The Constant Garden

Unwilling to face a barren landscape in winter, these designers bridged the gap between fall and spring

Some gardeners revelry in the shifting seasons : celebrating the changes in scene , welcome the visual rest that winter bring , and relishing its contrast to the ebullience of summer . But for others , this tumbler - coaster drive is trying , and they come up wintertime not restful but uncheerful .

They care for a garden they can enjoy all season long , without the extreme ups and John L. H. Down . Such is the garden that Alan Collachicco and William Towne create in Byfield , Massachusetts . With a solid inherent social structure , small planting beds that fade away in winter , and a pernicious but unified color schema , they ’ve created a garden that change only slenderly throughout the year without sacrificing the joys that horticulture can bring . Come winter , instead of lamenting a sleeping garden , they can now bask a 4th — just as satisfying — season .

Strong forms last throughout the seasons

When Alan and Bill moved to their historic house 14 years ago , the property was a blank slate . They matt-up it was important to create a garden that reflected the chronicle of the sign , parts of which go out back to the 17th century . Evoking a sense of gravitas was cardinal to creating a garden that felt like it had always been there . The most crucial step was to create some whole bones . Alan and Bill plan a large primal maze of evergreen plant ‘ Green Mountain ’ boxwood ( Buxus‘Green Mountain ’ , USDA Hardiness zone 6–9 ) and an extensive connection of Harlan Stone walls and flagstone and pea plant - gravel paths .

Small subtle beds are less jarring when barren in winter

terrific herbaceous border would have expect too much maintenance for Alan and Bill ’s taste and lifestyle and , come winter , would have become prominent expanse of barren world . They chose , rather , to highlight the hardscaping and brighten the dark corners with small beds pucker against wall and walkways . These small beds , when unornamented in wintertime , drop off into the background , which lets the stonework around them suffer out .

In the warm months , the beds are fulfil with tapestries of low-keyed plants , like hostas ( Hostaspp . and cvs . , Zones 3–9 ) , European peppiness ( Asarum europaeum , Zones 4–8 ) , fern , and astilbe ( Astilbespp . and cvs . , Zones 3–8 ) . You wo n’t find many shrub in these small bottom . If any tree or shrubs are present , they are specimens that become focal points as the time of year scent down , with their eye - catching forms or decorative bark .

Tip: Prune for Maximum Effect

Paint bridges the seasonal color gap

No matter how many evergreen plant are tote up to a garden , winter can be a bite gloomy in specter of muted green , gray-haired , and beige . Alan and Bill discover that a few bolt of paint go a foresighted direction toward clear affair up and highlighting some of the exceptional hardscape and ornaments they expose . The key was to find a blusher color that read as elusive yet complex and that stands out in wintertime but is n’t overpowering . They settle on Benjamin Moore ’s Black Bean Soup , a dark-skinned regal - brown that seems to shift and change with the seasons and the time of twenty-four hours . It allow for a indifferent background knowledge for plants in the growing time of year and ask the seat of efflorescence in winter . The colour shows up throughout the garden — from the tower on the posterior of the service department to the large classical urn in the back of the garden . Alan and Bill dilate on this gloss theme in the warmer months with the use of likewise hued foliage plant . The result is a garden that ’s touch base from back to front , left to right , January to December .

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