Like a regrettable one night stand,  the relationship we have with our gardens can go from good to bad unexpectedly. You looked SO good last summer (night) and now, by the harsh light of winter (day) oh, the horror! What did I do? How could this all turn out to be so…unimpressive?

You toiled all spring, your garden was boomin’ all summer long and now where is the winter affirmation of all the hard work? To be brutally honest, anyone can make a garden look fab in July. Every perennial and annual wants to strut its flowery, colorful stuff in the middle of summer. Side note: whether or not it feels easy is for another blog post. Here in Chicago, or any place your snot turns into a frost-sicle on your upper lip, gardens need to be designed to look soul-nourishingly beautiful even on the most miserable winter day.

When your lilies, coleus and poppies have all left you in the cold (presumably planning your big move to Hawaii) take heart in knowing there are other options. Evergreen shrubs come to mind – boxwoods, junipers, hollies- but that’s too easy. Not to say they aren’t great. I do think, for the most part, landscapes should have some kind of evergreen shrub structure supporting its design. But let’s talk about some of the less obvious plants which can help carry you through, visually and mentally, to spring.

Evergreen / Semi-Evergreen Perennials   Liriope spicata, Carex ‘Ice Dance’, Epimedium (pictured bottom left), Pachysandra terminalis, Hedera helix (pictured top right) are some of my personal favorites for providing winter color. Hedera helix is notable since it can be a groundcover providing a carpet of green, or a vine- creating a green wall year round.

Seed heads /  Pods / Structure   Some plants can be stunning in winter simply because of their dried structure. The dark spiked seed heads on Echinacea (pictured top left) stay on all winter providing food for hungry creatures and visual texture for us. Grasses (bottom right) are another great structural plant. When the snow and ice piles on top of these plants they turn into mini Gaudi-esque masterpieces. Some of my favorite grasses for cold climates are Panicum virgatum ‘heavy metal’ and Eragrostis spectabilis (purple love grass) and Sporobolus heterolepsis ‘tara’. Baptisia and Asclepis tuberosa are excellent choices for seed pods that persist through the cold.

(image credits: echinacea- flickr user ms.tea ; Hedera helix – flickr user Jason Sturner 72 ; Epimedium- flickr user wallygrom ; grasses- flickr user normanack)

Life is busy, like dang. No one has time to sit in traffic just to pick up a Christmas tree. There’s more important things to do like watching Game of Thrones in your pajamas. Let us deliver, we’ll even bring it inside  and set it up in a stand. Don’t have a stand? Lucky for you we have those too!

Give us a call today to set up a time that works for your time schedule. We’re early to rise, stay up late and here to serve. Give us a shout we’re here to help and happy to do so. Sorry Brooklyn, this offer is for Chicago residents only.

Phone: 312.226.5950

Email: info@sprouthome.com

First on the list is the Meyer Lemon:

Thought to be a cross between a standard orange and a lemon way back when,  the important part is the resulting citrus — yellow like a lemon, but much sweeter, like an orange. Growing to about an 8-10 ft tree, it’s not going to take over your living room, all you will need to supply is plenty of light, preferably a window with at least several hours of direct sun rays reaching the plant. Keep this fella in a well-draining soil and keep evenly watered, feeding as needed (it is a fruit tree after all.) As an added bonus, enjoy glossy green foliage and heavily fragranced flowers — these can be grown outdoors in USDA Zones 9+ you lucky devils…

Next up are two epiphytic plants — apathetic plants will be discussed in later postings — the Vanilla Orchid and Dragon Fruit:

The vine you see is indeed an orchid — enjoying warmth, bright light and high humidity over regular waterings, this vine will grow and grow, then mature once it hits about 10 ft. At this length, it may flower and can be hand pollinated resulting in the vanilla bean prized by bakers and the sweet-toothed worldwide. The alien to the right is a species of cactus, which can be cultivated just as the orchid, but with much more direct sun. Naturally, these two plants are found in Central America, but this cactus is typically growing on rockier surfaces. High humidity is important and so is a little patience . If the tasty, sweet fruit doesn’t entice you, perhaps the sweet-smelling nocturnal flowers are more your speed.

Add that to your plant repertoire!

By the way, we are still accepting photos of awesome pet get-ups for our own amusement if you want to send them our way !

CONTEST: Tell us your favorite thing to do with a pumpkin besides carve it. For the next three days, Sprout Home will give away one of our crazy, awesome pumpkins or squash from our garden to the comment we like the most. You’ve seen how cool they are right?  There are big ones, small ones, black ones, white ones, some that look like swans. So make your idea great and share it with us. How?

You can leave a note here, add it to our Facebook posting, tweet it to us, or take a picture and tag us on Instagram (@ SproutHomeChicago). A pumpkin a day until the witches come out to play! Let’s hear what you have to say, folks! We’ll choose our winners each day by 5pm, so you can swing by and pick one out after work. Show us whatchoo got!

If you’re still a little shy about putting together a terrarium and you don’t have time to stop in for a class, you’ll want to check out this great little video by our favorite Chicago blogger, Nicole Balch, better known as Making it Lovely. She comes to see us for her terrarium supplies and we think you should too. Make them for yourselves or as gifts, just swing by the shop and we’ll set you up with everything you need.

(Image: Making It Lovely)

We ran across these little fingernail lawns over at MAKE and thought they were just the most curious idea. Think of them as terrariums without the container! Here’s to hoping they can still zip their pants after they go to the little girls’ room with those bad boys! High five for originality! Check out all the details over at MAKE.

(Image: Alice Bartlett via MAKE)