Why is the cold season the perfect time to design a landscape? Winter features shorter days and longer evenings with half of the country facing snow and colder temperatures that prevent the typical outdoor gardening activity. It’s a time to slow down outdoors, with less time spent on landscape maintenance and more time spent on all those “catching up” activities like planning out a beautiful landscape.
A Blank Garden Slate
A strong benefit of designing a garden in winter is that, particularly in the northern territories, gardens often fall flat to the ground when the cold hits. Cleaning up leaves in the fall will leave some gardens bare and that naked garden is the springboard for creative ideas. As you can see in the before images of the city garden shown on this page, the flatness of the winter season enables a landscaper to have a very clear image of an entire garden bed. A blank slate ready to be filled with color and creativity.
Horticultural Design Ideas
When creating a design utilizing the iScape program, it is possible to try out several different landscaping styles to see which design fits best. For example, in one of the iScape designs in the photo series, you see blue and green grasses, purple nepeta, and a more naturalized design, which might be particularly effective for low maintenance care. Another design shows the addition of shrubs and more flowering perennials, which gives a different appearance.
All the designs presented here show a fabulous improvement from the overgrown mess that used to be the front garden and considerably improves the curb appeal for the homeowners, thereby increasing the home value and the value of the home within the community.
Planning in Winter
Planning a landscape in winter means that a homeowner also has more time to consider the aesthetic benefits of the wish list for their design, to choose and order landscaping materials, and to budget money for building expenses which will happen in the spring.
Additionally, winter is a convenient time to request construction permits from your city and Homeowners Association, which can take between 4 and 8 weeks to be issued dependent upon the type of building permit needed to break ground on your specific landscaping project.
Once you have the design firmly in hand, then scheduling the landscaping project is a snap. Spring and summer is the busy season for most landscapers. If you have already planned the project, then getting on the schedule earlier in the season means the project will be completed more quickly.
Download iScape now to create designs and build solutions for your landscape. iScape it!
