Transform Your Backyard Garden Into a Winter Refuge
Leaves are turning on the trees, and your days of lazing on your garden patio surrounded by beautiful flora are behind you for the year. Impending winter doesn’t mean abandoning your backyard respite, though; a few key additions will transform your backyard garden into a relaxing winter wonderland.
Add Color
Not everyone lives where ice luminaries will last for more than a few days, but many other options exist for adding color to your winter garden. Fall is the best time of the year to plant trees and shrubs, and planting evergreens like fir, pine, cedar, holly or juniper will ensure color throughout the winter. Many shrubs and trees, such as red twig dogwood or witch hazel, have textured bark, colorful branches, or winter flowers. There are also many trellises and arbors for your garden that you can decorate with wreaths, lawn ornaments, and hanging planters now and then have a new canvas for the spring.
Invite Wildlife
Watching birds and small animals flit and scurry around your garden can be deeply meditative, so invite them in by adding bird feeders with suet or seed for the birds and dried corncobs or other nuts for the squirrels or chipmunks. Adding a heated birdbath will ensure your wild friends have a place to drink and bathe during those cold days.
Consider enhancing your garden’s appeal to pollinators by starting a beekeeping area. Beekeeping helps increase the population of these crucial pollinators and rewards you with fresh honey. Ensure you have flowering plants and water sources to feed your bee colonies.
Add Warmth
Adding decorative lighting can go a long way to bathing your garden area in a warm glow. There are many options for string lights or lanterns. If you don’t have easy outdoor electricity options, use solar lights. For real warmth, add a fire pit or an outdoor heater. Enjoying the crisp outdoors while being warmed by a fire or having smores with your hot cocoa can make for some great holiday memories.
Winter can be insular and “closed off” as we seek warmth and comfort. But having an open space in nature that feels warm, inviting, and relaxing at this time of year can be wonderful and even help your mental health. With a little care, you’ll have curated a beautiful winter’s refuge.
The coming of winter doesn’t have to leave you stuck inside for months on end. A peaceful respite is no further than your own backyard.
