During this transitional time in the garden, a few tweaks will extend the enjoyable outdoor living season well into Colorado’s winter. The trick lies in feathering your outdoor nest enough that you’re actually enticed to spend time outside.
“Think about how your decor will look from the inside of your home as you look out,” said Annie Huston, owner of Birdsall & Co. The garden boutique will celebrate their new location at 2870 South Broadway with an open house on Nov. 15 from 5 to 8 p.m.
After leaves fall and plantings fade and eventually freeze, every garden needs sprucing up before winter.
“Keep your garden clean, tidy and healthy with a thorough fall cleanup,” Huston said. “It will be like coming home to a clean house.”
On the other hand, don’t entirely whack back the landscape’s winter interest, said Lauren Bloom of Bloom Concrete & Landscape.
“Some people do such a hard cut-back in fall, but waiting until spring can be healthier for plants and provide texture for winter,” Bloom said. “If cleaned up right, it doesn’t look messy.”
Outdoor lighting makes a garden safer and more alluring during the long, cold nights of winter.
“Outdoor lighting can work magic in a winter landscape,” Huston said. “Wrap a tree, gazebo or fence with LED lights—perfect any time of year. Lights bring focus to the structure of trees, illuminate architectural elements in the garden and create a lively outdoor space, even without leaves and blooms.”
Bloom advocates for low-maintenance, low-voltage lighting strategically installed on steps, along paths and throughout the landscape. “You don’t want an over-the-top Las Vegas look, but you want to add a glow so that you can comfortably walk around the garden,” she said. “You can up-light a tree or architecture. It’s classy.”
Huston and Bloom agree that seasonal container arrangements add panache.
“Containers and window boxes should never be empty,” said Huston. “My favorite trend this year is boxwood spheres or cones, which can take all kinds of weather, are UV-protected and bring color to an empty pot,” she said. “They can even be wrapped with lights for the holidays.”
Large containers can hold small shrubs — Alberta spruce, for example. For protection against Old Man Winter, Huston recommends planting shrubs in frost-resistant containers filled with soilless planting mix and situated near the house.
Huston also fills containers with natural elements, such as branches and pinecones. She adds lights and decorative objects that can weather winter storms.
“Metal spheres in your winter containers will add an all-weather architectural element, and they can also be lit up for the holidays,” Huston said.
A member of the Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado, Bloom worked as a florist before designing landscapes. Consequently, she shops floral supply stores as well as the nursery-greenhouses and uses branches along with dried flowers and mosses. For dramatic height, she likes curly willow, gleaming white aspen or bright red-twig dogwood branches.
“You can use the branches a few years before retiring them,” she said.
Bloom adds eucalyptus and mosses, both available in many colors. She might under-plant with pansies or ivy. Or she covers bare soil with moss.
“The mosses comes in colors from lime chartreuse to dark green. You have something green all winter without anything truly living,” Bloom said.
“This combination will last all winter. You don’t have to touch it until spring. And every time you walk by, you get the lovely fragrance from the eucalyptus.”
To keep the patio table from appearing too bare, Huston suggested something for the birds: “Place a small bird bath on your patio table and fill it with birdseed,” Huston said. “You’ll be attracting birds from all over the neighborhood.”
To perk up the dreary winter landscape, Bloom frequently adds a bouquet of cut flowers to her outdoor tables.
When temperatures drop, warmth is key to comfort outdoors.
“Fire is definitely a big reason why people want to go outside. On a cooler evening, some sort of fire feature draws you out,” Bloom said.
Though her designs frequently incorporate built-in custom fire pits, she said half of her clients prefer the flexibility of portable features.
If you don’t have a fire feature, huddle around a portable heater.
“Some are more interesting now in terms of décor. We have one that has a column of fire rather than just the propane base with umbrella hood,” Bloom said.
She’s also stoked about eco-friendly bioethanol fuel fire tables: “They’re budget friendly way to add a mini flame on any table and can be used inside or outdoors,” she said. “They don’t put out as much warmth as ambiance.”
For a low-tech way to stay toasty outdoors, Bloom embraced a Scandinavian tradition. “My husband and I were in Sweden, and every restaurant had a beautiful bucket full of blankets. It was so cozy to sit around wrapped in a blanket instead of getting chilly.”
Following suit, the Blooms added a galvanized tub full of blankets to their home’s outdoor living space. “We have a few wool, but mostly cotton blankets,” she said. “You want something easy to wash.”
