I started writing a blog post, got a bit bored and checked out twitter instead. I wish, and you may also wish, I hadn’t. The social media we make for ourselves usually coincides with our work, our aspirations, people who make us laugh or make us think. So it should come as no surprise my twitter timeline is jam packed with horticulturalists and gardeners.
Over the last few weeks it’s been a visual assault, starting with the apparent need to make orange great again, closely followed by multiple pictures of purple plants. Then red plants and flowers got in on the action with a hashtag. Today apparently had to be cheered up because multiple photographs of a Summer Garden will stop us feeling Blue.
Enough now, please!
Gardening is seasonal, life is seasonal, so shouldn’t we take the now of life and celebrate it a bit more. The winter garden has subtlety and beauty that is all it’s own, you may have to look a little harder and plan a little smarter to benefit from it, but it’s there. Low winter light is a bit of a pain, in that it shows every mucky watermark on your windows, but it also picks out russets, golds, greens and silvers perfectly.
As a designer winter is a perfect time for planning and implementing a new garden. Yes we start to think about spring bulbs in September and right now in the depths of winter we are all about planning for summer bulbs. But it’s also the season for bare root hedging and perennials, soups, stews, root vegetables, winter woolies, waterproofs, open vistas between deciduous trees, guilt free biscuits hidden beneath layers (refer back to winter woolies) blue skies, frosts, rest and taking stock. Don’t wish away the year, revel in its uniqueness and look harder for its beauty if at first you can’t see it. For those that seek, the rewards are out there.
Vergette Gardens 
Yes! Yes! And yes again!! Wonderful piece and needed to be said. I love autumn and winter, the final boom of colour, followed by rest, muted colours, time in the warm and cosiness. Anyway, excuse me, I have a cuppa and slice of cake to see to.
Thank you, I know a lot of people struggle in the Winter with S.A.D and looking out for something positive can be better than completely ignoring or avoiding a season. Now more importantly why do I not have cake – Reims of me
You’re absolutely right 🙂 I was walking in a woodland yesterday, taking lovely photos of tatty bronze beech leaves, pale catkins and brilliant yellow lichen. There’s something to be seen in every season, and no point wishing our lives away waiting for summer!
It’s easy to overlook a season that lacks in the bells and whistles of Summer, you’re so right about the range of colours in lichens especially at this time of year.
Well said! I knew that something was making me feel uneasy about those hashtags and you’ve hit the nail on the head.
Hopefully we’ll get #wintergardens back on track
Well said Tanya – I like being in the here and now. Yesterday I discovered a persimmon tree just behind our High street. Its plentiful fruit lit up a really dull day and was so much better than wishful thinking. I’m enjoying the snowdrops coming through and the hellebores in the garden, the birds beginning to sing out their territories, and loads of catkins on my winter walks 🙂
Wow nothing quite so exotic here, how wonderful.
Can’t decide if I’m hopelessly temperate, or irredeemably fussy. Summer is too hot (particularly working outside all day), but the long hours of daylight are wonderful. Winter temperature is about right for me, but it’s too flippin dark and too often mushy, rather than crisp and cold (and BRIGHT WITH SNOW) which would be perfect. Early Autumn and Late Spring though (for longest day length in those respective seasons)…*sighs happily*
I can understand people hankering for brighter days – I do, though I’m lucky enough not to really suffer terribly from SAD, and to spend most of my days outside, so I get more daylight than others. And having my camera almost permanently in my hands, I agree there’s a lot that’s beautiful about winter, but yes, you do have to look harder for it, and no, there is simply not as much variety as in the sunnier months – creating interesting images is much harder work (and a bugger for a natural light photographer!). On the plus side, it’s nice not having to get up really early or stay out super late to catch a great sun rise/set!
I also find summer too hot, which is just one of many things that makes me a weirdo in the eyes of the general populace 😉
Reblogged this on Pacey-Buck Garden Design and commented:
An excellent comment on what to appreciate in the winter garden.
YES! I am 100% behind you on this. I enjoy look back at the odd photos for purpose, but the flood of the wrong season is a real turnoff. Gardens look their most beautiful at that moment, we just have to look – as you have 🙂 Well done on saying this. Thank you 🙂
This is a great attitude to have. I love your frosty photos!