Gardening Guides
Celebrate the Browns, Tans and Golds of Fall and Winter Gardens
When designing gardens for cold weather, use plants with these subtle hues for visual interest
For many of us, the garden season ends in autumn. Colors fade and life seems to vanish. Instead of rushing to clean up the garden, cutting it all down and preparing it for spring, let’s celebrate it. We’ve discussed how leaving the garden up preserves habitat for wildlife, but it also adds colorful beauty.
Browns, tans and golds offer many design possibilities in a landscape that honors decay. These natural tones will help make our landscapes appear warmer on the coldest days. Let’s look at how plant color, texture and form can give us some stunning winter gardens.
Browns, tans and golds offer many design possibilities in a landscape that honors decay. These natural tones will help make our landscapes appear warmer on the coldest days. Let’s look at how plant color, texture and form can give us some stunning winter gardens.
Seed head accents. Seed heads also add dramatic interest in the winter garden. Many have a very dark brown coloration, bordering on jet black, like the giant coneflowers (Rudbeckia maxima) towering above the tan foliage in the previous photo. Not only is the color contrast exciting, but the height of these heads adds another layer of garden interest. Textural contrasts are also displayed here. Fluffy and airy grasses sit beside straight and sharp seed heads and plant stalks.
Why You Should Let Your Garden Go to Seed
Why You Should Let Your Garden Go to Seed
We can plan for the play between the browns and tans that plants exhibit when they enter dormancy. Here, a simple river of Autumn Delight stonecrop (Sedum ‘Beka’) — with its bronzy seed heads atop erect stalks — plays well against the cloudy appearance of the short grasses.
Lingering leaves. Beyond grasses, there are plants that retain their dead foliage throughout the winter. For example, several oak and beech species hold on to their leaves and provide added color and structural interest higher up in the garden.
Consider how such leaf-lingering trees might frame a distant view or grace a walkway. Swamp white oak (Quercus bicolor) adds interest in the foreground of the Chicago garden seen here, connecting the landscape with the mature oaks on the golf course beyond.
Consider how such leaf-lingering trees might frame a distant view or grace a walkway. Swamp white oak (Quercus bicolor) adds interest in the foreground of the Chicago garden seen here, connecting the landscape with the mature oaks on the golf course beyond.
One year my blue wild indigo (Baptisia australis) kept its leaves past the killing freezes and then all the way into spring. I was astounded by how their coppery, tan and smoky-gray tinge always looked different as the sun moved across the sky.
There are all kinds of perennial flowers like this that hold on to many of their dead leaves, including some asters, goldenrods, bonesets and even Culver’s root (Veronicastrum virginicum). You can arrange them among grasses or trees to create diverse levels, or tiers, of sculpture and sound that last through the winter.
See readers’ favorite fall trees
There are all kinds of perennial flowers like this that hold on to many of their dead leaves, including some asters, goldenrods, bonesets and even Culver’s root (Veronicastrum virginicum). You can arrange them among grasses or trees to create diverse levels, or tiers, of sculpture and sound that last through the winter.
See readers’ favorite fall trees
There are countless ways to design for pleasing winter gardens, especially when we delve into the spectrum of medium browns, tans and dark chocolates.
Tell us: Has your idea of brown in the garden changed? How do you use it in your landscape to add texture and seasonal joy?
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Tell us: Has your idea of brown in the garden changed? How do you use it in your landscape to add texture and seasonal joy?
More
Why Fall Is the Best Time for Planting
7 Reasons Not to ‘Clean Up’ Your Fall Garden
Little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) lends tans and grays, whereas Indian grass (Sorghastrum nutans), a taller grass, shows off hints of coppery brown. Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) offers a brighter tanned yellow.
10 Ornamental Grasses to Plant This Fall