**You could say** Laurie Beckerman makes the most of winter. The Toronto-based design consultant and mother of three just can’t reconcile herself to the still, quiet season. While she admires the serenity of her snowy space over the breakfast table every morning, she’s impatient for the ever-evolving vibrancy of the rest
of the year.
To help make the most of Canada’s quiescent months, Beckerman had her long, narrow garden designed three years ago with wintertime in mind. The lone pine tree had to stay so she could weave a magical web of white lights around it. Boxwoods had to be planted, because they provide texture, structure, greenery and “life,” as Beckerman puts it, in an otherwise blank, flat landscape. As it happens, her penchant for a clean and tidy look translates beautifully in the winter—the snow-coated pea gravel blends into gleaming white entranceways to create a pure floor-to-fence canvas.
Come first snowfall, Beckerman applies the same philosophy to decorating as she does spring plantings; never more than a few types or colours. Her winter accents are all-natural, neutral enough to provide a seasonal tonality that doesn’t scream “deck the halls,” and ideally located to highlight and contrast architectural elements such as doorways. “I really try to be creative. It never looks the same from one winter to the next.” You could say Beckerman’s way of coping with Old Man Winter is to apply her gardening energies in creative decorations. And, of course, when true gardening urges strike, there’s always spring planning to contemplate—all the better to do so looking out
on a calming scene.
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