Winter garden

This article is regarding the kind of garden maintained in wintertime; for other meanings, see Winter Garden

Winter Garden Atrium, New York City, United States

Sheffield Winter Gardens, England

A winter garden is a kind of garden maintained in wintertime.

History

The origin of the winter garden dates back to the 17th to 19th centuries where European nobility would construct large conservatories that would house tropical and subtropical plants and would act as an extension of their living space. Many of these would be attached to their main palaces. Earlier versions would be constructed of masonry with large windows and a glass roof, usually in the Classical or Gothic styles.^[1] While in the 19th century many of these conservatories were made out of iron and curvilinear glass. Winter gardens were not just restricted to private residence, many were built for the greater public. The first large public winter garden was built in 1842-46 in Regent's Park in London and was used for evening occasions, large flower shows and social gatherings.^[2] Other winter gardens, such as The Crystal Palace by Sir Joseph Paxton in 1851, were soon built and used for a variety of purposes.

Present

The modern winter garden is usually a garden planted either to produce food, or at least to remain visibly planted and slowly develop, throughout the winter, or else a garden whose plants will serve as living decoration all winter. One basic premise, in temperate or colder regions, to the winter garden is that the plants may indeed become dormant when snow covers the ground, but will grow each time the sun heats at least part of the plant to above freezing (snow or not), especially in regions where snow cover and below-freezing temperatures are not constant for months at a time.

Vegetables that are typically, or can be, used in a winter garden include:

• Several breeds of winter-hardy cabbage
• Specific winter-hardy breeds of broccoli
• Winter rye is grown where a summer garden will be, in order to protect the ground from weeds, and provide soil amendment when tilled directly into the soil the following spring
• beets
• carrots
• alliums—onions, chives, and their relatives are evergreen, though some may die back during the winter and recover in the spring.
• oregano (including marjoram) -- known to hardily survive the winter up to Zone 5

See also

• Hardiness zone
• Winter sowing

Winter Garden

References

External links

Underneath the arches The Guardian on Sheffield's public winter garden

Horticulture and gardening Gardening History Design computer-aided Garden tool Green wall Arboretum Allotment Butterfly Community Forest French intensive Guerrilla Garden Historic conservation Landscape Native Parterre Raised bed Square foot Sustainable Xeriscaping Types of gardens Back Biblical Botanical Butterfly zoo Byzantine Color Container Cottage Cactus Chinese Dutch English Fernery Floating Flower French formal landscape Renaissance Front Greek Greenhouse Hanging Islamic Italian Japanese Kitchen Knot Korean Market Mary Mughal Orangery Orchard Persian Bagh Charbagh Paradise Philosophical Pleasure Roman Spanish Rain Rose Roof Sacred Sculpture Sensory Shade Therapeutic Trial Tropical Victory Vineyard Walled Water Wildlife Winter Zen Zoological Horticulture Agriculture stock-free sustainable urban Arboriculture Botany Companion planting Crop most valuable Flora Floriculture Fruticulture Genetically modified tree Hydroculture Indigenous Intercropping Landscape architecture Oenology Olericulture Plant breeding propagation Pomology Postharvest physiology Tropical Urban agriculture horticulture forestry reforestation Viticulture Organic Biodynamic agriculture List of organic gardening and farming topics Vegan organic gardening Plant protection Fungicide Herbicide Index of pesticide articles List of fungicides Pesticide Plant disease forecasting Weed control Agriculture and Agronomy portal Gardening portal Commons