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What is an all year round garden?

the forum made me think a little today......

many of us....maybe not quite so much for me down here....are protecting their plants for the winter.  Sure, they may look unattractive with their fleece covers but in a few weeks' time ...yep, just a few weeks....they will be growing again;  if protected. image

an "all year round garden". What exactly does that mean?  Does it mean no herbaceous plants, no grasses, no tender stuff, no exotics?  None of these contribute to an all year round garden

i grow lots of evergreens but masses of plants that disappear soon ....a photo in winter will show lots of colour, shape and interest.  Many tender plants remain in place but some are dug up to be replaced with specimen wallflowers.   

Low maintenance too?  Similarly an all year round garden cannot include annuals, can it?  

So....an all year round garden!  Who has one? And why do you claim that?image  Maybe we could post pictures of our gardens in winter to illustrate the point image

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  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445

    Plenty of herbaceous plants Verdun, they make the summer garden. Annuals as well

    An all year round garden has something all year round, it's not the same all the time.

    Summer is easy, you can have your exotics if you like that sort of thing, in pots, put them in a GH in winter

    Now is easy, still asters and chrysanths (or whatever we call them now), leaf colour. Always some evergreens, late bulbs, nerines still out, salvias. Winter has less, it relies on structure, evergreens and shrubs with interesting bark. But before you know it there are snowdrops, aconites,hellebores and all those infillers like noneas, so good for the early bees. Pulmonarias always look good in winter and flower early.

    I could go onimage and onimage



    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445

    I looked for pics Verdun, rather a destructive collection. Saws and shredder feature hugely in the winter garden, But I found a few. Late January, early February.

    image

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    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445

    Thanks Verdun. I have got plenty of space but those plants that would fit anywhere. Why can't you grow snowdrops? Soil or climate?



    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 24,023

    Lovely picture, Nut.

    I think I have something flowering every month of the year, except possibly December. There may be the odd viola out then and there are berries, if the birds haven't eaten them all. They don't usually eat the berries on the Nandina, but they like the cotoneasters and the pyracantha.

    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
  • PosyPosy Posts: 3,601

    An all year garden gives you pleasure all year. In my garden the half hardies have to come indoors to escape waterlogging and salty gales but trees and shrubs  tide me over, especially the winter flowering ones. Nut's pictures are beautiful, aren't they......I bet she would say the best sort of garden is the one that thrives in your own circumstances and gives happiness in every season.

  • RedwingRedwing Posts: 1,511

    Those hederifolium are beautiful, Nut....so big. 

    I really like the grey foliage plants in winter.

    Based in Sussex, I garden to encourage as many birds to my garden as possible.
  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445

    Those are Cyclamen coum Redwing. They flower in winter with the leaves.

    You're right Posyimage

    The pink Viburnums are usually performing in December B-L



    In the sticks near Peterborough
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