Garden Photo of the Day

Winter is beautiful in Daniela’s garden (12 photos)

Photo/Illustration: All photos courtesy of Daniela Baloi

Happy Friday, everyone! Let’s finish the week with a glimpse of what’s in store for us in the coming months. There was some talk a few days ago, when we featured Daniela Baloi’s Ohio garden for a couple of days (HERE and HERE), that there wasn’t enough planning for winter interest in her borders.

Several people gave Daniela some great suggestions, which she sincerely appreciates, but she also wants to reassure everyone that there’s no shortage of beauty for her to enjoy during the colder months. Luckily she keep her camera handy year-round!

I think the LACK of a garden in winter, especially on the overwhelmingly summer-lush east coast, is gorgeous in itself. An uninterrupted blanket of snow on a sleeping garden is comforting. Does that make sense? Thanks, Daniela, for reminding us to appreciate the subtle charms of winter!

***Guess what? We’re visiting Daniela’s garden AGAIN on Monday! We haven’t seen her veggie garden yet. Stay tuned…it’s worth the weekend wait!***

**** The push is still on–get outside and take some last minute shots, or compile a few you took earlier in the season. I’ll be eternally grateful…. Email them to [email protected]. Thanks! ****

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Comments

  1. user-1020932 10/18/2013

    man that's a lot of snow! it is beautiful to see in YOUR garden not sure i could handle that much here having never experienced it before i would be overwhelmed. and a vegetable garden on Monday, you continue to surprise and amaze,Daniela, i will look forward to Monday. yep, you rock

  2. Aarchman07030 10/18/2013

    Sometimes there will be a GPOD that makes me jealous of the easy, carefree life of the Zone 8 gardener.

    Then, photos like Today's make the Puritan blood of my Dutch ancestors--mistrustful of too much easy sunshine without having paid the piper in hours of shoveling and cold fingers and toes--rise up and remind me that I never feel really happy in a place without four seasons.

    The smell in the air on a Winter night that tells you--more reliably than any Doppler forecast--that it's going to snow.

    That "school's-going-to-be-cancelled" excitement (No matter how old you are) when you wake up in the middle of the night and the snow is falling hard and fast.

    The crunch under your boots of hard-packed snow.

    The way your lungs hurt when you breathe deep on a frosty morning.

    The alien landscape of your familiar neighborhood under the first deep snowfall.

    The deep-in-your-bones thrill of the first crocus appearing in the snow.

    Thanks for the photos, Daniela!

  3. user-1020932 10/18/2013

    well, Aarchman you have now made me hungry for snow! thanks for reminding me of the fun side of winter

  4. flowerladydi 10/18/2013

    Again,,,,, beautiful Daniella! ( sorry, mispelled your name the other day),,,, while I do not look forward to the cold we will soon be experiencing,,, I too truly love the snow!,,, yours was beautiful!!!,,, there is a warm comfort to it,,, and to see your cardinals is all the color needed!,,, for the way it lays on your conifers,,,and blankets your yard is gorgeous and interesting in itself! LOVE LOVE LOVE the forest background,,, you do have a yard for all seasons! Thank you for sharing again!

  5. User avater
    meander_michaele 10/18/2013

    Even though this particular set of pictures don't show it, I know that snow brings kids' faces bursting with smiles and excitement and maybe even homemade cocoa simmering on the stove-top.
    Daniella, your snow covered winter garden has beautiful textures, pops of color, fascinating shapes and shadows. I don't feel gypped at all soaking up these views. It's all stunning!

  6. tractor1 10/18/2013

    I can't choose a favorite season, I love them all, but for me winter in The Catskills is special as it holds wonderful childhood memories from visiting my grandparent's farm for the holidays. Winter gives me a break from gardening and snow plowing is fun.

  7. annek 10/18/2013

    Simply beautiful. It appears that you receive much more snow than we do in the river valley of western Montana. To have a quieting blanket of white outside your windows is supreme. Thank you

  8. cwheat000 10/18/2013

    Very pretty winter landscapes. I love snow, but I am not quite ready for it. Aarchman very eloquently describes it joys. The skiing is awesome,too. I like the cabbage shot a lot.

  9. sheila_schultz 10/18/2013

    How appropriate to see your beautiful winter photos this morning as I woke up to snow falling with an inch already trying to blanket my gardens! Daniela, your gardens and the views from your windows are beautiful no matter what the season... your photography ain't half bad either! Thank you for giving us so much to think about over the next few months.

    Aarchman07030, your eloquent words made me smile. I love the Winter season, too. For me, it's a quiet time to relax, catch up on inside chores and dream about new possibilities for my gardens and containers. Then when spring arrives, I'm itchin' to get out and play!

    Have a wonderful weekend, my gardening friends!

  10. user-7006902 10/18/2013

    With such long winters here I always keep design strategies for winter in the back of my mind when making more gardens. My favorite combo in my own garden is a red twig dogwood in front of a blue spruce with a copper bird feeder. It really keeps me going through winter. I added a yellow twig dogwood recently, too. Winter in the garden can be beautiful as you have shown here. Birds are the life of the garden. I always swoon at the sight of a cardinal against a snowy backdrop. I look very forward to seeing your vegetable garden!

  11. GrannyMay 10/18/2013

    Beautiful! Getting out with the camera after a thick blanket of new snow has covered everything has to be good for the soul! Thank you for sharing these lovely moments Daniela.

  12. sheila_schultz 10/18/2013

    thevioletfern... since you added a yellow twig dogwood to your winter view, have you ever seen a Midwinter Fire dogwood? It rocks! The branching goes from red to orange and is spectacular in the winter, especially when combined with a red twig and yellow twig!

  13. GrannyCC 10/18/2013

    Gorgeous!! Your borders still look wonderful even in the snow.
    Beautiful photography.

  14. janetsfolly 10/18/2013

    Wow!! This is a beautiful shot of what's coming at us and, along with aarchman's sentiments, actually helps me prepare mentally. We just returned from a wonderful stretch of Indian summer in the NEK of Vermont so I'm scrambling to catch up on GPOD (no WiFi up there!) and my gardening chores! Daniela, that's some serious snow! Where in Ohio are you? I love Winter for the rest it gives me and the feeling when I look out on scenes such as these that I and the blanketed earth share a very special secret. Love the shot of the flowering cabbage/kale and especially the 'snow-cone apostrophe' with the little elf caught just appearing! Thanks for sharing all fo your seasons:-).

  15. wwross 10/18/2013

    Hey, everything is covered with snow!! Just kidding. It looks great.

    Living here in global-warming, Northern Virginia, I am getting nostalgic about such scenes, which we do not seem to experience recently.

  16. mainer59 10/18/2013

    I'm not ready for this yet! It's pretty obvious why shrubs aren't the answer between your walk and the house. They'd get damaged during shoveling. At my house the banks beside the walk can get shoulder height (snowfall plus extra from the roof plus what is placed there from the path). So... to sum it up, your border is perfect, summer and winter. Furthermore, your border is only a piece of the grounds, with other scenes becoming focal points in winter.

  17. tractor1 10/18/2013

    mainer59: Most everyone in cold climes uses shrubs as foundation plantings near their house without them suffering snow damage (well chosen evergreens are quite stout) and in this case there isn't even much soffit overhang to block rainfall so there is plenty of space to fit in foundation shrubbery. And most folks plant shrubs along walkways too, they just don't plant tall shrubs right adjacent to where they shovel snow... and if I remember correctly that paved path is at least twice the width of the shoveled path so no snow is piled where there'd be plantings. Both those beds would look much more aesthetically pleasing during winter planted with some well chosen shrubs/small trees... even in cold climes it's rare that snow covers the ground all winter, why would anyone want to look at nothing but all that bleak dirt for several months every year. Those areas look very nicely planted during warm weather but not very pleasing in cold weather. I'd like to see some shrubbery in those areas, will make an attractive backdrop for the warm weather plantings as well. I'm only making a well intended suggestion, it's not meant to be taken as a personal criticism.

  18. user-1020932 10/18/2013

    daniela does not want shrubs,,, nor does she need them. she is a perennial girl! it's her garden . please for the love of god just give it the hell up. i said i wouldn't respond but jeebus enough is enough

  19. janeeliz 10/18/2013

    I love seeing your winter garden, Daniela...altho I'm not near ready for my own to be covered with snow. Our days are still in the 60's.The cardinal against the snow is so beautiful...and the woods charming, Also love your snow covered kale near the purple beautyberries. My son just sent me home with a few of his from NJ to plant in my Maine garden , I tried them once before here but got no berries; this is a different variety and hope springs eternal, especially for gardeners! Looking forward to seeing your veggie garden on Mon.

  20. GrannyMay 10/18/2013

    Jeff, some folks will never "get it". Most of us do, and we thank you for your chivalrous attitude. Daniela will continue to make her garden the way she wants it to be - and that is haw we all should do it.
    How wonderful that there are so many different gardening styles, different climates, different interests. We share and we learn.

  21. user-1020932 10/18/2013

    thank you May, i knew i liked you when i first saw your garden and you were growing figs in a pot. it's pretty clear Daniela knows what she's doing . i wish she and the family could come to Tennessee and help me, , i'm weak in my perennial experience and knowledge.

  22. sheila_schultz 10/19/2013

    I do love that as gardeners we all can follow our passions and plant what makes us happy. For me, I plant what I like and what I hope will grow to become part of my vision. If it doesn't work, I'll try again with the plant of my choice.

    I think we all need to remember that our gardens are an extension of who we are, and what we see as beauty. Each and every garden is a spot of happiness as we gaze out our windows.

  23. wGardens 10/19/2013

    Brrr! Think I'll snuggle down a little more in the blankets tonight!!!

    Enjoyed your photos very much. Beautiful shots. Looking forward to seeing your veggie garden! Thanks for sharing!

  24. wildthyme 10/20/2013

    Oh, no! We can't go from summer to winter without some fall garden shots, Michele!

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