What is a garden in winter?

A garden in summer is obvious. Flowers. Bees. Birds. Green Leaves. Colorful blooms. Pollen. Butterflies. Its purpose is decoration, and food for wildlife.

But a garden in winter? Its purpose is not as obvious to the passers by who see my beds full of lifeless stalks and stems, and brown dried up flower heads. A winter garden must be looked at differently. 

It may be lacking the colors of summer, but the winter garden has colors of its own. Oak Leaf Hydrangea leaves turn a deep burgundy in the fall and hold on tight though most of the winter. American Beech leaves turn a skeletal golden brown and cling to their branches until spring buds push them off. Evergreens stand out in the grey winter landscape, and the Holly shows off its red berries. 

But a garden’s purpose is more than color alone.

My winter garden is fascinating to me. Like the mason jars full of canned vegetable garden bounty in my pantry, the winter garden is the product of a summer’s hard work – food!

During the summer, plants provide insects, birds, and other animals with pollen, nectar, and juicy leaves to munch on. They attract and grow the hungry caterpillars that birds like Chikadees and Titmice depend on for baby-bird-growing protein.

In late summer, as the growing season comes to an end, plants draw all of their nutrients to their roots and set about the business of re-production by growing their seed heads. Insects set to work securing their family lines in their own way, snuggled up in larval form deep in the leaf litter or underground. When the first fall frost finally comes the insects are seemingly all gone, and the birds, who have been busy eating them all summer, return to the garden plants looking for meals.

Gold Finches, dressed in new colors for winter camouflage, flock to the tall Evening Primrose stems, which were covered in yellow flowers a few months ago, but are now depositories for hundreds of seeds. Juncos fresh in from the arctic, perch on Boneset and Joe-Pye stems munching at bunches of tiny seeds attached to puffs of dainty fluff. Tufted Titmice look for acorns, and other large seeds, knocking them against anything hard (rocks, metal fence poles, mailboxes) to crack open the hulls.

In January the robins show up all at once to stuff themselves full of berries on the American Holly. They will pick the whole tree clean in a day or two and then move on to the next one they can find; a swarm of chirping buffet seekers.

Chosen carefully, summer plants provide winter food for the feathered masses: Virginia Creeper, Goldenrod, Monarda, Iron Weed, Hyssop, Cone Flower, & Rudbekia to name just a few. They are all full of seeds and berries that the birds rely on for survival now that the insects of summer have vanished until spring.

As the seasons turn, I have begun to garden just as much for winter activity as I do for summer decoration. Each plant chosen carefully for wildlife value and native status to ensure they will do the most good.

My native garden is my contribution to a healthier ecosystem, and the activity in my winter garden is an annual reminder of its importance.