How to Create a Landscape for Year-Round Enjoyment
Many homeowners think that creating and maintaining a beautiful landscape for their home’s yard is only attainable during the warmer months and seasons. They’re wrong! We are here to tell you how and why you are able to have a stunning, eye-catching landscape year-round. Knowing the right elements of your landscape to focus on when the weather is cold and the temperatures drop is key to perfecting your winter landscape and keeping up with your yard maintenance all year long.
Hardscaping Your Landscape
At Four Seasons, we offer hardscaping services that provide a visual point-of-interest in your yard and adds physical boundaries to your outdoor living space. From statues, walls, and edgings, to fire pits and paved surfaces, hardscaping is a must. Winter is the time of year where you can assess your current landscape and see what areas need to be improved upon before spring rolls around. Aside from plants and other greenery, various aspects of your hardscape can be added or removed during this time of year. Benches, arches, and arbors are great additions to your landscape that you will enjoy even as the snow and ice melt!
Bark, Berries, and Winter Foliage- Oh My!
A feature of the home’s landscape that often gets overlooked during other seasons of the year is tree and shrub bark. Bark is an aspect of greenery that is exposed once the autumn leaves all fall away- making it a visible part of your landscape. This is why we encourage you to choose a textured, colorful type of tree bark to display in your landscape.
We suggest the following types of trees if you want to make a statement in your yard:
- Paperbark Maple
- Dogwoods and Redwoods
- and River Birches.
Everlasting Evergreens
Another example of winter foliage to add to your landscape mix is evergreens. Evergreens are essentially the backbone of your winter yard space. Not only do they add color, but they should add variety among your types of trees and plants. Most evergreens are green, however, some have a yellowish, gold hue that brings warmth back into the wintery landscape. They will provide form to your lawn even when it is buried under an icy tundra.
Bountiful Berries
One last recommendation for creating a lasting landscape that will stand out is mixing in various types of berries among your plants. Annuals that produce fruit or a bold berry will truly make your landscape pop and create a spectacular show during the colder months of the year. In contrast with the white snow, the bright hue of berries will create a beautiful, rich scenery that invites birds for feeding and your guests for holiday festivities- think of it as a natural form of decor.
Some of our favorite types of berries we see and plant during winter are:
- Holly Bush
- Winterberry Holly
- Winter Jasmine
- and Cotoneaster.
Lighting Leads the Way
Outdoor landscape lighting is a unique way to bring attention to your winter landscape that you may have not yet thought of. And when we say lighting, we don’t mean tacky Christmas decor or string lights, we’re referring to lighting fixtures to enhance your outdoor space. Adding elements such as lighting to walkways, trees, shrubs, and other greenery can provide a sense of warmth to your home’s landscape during this frigid time of year.
Our crew has a Kichler landscaping lighting certification, which allows us to have the skill and experience to create outstanding outdoor lighting creations. We create customized lighting plans for our clients that bring increased ambiance and purpose to your landscape.
It’s not too late to create the winter landscape of your dreams! We are actively accepting new design consultations for winter landscapes now. Read more about enhancing your winter landscape in our latest blog on irrigation winterization.
