Root of the matter

Why winter is the best time to design your garden, including assessing and adding structure during peak planting time and finding the beauty in decay

- By POLLYANNA WILKINSON

There is a strange irony to being a garden designer, in that when most people are not quite so interested in their garden (late autumn and winter) this is the exact time that it needs the most attention, at least from a design and planning point of view.

However, most of our design enquiries come when the weather improves in spring, usually with a plea for it to be ready by summer – but the reality is, by spring, it’s arguably too late to do anything constructive or meaningful. My hope, therefore, is to spur you into action during these cold and dark days so you can enjoy the fruits of your labour when the weather turns.

Winter is a great time to take stock of your garden as you are faced with the bare bones of it. There is nowhere to hide, it’s just you and the pared-back structure of your garden. So, get outside and ask yourself a few important questions. First, do you have enough winter planting structure – in the form of hedges, trees, shrubs and even grasses – or are you looking at a lot of bare earth?

Yew hedges are sensational for year-round evergreen form (and also for topiary), but I wouldn’t be without beech for winter interest, bringing colour variation to the garden as it clings onto its brown leaves until spring. It can be spectacular as hedging, but also as lone sentinels in the form of a beehive or a column amongst grasses. Heavenly!