Need help sprucing up your winter landscape? Give these ideas a shot.

Keep your eyes open the next time you’re out and about.

You’ll notice that some landscapes shine even in wintertime. Just because most of your plants are dormant, that doesn’t mean that your gardens are destined to be drab and dreary.

I’ve put together some tips to help you stir in the sparkle in this and future winters. See if these don’t look like a match with the good-looking landscapes around you.

Mow your lawn

You’ll keep newly fallen leaves picked up, and you’ll be removing weeds at the same time. It won’t take very long because there isn’t a great deal to mow, but you’ll be amazed at how much better it will make things look. And don’t just blow fallen leaves and clippings out into the street or alley. Pick them up with your mower’s bag and either put them into the compost pile or use them as a mulch beneath shrubs or over perennials.

Consider over-seeding with ryegrass next year

It’s too late to do this this winter. You want to use perennial ryegrass because it’s more attractive and more easily kept than annual rye, and you want to sow it in late September or sometime in October. Check your city regulations, however. A few cities feel that ryegrass requires more water than we ought to be using in winter. Other than the first watering or two to get it started, I disagree and have shown the proof from my own landscape in my electronic newsletter several times. St. Augustine, bermuda and zoysia all need to be irrigated during dry spells in winter. What ryegrass would need in the winter is no more than what you might give those permanent grasses in winter dry spells.

Rake out a fresh layer of mulch

Cover the ground in your shrub plantings and flowerbeds going into the winter. That will make things look tidy and loved. In the process, the mulch will also slow development of weeds, moderate rates of temperature change in the plants’ root zones and slow the rate of the soil’s drying in winter.

Spot a few pots of color

Pansies, pinks, cabbage and kale in pots look great in the cold, and unless lows start to set records, those plants will make it through with flying colors. Place large, decorative pots near your entryway and outside the back door on the patio. You’ll love the look that they’ll give. As winter winds down, add in frost-tolerant annuals such as petunias, sweet alyssum, nasturtiums and larkspurs to get an early start on spring. Include a massed planting of pre-chilled tulips in a large, low pot for an added good look as well. Oh, such beauty you can add in a hurry.

Plant berrying shrubs strategically

Nothing perks up a shrub bed any better than bright red holly berries from December into early March when the birds finally harvest them for you. Some of the most reliable types: dwarf Burford, yaupon (female selections), Willowleaf (also known as Needlepoint), Nellie R. Stevens, and the best of them all, Warren’s Red possumhaw holly. Nandinas also cover themselves with brightly colored fruit in the winter. The best of those include standard nandinas and the slightly shorter type called ‘Compacta.’

Plants with colorful winter foliage

We just mentioned nandinas. They get chosen again here – top of this list. Their leaves turn all shades of red, purple, orange and green when it’s cold. Purple wintercreeper euonymus makes a stunning groundcover, and cleyeras and several types of our junipers turn a plum color after the first hard freeze in late fall.

Capitalize on winter bark character

When I first heard someone talking about a plant having beautiful bark I thought they’d taken leave of their mind. But I was a teenager then, and I soon found that it was I that was in need of more schooling. You can’t ignore the beauty of crape myrtle trunks when they’ve lost all their bark and they glisten in shades of honey-gold or cinnamon orange. Sycamores may not be our most dependable shade trees, but no tree that we grow has any more beautiful trunks. And the bark character of our native bur oaks and persimmons is second to none. Surprise yourself. See the beauty in bark.

Invite birds to your gardens

These may be one of the best parts of the winter. We have several dozens species that inhabit our gardens. Many blow into town with the cold winter winds. They come in hungry, and those of us who have feeders get to enjoy them. Buy yourself a really good feeder. Hang it where squirrels, raccoons and possums won’t be able to bother it. Fill it with the small, black, oil-type sunflower seeds, and prepare to watch goldfinches, titmice, Carolina wrens, Chickadees, nuthatches, Cardinals and even a few comedic woodpeckers work themselves into a frenzy as they line up to dine. It’s a great way to celebrate winter with a child or grandchild.

You can hear Neil Sperry on KLIF 570AM on Saturday afternoons 1-3 pm and on WBAP 820AM Sunday mornings 8-10 am. Join him at www.neilsperry.com and follow him on Facebook.

This story was originally published December 13, 2019 at 5:30 AM.