Winter Gardening Plants

If you’re looking for winter gardening plants for your landscape, you’ll want to consider more just than flower and foliage. Uniquely shaped plants, such as the contorted filbert (Corylus avellana ‘Contorta, AKA Harry’s Walking Stick), add architectural interest to winter landscapes.

Flowers for Winter Landscapes

• Crocuses
• Pansies
• Snowdrops

Here’s a longer list of flowers that bloom in winter, listed by color and more.

Trees and Shrubs for Winter Landscapes

Beyond the familiar evergreens, deciduous trees and shrubs with interesting shapes and growth patterns also add aesthetic interest to winter landscapes. Here are a few we have and enjoy:

• Contorted filbert bush, Corylus avellana ‘Contorta, AKA Harry’s Walking Stick
• Japanese maple tree, Acer palmatum
• Witch hazel bush, Hamamelis spp.

What intriguing landscape trees and shrubs are you growing? Nowadays, we go for edible landscapes, including edible hedges.

14 Vegetables to Grow Outdoors All Winter

This list of vegetables to grow in winter include veggies that can grow in various hardiness zones. Naturally, most do not grow on in the colder zones, but you can find more on what vegetables to grow in winter by zone here.

1. Arugula
2. Asparagus – produces for years after first couple; harvest tender shoots in spring
3. Beans, broad – sow in autumn for early spring harvest
4. Chard
5. Collards
6. Garlic – sow in autumn for late summer harvest
7. Kale
8. Leeks
9. Onions – sow in autumn for late summer harvest
10. Perpetual spinach, (Beta vulgaris var cicla) – is actually a chard that tastes a lot like spinach
11. Shallots – sow in autumn for late summer harvest
12. Spinach
13. Spring onions
14. Tree Collards – a perennial vegetable

You may also enjoy reading more on vegetables to grow in winter, and also this article on when to plant winter squash.

Winter Gardening Jobs

If you love landscaping and outdoor work, no matter the season, there are several options of services that enterprising landscapers and yard workers can offer in winter. From gardening to gutter cleanup, power washing to mulching, the flexible entrepreneur willing to expand into additional services will become more valuable and endearing to customers.

Most homeowners would rather deal with one good worker or company than multiple ones for multiple things. The more you can offer the more you’ll become the favorite go-to and regular, whom they come to count on and recommend to all their friends.

Winter Gardening Jobs to Keep Seasonal Workers Working Year Round

• Landscaping – pruning, clean up, winterizing of plants and pipes
• Planting fall bulbs for spring flowers
• Gutter cleaning
• Leaf blowing, raking and cleanup
• Foodscape gardening – planning, planting and maintaining edible landscapes and/or vegetable gardens for clients
• Nursery – nurseries work and tend plants year round; strike up a relationship with one near you and let them know you can be available as needed. They may call you during seasonal crunches
• Power washing – clean siding, decks, driveways and sidewalks
• Snow shoveling – you can get paid to exercise! Shoveling snow is something that many residents aren’t able to do (or don’t care to).

You can read more on the concept of starting a gardening business here.

Winter Gardening Ideas

Winter Composting

While your garden chores are greatly reduced in winter, there are a few important things you can do toward nourishing your garden. One important task of winter gardening is winter composting.

Composting is a free and simple way to add nutrient-rich humus to your garden to encourage increased plant growth and restore liveliness to depleted soil.

With cold-weather already present and continuing, it is important to take a few minutes to plan a way to protect the soil microbes responsible for nourishing and breaking down your soil. This article will guide you in how to care for your winter compost and microbes.

Microbes account for the most decomposition activity in any compost pile.

Winterizing Your Garden

Shorter fall and winter days are a good time to get a jump start on springtime. Spend that last outdoor time in the fall ensuring that all your lovely gardening things are safe from the ravages of Old Man Winter.

20+ Tips for Winterizing Your Garden

Here’s our garden winterizing checklist, (that includes some equipment and preparedness tasks):

1. CLEAN out garden beds
2. PLANT winter flowers
3. NOURISH – add compost to veggie and flower beds
4. Mulch garden and landscape areas
5. STORE bulbs
6. POT herbs and plants you plant to grow
7. PREP INDOOR PLANTS that have spent the summer outside. We…
   • hose off our potted plants and pots, then…
   • blow them lightly with a blower to help remove debris and bugs before bringing indoors
8. GROW LIGHTS – Set up LED grow lights if needed, or rig up a PVC grow light stand
9. COMPOST – Winterize your compost pile
10. LEAVES – Rake and blow leaves; shred, and use as mulch, (or start a hugelkultur bed)
11. GUTTERS – Clear out gutters (see gutter garden ideas)
12. HOSES – Disconnect, drain and store garden hoses, soaker hose and drip irrigation systems
13. FAUCETS – Wrap water faucets to protect from cold
14. TRIM TREES – Inspect and trim trees as needed. We use a cordless pole saw to help remove small dead limbs.
15. CLEAN –
    • Clean pots, plant trays, and planters
    • Clean and oil garden tools
16. ORGANIZE – tidying up your garden sheds, tools, pots, etc., will make your spring gardening all the more enjoyable
17. DISCARD –
    • flimsy plastic containers (not worth washing and keeping)
    • Dump partial opened bags of soil into cleaned beds or compost
18. BUY and store bird seed
19. WINTERIZE machines – empty fuel, etc.
20. PREPAREDNESS –
    • start and run generator to be sure it’s in good working order
    • check water storage containers; refill as needed
    • chop, split and stack wood
    • test furnaces and wood burning stove to confirm all is working well
    • prep fireplace with a load of wood and kindling
    • change filters for –
      • well
      • HVAC
      • vacuum

Potted plants we bring indoors include our Fiesta hibiscus, Meyer lemons and avocado trees.

For expanded information on each of these, please visit this garden winterizing article.

Best Selling Winter Gardening Books

Here are some of our favorite winter gardening books:

• Backyard Winter Gardening: Vegetables Fresh and Simple, in Any Climate Without Artificial Heat or Electricity the Way It’s Been Done for 2,000 Years, by Caleb Warnock
• The Winter Harvest Handbook: Year Round Vegetable Production Using Deep-Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses, by Eliot Coleman
• The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener: How to Grow Your Own Food 365 Days a Year, No Matter Where You Live, by Niki Jabbour
• How to Grow Winter Vegetables, by Charles Dowding

Fall & Winter Garden Quotes and Memes

No king has a throne more beautiful than a bench covered with the autumn leaves!
~Mehmet Murat ildan, Turkish playwright, novelist, philosopher, b.May 16, 1965

O wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?
~Percy Bysshe Shelley, British author & poet, 1792-1822

Find more garden memes and poetry here.