Don’t Ignore Garden Bones

By now some of our gardens have had their first frost, which lays to rest many of the annuals and marginal plants in our gardens.
Vegetables are mostly harvested, and we should be done our fall plantings soon. Perennials will linger a bit longer until an actual freeze, but they may not look too attractive.
Many gardeners are in the habit of cutting all seasonal growth back to the ground, such as grasses and perennials, in late Oct. This of course is a two-sided argument. For one — it does make a yard tidy for the winter; and although it does make for an easy emergence of the spring growth, it also robs the garden of interest and habitat.
This clean garden versus natural garden argument gives a chance to explore and expose the idea of garden bones. The physical structure of your garden is more visually important than the plants that make it up.
Good garden design starts with creating a space that is not only unified and interesting to the eye; it is also useful and enjoyable to be in for humans and wildlife. A garden that is balanced by including wood, stone, brick, metal and water with its plants is a garden that will have multi season interest.
The “bones” of a garden are what is left after the leaves fall off and living plants give way to spent, persisting foliage masses.
These bones are usually thought of as walks, gates, fences, decks and patios, but also should include the way tree trunks emerge from groundcover, how sweeps of evergreens lead the eye and how masses of berried plants light up the day and attract dozens of birds and animals moving about the garden causing excitement.
A well-placed specimen plant (notice the singular tense of specimen, as people have far too many showy plants in their gardens today to consider that any one of them remain a true focal point) supported by a complementing groundcover or companion plantings of less interest will stand out and bring the desired personality to a garden.
A bank of screening shrubs may also hide a neighbor who leaves his canoe out all year, but will also work to be the background for your garden.
Evergreen viburnums, hollies and laurel with the uncut seeds of rudbeckia, sedum and grasses massed in front of them will offer food for wildlife and protection from predators as they jump in and out of the foliage to eat.
But the ultimate “bones” for the garden could be just a grass or stone path that meanders from section to section, tying it all together and allowing you to wander.
What is the best way to reveal the bones of a garden? Wait until the first light snow, watch how all the flat planes emerge on walks and lawns, the fence rails so straight, how the seeds and blades hold slender slips of snow and how branches and leaves become art when whispers of snow show their outlines.
—Submitted by Stan Sperlak artist, teacher, writer and garden designer, from Cape May Court House, where he has Cape Shore Gardens and Crow Creek Studio.