The Garden In Winter

Don't be misled by this unusual photo.  Snow is a rarity in Newberry.  When we moved to South Carolina we had to change our gardening habits.  Down South we can plant our pansies in the fall and they will bloom off and on all winter with a big finish just in time to be pulled up and replaced with colorful annual bedding plants.  Even if we do get snow, they pop back as soon as it melts.  Pansies are tough!  Even better are their smaller cousins, the violas, because they don't even require dead-heading in order to bloom profusely.

  Another winter-hardy plant is  ajuga reptans, a low ground cover that spreads readily and has a sweet little bloom in the spring.  It gets quite bronze-colored during the winter and adds some color to the dry, bare garden. 

Because snow is a rarity for us in Newberry, when it does fall, we scurry out to photograph it before it melts.  Here are some scenes from the winter garden!

A little "before and after" picture.

If you don't have to shovel it, ice and snow can be lovely.  Down South we just wait for it to melt!

Nandinas are an old Southern stand-by shrub.  They can grow a good 15 feet tall but most people keep them trimmed to shrub-size.  They are not much to look at until fall when they are covered with wonderful red berries.  Even on this snowy day, the Nandina is a bright spot in the garden.

The thing about snow in SC is that it melts as quickly as it arrives.  In a few days we will be able to sit out here in the sun in the morning and contemplate the arrival of spring.

Continue to the Garden in Spring

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