Living in cold climates does not mean that your home has to be a barren landscape. Even in regions where yards are covered in snow for half of the year can have beautiful gardens and yards. With the right selection of plants, designs and maintenance habits, your home exterior can be beautiful and well-maintained year-round.
Choosing Plants That Thrive In The Cold
The single, biggest factor when doing landscaping in cold climates is to select plants that thrive in cold climates.
Using Evergreens
Evergreen plants are plants whose foliage remains green and functional throughout the yeear. This is in contrast to deciduous plants, which lose their foliage completely during winters or dry seasons. Evergreens form the backbone of gardens that are designed for cold climates, as well as areas that have periods with little sunshine.Some evergreen plants that are thrive in cold climates and are great to use for landscaping are:
- Concolor fir, which rises symmetrically and has soft, blue needles which release a faint citrus scent when snow brushes against them.
- Black Hills spruce grows slowly into a dense, unflinching pyramid shape that does not shed its lower branches, even under crushing, wet snow.
- Serbian spruce stands tall and narrow. These trees catch snow and turn into beautiful ornaments.
Deciduous Trees
Certain deciduous trees are great to have in gardens for snowy seasons in cold climates when their leaves fall off. Some of these are:
- Paper birch trees have a white bark that is a perfect visual compliment when it snows.
- Amur cherry trees peel in metallic gold that catches low winter sun and gives off a polished look.
- Prairiefire crabapple trees keep some of their small, red fruit long after frost, while having maroon twigs that visually cut sharp
- through the snowy background.
- Quaking aspen plants shimmer gold in autumn, then stand pale and luminous once snow settles around their trunks.
Adding Shrubs
Shrubs can bring vivid color during the wintery, snowy seasons. These are varieties that are great for wintery and snowy seasons.
- Red-oiser and Siberian dogwood give off scarlet flame colors the instant that their leaves fall off.
- Ninebark sheds its dark purple foliage to reveal cinnamon colored bark that peels in stripes.
- Arctic willow keeps a refined silver-blue presence year-round.
- Dwarf Korean lilac gives fragrant blooms even after brutal late-spring frosts.
Perennials
Some perennials not only survive, but thrive in cold climates. Here is a list of some of them.
- Peonnies bloom more lavishly the harder the winter has been.
- Siberian iris push up unscathed from the iron-hard ground.
- Russian sage releases its aromatic haze on rare warm days, while its silvery stems remain ghostly sentinels through the snow.
- Coneflowers, black-eyed Susans and little bluestem grass turn rust and flaxen, which harmonizes perfectly with the wintery,
- monochrome seasons.
Designing With The Wind And Snow
Thoughtful placement is everything when designing gardens in snowy and wintery landscapes. A staggered row of spruce can raise the temperature of the entire yard by several degrees and turn harsh winds into more calm breezes. South-facing slopes warm first in spring and shed snow fastest in winter, which offers the safest home for anything that is not as hardy. Low pockets that trap cold air must be left to the toughest native plants.
Designing With Snow
Snow itself can become a living design material. Placement of everything from plants, shrubs, trees and stones allow for intentional designs when it snows, instead of scattered patterns with no thought to it. Low, mounded evergreens catch snow and create soft undulations across the garden. Birch trunks rise from drifts like white exclamation marks. A single boulder half-buried in snow makes it appear like a small mountain in the snow. Stone walls and wooden arbors remain visible when everything organic disappears, giving the eye solid anchors through the long white, snowy months.
Landscaping Services
If you are in cold climate areas such as Michigan, you can hire professional landscaping services in your area that have years of experience and have the knowledge to get the job done.The Best Landscaping Service, which is a landscaping and paving company located in Macomb County, Michigan, are professionals that know the ins and outs of landscaping in cold climates. They are a family owned and operated company.J & J Tree Care Service, is a tree removal and landscaping service that is located in Imlay City, Michigan. They are a family owned and operated company that is well established in such a small community.
Conclusion
Landscaping in cold, snowy climates such as Michigan can bring with it beautiful snowy gardens and landscapes. Whether you choose to do-it-yourself, or to hire a professional landscaping company, you can enjoy your home’s garden during every season.