The Snow Bomb

I love snow.

A lot. As I’ve said many times before, I even like winter better than summer, a very odd thing for a gardener, but then again, I really don’t like ‘gardening’, itself, I like plants, design and the culture of plants, but I hate weeding, cutting shrubs and lawns, and anything that falls under category of ‘maintenance. But I do like snow.

 I think this unusual obsession’ for a gardener evolved for a number of reasons. First, snow was always anticipated in my home, especially when I was a child. We even celebrated a snowfall. Second, my garden was designed to look best in the winter, with a formal structure complete with symmetrical tall evergreens, lots of shrubs which are both evergreen and trimmed deciduous shrubs, each providing a unique texture when draped in a thick blanket of snow, it can be very pretty, and it’s hard to find a part of the garden that looks ugly after a snowstorm.

 I cannot take any credit for this, since I live in the same house that I was born in, (and the same house and garden that my 97 year old father was born in for that matter), whenever snow is forecast, we would, as  a family, celebrate the event with a number of rituals, many of which I continue today. Rituals like homemade buttermilk waffles in the morning when it is snowing, and illuminating the snow at night with spotlights both on the house, shining out onto the garden, which at night, makes the entire yard look like a stage set from ‘The Nutcracker”.

Planting  your garden so that it looks awesome after a snowfall is key. I remember my father explaining how his late brother planned the original design for our garden back in 1925, when it was first planted with a design. I have the unique luxury to be able to speak to the history of every tall tree, or shrub in my garden, and tell you when it was planted, and yes, many are as old as 90 years.

The key here is balance. Many of our trees are too old, so to be honest, we are removing a few each year to adjust the balance of height, volume and scale, but when you plant younger evergreens ( spruces, pines, hemlocks) you then begin to get a tiered effect, understory trees  that are evergreen when combined with mature deciduous trees like ash and oak, or a combination inspired by nature, my favorite combination of white birch trees in clumps and groves, mixed in with fir, spruce and pine.

Inspiration can come from nature itself, or idealized nature, in my case, from a Disney animated film like Bambi, where you see perfectly assembled ‘natural’ scapes of evergreens and tall forest trees, with woodland meadows that are suddenly open spaces, edged with birches and sprinkled with wild flowers in drifts. It is safe to say that I am both inspired in my garden design by a combination of influences, ranging from the grandeur of nature itself ( Paradise Meadows at Mount Rainier) all the way to vintage Walt Disney animated films).

OK, the only thing missing from my motif is deer, but sadly, we have never seen one here ( really!). Please don’t email me about this.

Many of my friends who hate snow  ( like Joe), grew up in a home where life was centered around the TV,  and not centered on  what was happening outside.  Any lighting at night came from just an orange halide lamp over a dumpster, and snow only meant one good thing ( no school) and many bad things like shoveling. I think his hatred for snow is intensified because there was not ritual which was positive, or celebratory.

So if you have children, consider the good side of snow, its beauty, its magic. GO skiing or tobogganing. Try snowshoeing, sledding or go on a walk at night when it is snowing.

And remember, January snowflakes taste the best.