new plants from parts of an existing plant, such as sections of root, stem, leaf or bud. When prepared correctly and planted in the right conditions, they can produce roots and eventually become independent plants. There is a wide range of different methods for taking cuttings, depending on the plant and time of year.

  taken in late summer and overwintered inside.
• Fruit trees and other woody plants: winter pruning encourages new growth that will produce fruit and flowers, and helps to maintain an attractive shape. However, if a plant is doing well or is flowering consistently without intervention, annual pruning may not be needed, while very mature specimens may not need pruning at all.
• Soil care: using organic matter as a mulch does not just make the garden look tidy and cared for, but it also improves everything from water retention and drainage, to increasing the availability of nutrients
  

  To grow well, plants need a wide range of nutrients in various amounts, depending on the individual plant and its stage of growth. The three key nutrients usually taken up from the soil are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Plants also need carbon, oxygen and hydrogen to make carbohydrates — their main energy source. Carbon and oxygen come from the air as carbon dioxide, while hydrogen is drawn from water absorbed by the roots. Other important soil nutrients include magnesium, calcium and sulphur. Most garden soils contain enough of these nutrients to support healthy plant growth.

  and supporting microfauna. Add spent compost
  

  Can refer to either home-made garden compost or seed/potting compost: Garden compost is a soil improver made from decomposed plant waste, usually in a compost bin or heap. It is added to soil to improve its fertility, structure and water-holding capacity. Seed or potting composts are used for growing seedlings or plants in containers - a wide range of commercially produced peat-free composts are available, made from a mix of various ingredients, such as loam, composted bark, coir and sand, although you can mix your own.

  , leaf mould, or chipped bark
  

  Bark is the outermost layer of woody plants (trees, shrubs and woody climbers). It is several cells thick and provides protection against physical damage, disease and environmental stresses. Bark comes in a wide variety of colours and patterns, and these can help gardeners when identifying plants. The fissures and crevices of bark on older plants also creates valuable habitat for many garden creatures as well as lichens and small plants.

  to the surface before the cold sets in and let the weather and worms do their work.
• Sowing seeds: in early and late winter, seeds can be sown for a crop of annual flowers such as sweet peas or Ammi majus. Chillies and tomatoes can be sown in early spring, to fruit in the summer.
• Bare roots: in autumn and winter, a range of perennials, shrubs, and trees are available to purchase as dormant, bare-root
  

  These have been lifted from the ground while dormant, with little or no soil around their roots. Various plants may be available bare root, including fruit trees, hedging plants and some perennials. They are generally cheaper than plants in containers, but are only available in winter/early spring, while dormant

  specimens. Often cheaper to buy and ship than potted plants, these may need less maintenance too, as they are inactive when planted and the ground is already moist.
• Tidy up: it is much easier to relax and enjoy your garden when it doesn’t present you with niggling jobs to do, so take some time to sort things out to your liking. Stack empty pots in an inconspicuous corner, compost dead plants and debris, and make sure that everything looks as pleasing as possible.
• Shop the plants of the Winter Walk at RHS Harlow Carr >
• Shop the plants of the Winter Walk at RHS Wisley >

Naomi Slade’s book RHSThe Winter Garden – Celebrating the Forgotten Season, urges readers to use the dormant months as an opportunity to take another look at their outdoor spaces and offers design tips so that they can be enjoyed all-year round.

Illustrated with breath-taking photography, the book covers fundamental elements and basic principles of garden design, framed through the context of winter rather than summer.

Buy the book>

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