Another view of the side garden...

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Ooh, very pretty Sedum! Is that a river I see in the second photo?

Here's one of our winter wonderland views:
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This view is facing north low in a river valley, so none of this snow is in danger of melting any time soon despite today's temperatures...

Beautiful photos! I am really enjoying looking at them. The snow is VERY pretty, too bad I have to shovel it and deal with ice dams.

I haven't taken many pictures of the snow - but here is one I took of the front garden on December 16, 2007. The picture was taken from the front porch - so this is what I see when looking out the front door.

There was about 2 feet of snow on the ground here. Some has melted, but now there's about 1 foot of snow on the ground so it still basically looks like this.

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And this is what it looked like last July 29th. Nice to fantasize about warm weather and flowers a little!

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Three of my lasagna garden beds. New layer of seaweed then covered with the contents of my composter. The concrete blocks hold up branches that I use to prop old window panes on to ramp up the temperature on my tomatoes a bit. I hope to do carrots in the blue bin.

terrene,
What fun it is to compare the same view during summer and winter!
Sedum and ellen, those are some very serene winter scenes...and, daddymem, I confess to wondering if those were graves, until I scrolled down to your description!! :-0

Too dark right now to take any pictures of mine...and, between the rain tomorrow and warm temps, there may not be much snow left . Maybe later...!
Emily

Love all the photos so far! What a change in the weather. My photos were taken on Jan 2nd -- so what a difference a week makes!

So ellen_s no it isn't a river but a driveway to the neighbors shed/barn. It does look like water though now that you mention it. It looks like we have very similar garden habitats (being on a hill with trees all around).

Terrene I love the winter/summer shots of the same area! Wow what a great contrast. Makes you long for spring and summer!

Daddymem looks like you are all done with snow. Are you on the coast or south shore? I am curious when you are going to put tomatoes in... I haven't even thought of what tomatoes I am going to start from seed never mind where I am going to put them in the garden!

haha - mskee, you are right, Daddymem's lasagne beds do look like graves :-) I am jealous about the lack of snow cover. Must be in southern New England?
Terrene - love those ornamental grasses in the winter snow. Definitely good plants for winter interest! Looks like they are going to make a fine hedge when they grow larger...

I'm just off Cape Cod. Just missed a white Christmas by a couple days. Went from loads of snow to nothing :( But....gave me a chance to get to the beach for the seaweed since I missed doing it this fall. I haven't thought of when to start my seeds yet, still plenty of time I think. I was picking fresh tomatoes right up to the end of November this year. I saved some of the heirloom seeds, hope they grow.

I took these photos this morning. I can't offer any beautiful snowy landscape shots, because that is rare down here on the south coast. Instead, here are some bold winter foliage shots.

The little Japanese Aucuba greets visitors on the north side of the house with lush variagated foliage that brightens up gloomy winter days:

A nearly perfect specimen of Cherry Laurel (Prunus Laurocerasus, var. Schipkaensis) provides leafy green foliage on the south side of the house:

And finally, a view from inside the house. It is nice to have the bold tropical-like leaves of the southern magnolia greeting me on sunny winter mornings! The plant nearest the window is another cherry Laural (Prunus Laurocerasus, var. Otto Luykens).

I LOVE that you have a fully clothed Magnolia right outside your window in January, rockman! lol I didn't know they are evergreen. The magnolias in Boston ..saucer magnolias I am pretty sure, drop their leaves, correct? Is it only a certain variety that retains their leaves in the winter? That is a particularly beautiful specimen, with a very bushy, columnar habit and pretty leaves that are not too thin or curled. Does it grow naturally that way or did you have to prune it to do that?

Great view!

Also enjoying all the snow photos. Not much left in my backyard today, but maybe later.
:-)
pm2

Dear Prarie Moon: You are correct. The saucer magnolias are deciduous trees, so they lose their leaves in the fall. They are also very hardy in our zones. My specimen is a southern magnolia (Magnolia Grandiflora), which is an evergreen. They are common in the south where they grow to a huge size. Zone 6 is about as far north as they will grow without looking really ragged. Because I have limited space, I do indeed keep it pruned with a tight columnar habit. It I did not, it would grow very wide and fat. Here is a picture of the same tree taken last summer:

OK, I've got to lower the bar a little here. Too many lovely photos posted above.

I'm also in the snow-challenged area - Deep South Shore of MA. Instead of looking at a beautiful snowy landscape or perfectly grown evergreens, like the photos above, I look at oak leaves and pine needles and mostly brown stuff, with a few dark green accents. The new bluestone path has become dominant.

This is the view from my computer in January. The tool leaning against the wall is a snow shovel, lightly used.

Same view in late summer/early fall, with a rake and broom leaning against the wall.

View from my kitchen in January. The big old winterberry in the left was covered with red berries until the birds stripped it. Those are red Christmas lights on the wisteria on the right.

Same view in late summer/early fall.

This is my third winter in this garden and I'm really working to lessen the bleak aspect. Still got a way to go, but I'm counting on some little hollies and cedars to grow up and transform the winter landscape.

Claire

a few shots of my back yard after the last snow storm here in W. Ma.
can't wait until spring

Bear

As pretty as the snow is, I am green with envy of the snow-less people. Your pictures don't even look like winter! Rockman are you sure you didn't take those pictures months ago? Lol

Claire I can see why the birds like your yard so much! None of those pictures look bleak to me, it looks like a bird paradise, with a great variety of vegetation.

Daddymem, I am jealous that you can see your lasagne beds. Mine are in the backyard, and the snow is still covering about 90%+ back there. However it has almost all melted around the house these last few days (except for piles) and the front yard no longer looks like it did in the picture above.

This is a fun thread.

Hi rockman....nice summer photo of your magnolia. I am wondering though, if you have to keep it pruned...are you also pruning for height? Are you trimming it like you would a hedge? If so, will it not outgrow this treatment and would it then produce a problem for you? They naturally would get fairly tall, correct?

pm2

The hellebores are starting to bloom:
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That album also has a photo of the first witch hazel flower of the season in my yard (H. x intermedai 'Jelena') but it was such a tiny flower it's not too much of a photo, I just couldn't resist snapping it when I saw color on the plant; it's certainly early for that. The heaths are also blooming, but I haven't gotten any pics yet.

I love the way the little sedums look at this time of year:

Not very wintry, sorry bout that. We may get some more snow in a few days.

Dear Prarie Moon: I have not been pruning for height--just width. My master plan is to have a fairly tall, tight, columnar southern magnolia. And yes-if I am successful, this could be a management problem for me as it gets taller. I live in a condo, and the association is VERY flexible--you can do just about anything you want in your patio and courtyard areas. Space is limited, but I always wanted a beautuful southern magnolia. I originally planted a variety called "Little Gem" which stays much smaller. But it was not hardy.

And for all you folks with snow on the ground: that is a good thing if it turns really cold again. I love mild winter weather with snowless ground--but I am not a big fan of arctic winds blowing across snowless ground--it stresses me out just like it does our plants.

Thanks rockman for that info. It is a beauty of a tree and I can see that you enjoy it. I like the full look you get from pruning it. I don't think I have a sheltered enough location for that here, darn! [g] But I enjoy seeing your photos of it!

pm2

So now that we have snow again, I decided to try for the same "after and before" shots some of you have posted. Here is a shot from today of my new bird and butterfly garden (installed last spring with LOTS of help from GW plant swappers!)
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And here is the garden from the same window last May, when the plants were newly installed (and still very small!) It grew in wonderfully by late summer, but I neglected (will rectify that this year!) to get a photo out of the same window!
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And here is a shot beyond the garden, down the hill to the brook ... I leave the wildflower stems (not part of the garden but I let them grow for the birds and butterflies to enjoy ... and in winter, I leave the dry stems as perches for the birds when they come to the feeder). I add a birdfeeder in late November and everyone's happy...:)

A work in progress... but great fun. We had butterflies and hummingbirds galore by late summer, and I can't WAIT to get back out there this spring and see how things do in the second year! (Any advice as to how to get that butterfly bush in the right -- the one that looks like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree -- to develop multiple stems? It comes up each year (after I cut it back) with the one, single main stem -- I would love to encourage it to develop multiple stems but have had no luck!)

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Still snowing this afternoon! Such a nice sticky snow and the trees are so pretty!

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Snow? Who said that? This is all the snow I see here today...

and even this is melting fast....

Yet another Cooper's hawk today,
Claire

Great pictures. Ctlady, it's fun to see your winter/summer shots. You're lucky to have a brook near your gardens. Between the woods, the brook, and the feeder you must attract a lot of birds. I like the way your butterfly garden is laid out. What have you got planted out there and what plants do you find attract the hummers and butterflies the most?

Today's snow is pretty sticky and it's really weighing down the branches, especially on the evergreens. Here is a picture I took this morning of the feeding station. Course the feeders were pretty busy today.

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Terrene,

No contest when it came to hummer favorites ... the Monarda "Jacob Kline" and the hanging fuschia baskets! The Salvia Black and Blue was a disappointment -- I thought they'd swarm to it based on everything I read, but there was very little interest... I'll try again this year.

I'm thinking of adding Lonicera "Blanche Sandman" to cover the fence around the dog run this spring -- I've seen it in bloom nearby and while not fragrant, I gather the hummers do love it and it seems very mildew resistant, which is more than I can say of the "Goldflame" I tried before.

Other than that, I've got -- most of it from fellow GW plant swappers, so thanks to ALL of you (you'll probably recognize your plants so you know who you are!): several monardas, several eupatorium varieties, columbines, swamp milkweed "Ice Ballet," Painter's Palette (don't know about the hummers but I LOVE this plant, which really took off in late summer and was HUGE by fall!), a ton of different sedums, Salvia "May Night," Agastache ÂBlue Fortune,' Buddleia (ÂBlack Knight and Nanho Blue'), Yarrow, a flowering quince, Clethra, Caryopteris ÂBlue Mist (which did TERRIBLY this first year -- just sat there! What am I doing wrong?), two rugosa roses, daylilies, winterberries, viburnum "Blue Muffin," a native azalea (can't remember the name), Helianthus "Lemon Queen" and an Obedient Plant. Other goodies like Richie's dwarf Korean lilac, a flowering almond shrub, lots of bleeding hearts (both the usual spectablis rosea and the native eximia), rudbeckia galore (including the INCREDIBLE "Indian Summer" which every garden should have, in my book!), sea hollies, asters, and so on.

Everything was new this year so it wasn't as impressive a display as you'd think from this list (what wasn't from GW swappers came from the Conservation District plant sale last April) so I am hoping things will really take off this second season. There are some iris that have yet to bloom so I don't even know what they are, a white forsythia that was new and hasn't yet bloomed -- I'm looking forward to seeing it -- plus three red Osiers and a few things (VERY few) that were already here, like the native witchhazel and a bevy of ferns that I've transplanted from the woods.

What I love is that there was nothing -- NOTHING -- but bare ground and crabgrass where this garden is now. The previous owner was ... how shall I say ... thumbless! (not even a black thumb -- NO thumb!) so it feels like a tremendous victory to have done all this in just a year or two. But without the Connecticut plant swappers -- Richie, Virginia, Sue, George, Hedy, Amy, Martie, and ALL the rest of the gang! -- I could never have done it. This little butterfly garden should really have a plaque that reads "Donated by members of the Connecticut Plant Swap!" :)

Wow, sounds like you've got a nice variety of plants and you've taken a barren patch of crabgrass and turned it into a little garden of Eden. Aren't the plant swaps great? I got a really pretty Rudbeckia from a swapper this past fall that I think is "Indian Summer". It's gorgeous, but from what I read, a short-lived perennial or annual. I've also been drooling over "Prairie Sun" and want to get some seeds for winter sowing. What is Painter's pallette and what is the botanical name?

Hands down, the plain 'ole Red Bee Balm (Monarda didyma) is the #1 Hummer plant in my yard. I got a few sprigs from my mother years ago that is now two healthy patches. Since then I've added other Monardas, but I've never seen a hummer on "Blue Stocking" and the other cultivars were small this past year. If you plant it, they will come!

Hi Terrene,

The Painter's Palette is Persicaria virginiana (there are several other varieties such as "Lance Corporal" with the dramatic burgundy chevron but without the lovely cream...) It started slowly but then just TOOK off as the summer went on; it has very small, red flowers on long, thin spikes kind of like heucheras ...so it's definitely a plant you'd use for its foliage appeal, not its flowers.

As for Indian Summer, I bought it and Irish Spring at the same time, and the Irish Spring was beautiful for one summer but that was it -- never saw it again (I had read that it might behave more like an annual). I was concerned about the Indian Summer because I'd read the same things you have, but it came back magnificently this summer (its second year) -- bloomed literally nonstop from May through September, with BIG (3-4" wide at least) blossoms. (Those are standard shasta daisies in the background, as a comparison.) We'll see if it can repeat that this summer -- here's what it looked like in its second season this past summer (after being moved to the new garden in May from its original location in another part of the yard):

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Here is a link that might be useful: Painter's Palette

LOVE that 'Indian Summer', I hope the one I got from the swap will come back or at least reseed - it only had a couple blooms. And the Persicaria virginiana 'Painter's Pallette' is very pretty too.

Had a great opportunity to take some "winter wonderland" shots today. Because I work from home most of the time, I was able to take a break about mid-day and go outside to take pictures, just as the sun was starting to come out. The snow on all the vegetation was beautiful, but as soon as the sun appeared, the melting started and clumps of snow started falling off!

Here are Miscanthus 'Gracillimus' grasses, normally standing over 6 feet tall but today they looked like scruffy clumps smothered in snow:

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In the back yard, there are a lot of wild crabapples growing. They have attractive fruit and the birds love them too. I've had flocks of Cedar Waxwings on the Crabapples. I guess these large red crabapples need to be "bletted" before the birds will eat them:

Here is a Eastern Red Cedar being weighed down by the snow, looks lopsided but kind of interesting:

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Love all the photos showing the snow delicately covering everything. Don't you think this year this effect is more pronounced then ever? Or may be due to the lack of snow the last 2 years :-) It is also interesting to see the before and after shots. Definitely fun with digital cameras to do this type of photo.

Claire amazing shot of the Coopers Hawk! Is this the common hawk that we see now along the highways the last few years?

I don't know about hawks along the highways, but the Cooper's Hawk is very common preying on birds at feeders. I read somewhere that their numbers are increasing - that Sharp-shinned Hawks used to be the main hawk going after little birds, but Cooper's are taking over.

Otherwise, around here, the Red-tailed Hawk is everywhere - they're bigger than the Cooper's and they mostly eat small rodents, not birds. I'm just learning about hawks, and am far, very far, from an expert. The digital camera is great - I see a bird, I take lots of photos, then I dig out the field guides and try to figure out what it is. If I'm not sure, I'll email the photo to Project FeederWatch and let them identify it.

Claire

Hello again...I have wanted to comment more on this thread because I really have enjoyed looking at everyone's photos. Just haven't had enough time...then I went back and looked to see if I had a summer pic of any of my winter pics...and I thought...well pretty boring since it is just the close up of a tree and not half as interesting as some of the shots of everyone's backyards, so I didn't.

Now I have a few more minutes and decided I might as well post it...boring or not. It is the summer shot of my previously posted middle photo. The same tree branch in May with a branch from a sambucus just below it that isn't in the winter view.

Sedum, ellen, terrene, claire...you have such nice open spaces with mature trees and no close neighbors or fences. Lucky ducks! Very beautiful and great shots! My yard is small and I really avoid taking any full shots of my backyard because it is very open right now, but with close neighbors, my borrowed vieiw is not ideal. [g]

gardenbear, it looks like you do a lot of gardening in your yard..vertical and vegetable?

Like dadymem, we laid down a lot of compost in the fall and if everything wasn't covered with snow
all our beds would have a similar look to them.

Wondering if any of the gardens that were bare picked up any snow with this last storm?

DtD...love your hellebore photo. I have one hellebore and after the snow dissappeared I went out and checked it and under a lot of leaf litter, I see new leaves growing, so I just tucked the plant back into the leaves, since I knew we were expecting more snow. I have some of that sedum that I cut way back in the fall. It gets out of hand really fast, but very easy to pull out. I also leave a container of it out all year.

Lovely butterfly garden ctlady...wow, does it look different under snow! You would never know it was there. [g]

I never tire of snowscapes...keep them coming!

:-)

Here are a few more from this weeks storm.

Oh, Man! You guys got icicles as well as snow! Lovely!

Here in the snow-challenged south, we have different winter colors - no sharp contrast of white and black. Instead we have shades of brown and green with small red accents.

Not to mention grey splotches. This squirrel was settled on the branches of a small climbing hydrangea that's growing up a pitch pine. The red berries are on the winterberry, and there's an ornamental grass nearby.

The squirrel looked like it was sitting in the bleachers watching the activity (birds and/or other squirrels) on the ground>.

These are the winter colors I'm trying to get in my garden, since snow is unreliable here. Birds and squirrels and other critters are welcome as a sign of life in a slumbering landscape.

Claire

Well, since I can't post spectacular snow vistas until we get some respectable snow down here, I'll stick with the more mundane before and after winter garden photos.

This is the winter shot of an area in the front of the yard with a stone retaining wall ending in the middle of it. Right now the ornamental grasses are the main winter interest (besides the stone wall), but there are some tiny conifers in there too and a big cotoneaster just out of view. I'm hoping the conifers will diversify the view.

In late spring, the irises come up.

Followed by the peonies, roses and late irises. You can see the ornamental grasses are Miscanthus variegata.

There are chrysanthemums there too, but I couldn't find a good photo.

Claire

Claire's squirrel is cute..he looks like he's intensely working on something. Perhaps a basket weaving project? :-)

Claire, pretty flowers. Your gardens look like they are in a sloping area, with a terraced effect. Rich, it looks like you have a lovely backyard. Impressive icicles (although, as a property manager of both residential and commercial property, when I see icicles I think "Uh oh, not a good sign, what is going on with the roof/gutters/skylights?").

PM2, I know what you mean about the neighbor's yards not being the greatest backdrop for photos. Although I have farmland and woods in the front across the street, and a deep backyard that is pretty wild, the next-door neighbors on either side are pretty close. I always try to take pictures to minimize the neighbors' houses.

This photo I took the other day of a pretty Juniperus virginiana (Eastern Red Cedar) is in my front yard - I cropped it so that you don't see my house (immediately to the left) or the neighbor's house (immediately to the right). So voila, no houses in the picture eh?

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Here is a pic I posted on the Feeder Watch thread of a Goldfinch eating Echinacea seedheads covered in the recent snow - you can see the side of the neighbor's garage in the background.

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I rooted around and found a snow-dusted photo from the storm in early December. I angled the shot to avoid the neighbor's house - his yard is the background.

This is my little pop-up greenhouse. I bought it to store my houseplants during construction. Now the only plants in there are some cuttings of my big old osmanthus. I air-layered them last summer and cut them off when it got too cold for roots in mid air. I'm hoping they'll last the winter - they looked alive yesterday. Alive as in the leaves haven't all dropped off, which osmanthus cuttings insist on doing, at least in my hands.

Claire

Rich...looks like you were out in the storm taking photos, like I was. I couldn't see any snow coming down in my photo but I was holding an umbrella to keep my camera dry. lol I just love those that are taken just after the storm when the sun comes out for the first time. Especially if there are icicles to reflect the light. Lots of fun. Your backyard looks so private Rich.

Claire...I agree with ellen, that squirrel looks like he is weaving a basket..lol! Love the wall in your photos. Nice change of grade and backdrop for your iris. I planted some new peonies last year and hope they will come back next year. They had a lot of brown on the leaves from the drought. Yours are so nice and full. You must have had them for awhile?

Oh terrene...you mean cropping like this one? [g]

What you can't see, is that on the other side of my post and rail fence, is someone's old truck with a bright blue tarp over it. [g] Thankfully it is on the other side of their yard with a children's play area between, but in some photos, you can see a corner of that blue tarp and *sigh* I can't wait for my new shrub border to grow in. :-)

I love your juniper virginiana. I wanted to plant one for about five years and I just couldn't find the place to put it. Do they attract wildlife? LOVE that photo of the goldfinch eating echinacea seed. Was that recently? I haven't seen a goldfinch since November. A groundhog kept eating my echinacea in the spring every time it would get larger than three inches tall and I barely saw a bloom. Next year..!

Claire...what a cute little greenhouse. Are you going to use it to start seed?

pm2

Juniperus virginiana is one of my favorite trees (good thing I live near Cedarville, a section of Plymouth). I particularly love them when they mature and get interesting structure. This tree has to be at least 70 or 80 years old - it was big and my climbing tree when I was a kid (the lower climbing branches are long gone). The berries are loved by Cedar Waxwings and I've seen Northern Flickers eating them.

This is the same tree closer so you can see the structure.

And closer yet is the trunk, about 2 feet in diameter. The trunks of the old cedars usually appear to be segmented.

Claire

pm2 - Those peonies have been moved about three times but have been in this spot for a couple of years. There are several different varieties, but the fullest are three Festiva Maximas planted together.

I'm not planning much seed-growing this year; the greenhouse will probably be used mostly to protect early spring purchases from late frosts.

The tree the squirrel sat on is a major thoroughfare for the critters. This morning I started to photograph some robins that were eating the remaining berries on the winterberry. One robin kept on munching on the berries as two different squirrels ran down the tree. The winterberry is actually 5 or 6 feet from the tree, it just looks like it's next to it.

Lots of life in the winter landscape here.

Claire

Claire, I didn't realize the Juniper trunks grew like that as they get older. I love it! Thanks for the close up!

pm2

prairiemoon2 cloudy pic was tail end of the storm, sunny pics were the next day. Yard is very private but we actually live in a town with population > 50,000, we're smack in the woods.

terrene I hear ya about the water but we had gutter guard installed last year and it drains great. I think for these icicles to form the gutters were snow covered and the sun was melting the snow from the roof so the water couldn't get in the gutters, just over flowed and froze.

Claire wow geat pictures.

I know this is a garden picture post but I had to share this one. This was while skiing on Loon Mountain in New Hampshire the day after a moderate snowfall last year. Let just say it's part of New England's backyard. I use it as my laptop background.

Very, very nice skiing photo!

And as long as we're bending the rules a little, I took this shot last night.

Claire

I just went off Garden Web to another website, and unexpectedly found this link:

Moon Games

Fun photos.

Claire

Great photos everyone!

Pm2 I think everyone has to get 'creative' to avoid something in the landscape that bothers them. It always amazed me the good job those people that took house photos found in real estate books did capturing just the right shot. Then you'd go look at the most perfect house and it would be next to a broken down warehouse or some other undesireable thing next door! And back when we bought they didn't have anyway to cheat and edit the photo :-)

Love all the photos of wildlife. Claire I've always coveted a winterberry bush. I really must get one now seeing how much wildlife yours attracts and it is quite pretty and native so no need to worry about invasiveness.

Also Claire and Rich - pretty shots of the 'non-garden' photos. Anyone please post your interesting winter shots of the landscape or places you've visited they don't all have to be garden related.

Sue

I am really enjoying the winter photos, and Sedum, this was a great idea for a thread. Claire, I like your pictures of that old Cedar and of the moon, and the moon photos on that link were very creative.

PM2, the Adirondack chair & stool looks perfect for sitting back and enjoying the gardens. I need to get one or two of those. And the neighbor's blue tarp would have definitely detracted from the picture. ;)

Sorry to hear about your Echinacea - those woodchucks are a real pain in the neck. Maybe you could try some wire caging to protect them (or shoot the Woodchucks hehe). Incidentally, Juniperus virginiana has a very high wildlife value for cover and food. Unfortunately, my 2 mature Cedars are both males - no berries! But I have a couple smaller ones and one of those could be a female.

The Goldfinch picture was taken after our last snow storm. I like the way the snow piled up on the seedheads. Last fall I cut the stems off the Echinacea (left a few for birdies) and every so often tape a bunch of them to the the feeder pole for the Goldfinches. I have a little flock of 10 or 12 that show up to pick at the seedheads and eat the BOSS (black-oil sunflower seed).

Here's another one that was taken a few days ago -

Hello all...I had some new comments and photos to post but I noticed that this thread is really loading very slowly. Even though there are only 45 posts to it, it is so photo heavy, that I am wondering whether it might work better to start a Winter Garden Photos Part 2? Sedum?

pm2

While sedum is considering a new thread, I'll post these photos here since they're a continuation of my previous post.

I didn't show the other side of the old cedar; a very different aspect. The tree has a rotten center, yet it seems to have a very healthy canopy. Perhaps the segmentation of the trunk (which was pointed out to me by an arborist) allows the tree to channel nutrients and water to and from the top by multiple methods. It also may be a reasonable way to support a divided trunk. The hole in the trunk has been there for years, as you can see by the weathering of the Green Man.

Claire

Sorry I missed this fabulous thread. kt