Getting The Garden Ready For Winter Interest

Sure, it’s tempting to call a gardening article this time of year something like “Putting the Garden to Bed” or “Autumn Cleanup”, but I’m going to instead go with a theme of “Winter Interest”. I’m going to show you one of my tricks to prepare the garden to be interesting even when summer breezes turn into the gales of November and worse.

No, it’s not leaving your scarecrows outside inordinately long. These two were both unfortunately and unusually decorative after our non-traditional Halloween snow.

My garden looks good in winter too. Granted, I define “good” differently in summer than in winter, changing my expectations, but also stacking the deck in my favor. For example, my bird bath makes a lovely fairy garden in the summer, as you can see. Here, my shy fairy opted not to be photographed.

Then, as temperatures cool, the tender plants come inside, as do any figures. Yep, still no fairy.

But wait, there’s more. Here is Mike moving a fence behind the bird bath to draw more attention to this area that will be a focal point over the winter.

I truly am done with outside gardening for the year. Chicagoland winters make that decision for me. My tools are cleaned up and in the basement till spring and my wagon is moving to the shed. But I’ll still be looking out the window enjoying my garden!