slideshow: a garden walk in winter

BEFORE IT’S TECHNICALLY GONE, a look at winter in the garden, in words and pictures. Shall we take a walk together through scenes of the months just past?

Click the first thumbnail to get started, then toggle from slide to slide using the arrows beside each caption:

: Frost can come as early as late September or early October; by November, regular frost patterns on the toolshed windows are commonplace in the mornings.

: The first snows make beautiful icing on the espaliered Asian pear tree trained up against the back (south) side of the house.

: Out front, no entry in winter. The steep terrain of the front yard puts it off limits all winter long.

: Moles, voles or mice, perhaps, have left their mark in the snow; rabbit tracks are also seen all winter long.

: Buddha is up to his neck (and his beads) in winter.

: The steep walk from driveway to house looks more like an Olympic bobsled run than a pathway for foot traffic.

: From time to time, there’s a hopeful thaw, and the ice relents…but not for long.

: Even in the coldest, shortest days there is hope and color, like twigs of dogwood Cornus sericea ‘Silver and Gold’ (its leaves are green and white variegated in season).

: The leaves of the Korean maple, Acer pseudosieboldianum, a hardier small tree than the familiar Japanese maples, hold on all winter, cinnamon brown with reddish highlights to warm a sunny day.

: Don’t clean up too soon: Leaving grasses like Hakonechloa macra ‘All Gold’ in place can add color and texture in deepest winter.

: Another Buddha, from Java, senses the siege of winter is lifting…but will it be gone for good?

: A concrete birdbath no longer holds water, but rather moss and sedum and other creeping perennial things (and a covering of snow).

: By the back sheds, a native birch and a planted Chamaecyparis obtusa “Crippsii,’ with year-round golden foliage. The left cabin is home to Jack the Demon Cat.

: On a snowier day, the ‘Crippsii’ holds more snow on its finely textured foliage. The right shed is used to store pots.

: Uphill from the house, another steep ascent to a field that used to be managed as a meadow of little bluestem, a prairie grass. Eventually wild brambles infested the field: an example of the natural succession of woody plants over herbaceous ones.

: The last two years, I have kept the uphill meadow mown to thwart the brambles. After a few years of this nontoxic weed control, I will be able to have my bluestem meadow again…at least for a few years.

: One of several pairs of colorful chairs that make even the bleakest day seem happier.

: To the west, out past the vegetable beds (hidden by snow), a tiny garden shed.

: From the backyard looking to the southwest.

: Another view from the backyard, of a concolor fir and old apple trees.

: A large sheared ‘Candicans’ concolor fir, Abies concolor, is a blue beacon on the back hillside year round.

: In the far field to the west of the house, one of two weeping Alaska cedars, Chamaecyparis nootkatensis ‘Pendula.’

: My favorite of the six old apples that remain on this very old orchard remnant.

: My favorite of the six old apples that remain on this very old orchard remnant. It often has red apples even well into the winter, which delights me (and hungry birds).

: My favorite of the six old apples that remain on this very old orchard remnant. Its whirling structure is probably 30 feet across and 15 or more feet high.