For nearly half the year here in Northern New England, our gardens are frozen, so we might as well take some time to plan for a garden to enjoy through the winter. You may be looking out at your own arctic landscape as you read this—take notice what areas of the yard or garden your eyes are most drawn to. Since most of us spend more time looking outside than being outside in the winter, those places you frequently glimpse are good candidates for a winter garden.
Primarily, a winter garden is a lot about foundational structures or the bones of the garden. Whether human-made or Earth-made, the type of structures I like to consider are fences, statues, arbors, and archways or trees, shrubs and plants. While this article is mostly about the latter, little details can make a big difference to wildlife in terms of human-made structures. Places for birds to perch and the opposite—places left untouched for other creatures to travel through—are both considerations. One example is before the deep snow turns to a hardpack of ice, I like to position my wheelbarrow standing on its nose against the garden’s wattle fence. The handles give the birds a little extra height to perch on. Another is that I purposefully leave an area wild for the turkeys to make their daily journey to a pine stand in safety. I like seeing the height of the meadow grasses with turkey trails throughout.
As stewards of the lands we call home, one of the great ways to be of service is to plant natives and remove non-natives, especially invasives. For five years, our family has been working to remove bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus) and multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora). In their steads, there is now white pine (Pinus strobus), red maple (Acer rubrum) and gray birch (Betula populifolia)—all self-sown once given a chance. Small groves of trees provide excellent winter interest—whether because of their unusual bark, the way the branches are accentuated by cold, gray days or even, perhaps, the creatures you get to watch enjoying them. At home, I especially love seeing the small grove of gray birch trees a stone’s throw from our kitchen window. Dozens of birds rest there each day, waiting their turn for the bird feeder. Other native trees that are good candidates for small groves include American hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana), Canada plum (Prunus nigra), serviceberry (Amelanchier spp.), and flowering dogwood (Cornus florida). 
Since planting trees isn’t always an option, incorporating native shrubs can also give structure to a garden space. Inkberry (Ilex glabra) can serve much the same function as English boxwood—from demarcating a pathway to surrounding a flower bed that tends toward the untidy. It’s like providing a frame for a painting and during the winter, you might only be able to see the frame. Other lovely native shrubs that can be used as accents or stand-alone specimens are witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) and mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia). I also love edible landscapes. High-bush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) and elderberry (Sambucus nigra) both serve well. Lastly, if you have the space, staghorn sumac (Rhus hirta) can be planted to form a bushy thicket that boasts velvety spires of red berries, followed by bright red leaves in fall. An added bonus is that you can make a Vitamin C-dense tea with the berries.
Once you’ve planted trees and shrubs, you can turn toward flowering perennials for more detailed features in the landscape. Because they’re readily available and beautiful, my “go-to’s” are coneflower (Echinacea pallida or E. purpurea), yarrow (Achillea millefolium), bee balm (Monarda fistulosa or M. punctata) and woodland stonecrop (Sedum ternatum). With these four plants alone, you can have a little bit of color from spring to fall, as well as winter interest. Rather than cut them back in the autumn, I leave them until spring. The leaves die back, stems become black, and poky little seed heads form in great clusters. The seed heads sway in the wind, holding up tiny tufts of snow. The chickadees sit atop them, too, occasionally snacking on the seeds and, I imagine, enjoying the view. 
There are so many options for natives that serve for winter interest and the above-mentioned ones are just a small offering; but I can say that I’ve worked with each of them and had great success. Whatever you choose to do in your garden this coming year—whether you want to try leaving flowering stalks up for an extra season or plant a cluster of inkberry—you’ll give yourself and the wildlife a little something extra to enjoy through the long winter.
Yedida Landis is a Gardener Priestess Writer who lives with her small family in Abenaki territory, otherwise known as rural New Hampshire. She is in her 20th year of teaching organic gardening to children, grades K-8, and is lead gardener for MacDowell, an artist-in-residency program. She holds a B.A. Environmental Studies & Spanish, as well as an M.A. Environmental Education and is an ordained Kohenet (Hebrew Priestess). She absolutely adores cats, cooking and going for long walks.
