Conjuring A Wondrous Winter Garden Color Story I Love

I quickly discovered that designing a winter garden with both ornamentals (beauty) and edibles (function) is not a walk in the park for gardeners who love a vivid color story in their garden.

Why? Let me explain.

Winter is a beautiful season; however, the color story of a winter landscape in New Orleans tends to be monochromatic because most plants that provide color don’t bloom over the winter. We either have stumps of plants that have died back or evergreens because they hold up to our icy temperatures (when we get them). Gardens are evergreen for this reason, too. We grow our leafy greens and brassicas because of the weather conditions here this time of year.

Don’t get me wrong– I love green and appreciate the mental health benefits of the color. (Yes to garden bathing!) However, I know myself well enough to know that having to stare at the same sea of green on my balcony every day after being enveloped by color all summer and fall would break me.

To my surprise and delight, I’ve achieved a colorful winter garden. If you’re like me and would crave color in your garden every season, follow me as I walk through my process.

Picking My Color Story Palette

Designing my fall garden was a breeze because fall means jewel tones for me, which are my favorite. Building my garden around that color family came naturally. Additionally, the color of the fruit from my warm season crops gave me a starting point. Lastly, there was a variety of complementary plants to choose from.

I looked to brilliant burgundies from Coleus & Oxalis to complement the corals and reds of my okras. I planted burnt orange and gold zinnias to add richer variation to the yellow squash. To top it off, I grabbed lux potato vines and blue salvia to add depth to the bright purples in my eggplant.

Creating a color palette for my winter garden would not be as effortless.

I wouldn’t have a starting point because my garden is completely transforming.
At first thought, cool season crops are predominately green.
Winter = cooler and softer tints to me
There’s not much to choose from to design my winter garden because there aren’t as many plants that can grow and thrive during the winter season.

I needed a new strategy.

So, I sat down and “winterized” my favorite hues – brightening, softening, and cooling those rich jewel tones. From there, I tweaked until I got a palette that represented my interpretation of winter:

Bringing my Color Story to Life with Vibrant Varieties

I know what you’re thinking– Couldn’t you just plant evergreen crops with colorful flowers all around them?

I could, but I won’t because most of the flowers I’ve seen at my local nurseries are too bright and warm. They’re stunning, just not the vibe I’m going for. They read more spring/summer than winter to me.

So, with my color palette in one hand and the list of everything I want to grow in the other, I set out to find varieties of crops that lived at the intersection of the two.

Since winter isn’t a “flowering to fruit” season, I focused on other parts of the plant that had these colors: foliage and stems.

Bonus: With this strategy, I get to try exotic and uncommon varieties with the evergreen crops I’ve come to know and love. Even more, crops that produce blue and purple foliage have more health benefits than their green counterparts because they contain an antioxidant called anthocyanin. Healing and beautiful? Yes, please!

Finishing My Color Story with Florals

You didn’t think I wouldn’t have any flowers, did you?

I believe every garden needs a few florals to support our pollinators and to add color when and how they want it. So, I had a fun idea.

We don’t get snow here in South Louisiana, but I think anything related to winter still needs splashes of white. (Maybe that comes from my years of living in New York.) Enter florals.

I’m going to add winter florals like pansies, snapdragons, and sweet alyssum to bring the winter theme together.