January is an odd time for landscaping, even though the weather so far this winter has been unusually mild, and we have just finished the wettest year on record. The last time I looked, the daffodils in the yard were about two inches tall- they are so confused by our mild temps. January is the time for planning and daydreaming. The seed catalogs start arriving in the mail, so if it ever snows this month and you are forced to stay in the house for a day or two, you can pour over the beautiful selections in flowers and plants available to you in 2012.
A very worthwhile project this time of year is to go outside, take a long, hard look at your landscaping and assess how it looks in the dead of winter. When landscaping in warm weather, all the plants have their leaves and it can be difficult to visualize what those plants will look like in winter when the leaves are gone. Basic design principles are balance, repetition, unity, and variety. Good landscapes have a balance of evergreen plants and deciduous plants. Varieties of evergreens, such as boxwoods, should be planted in multiples, as should deciduous shrubs, like spireas or barberries. No large quantities of any one type of plant should be planted. And all this advice adds up to variety!
Look at your plantings now and see if there are too many bare plants clustered together or too many green leaved or needled plants in a spot. Would it look better if you traded in some winter bare plants for some that keep their leaves all winter?
