Our home gardens are often designed for the warm growing season, overlooking the potential of a stunning winter garden with snow-capped seed heads and hints of green to remind us of the abundance of life to soon spring forth. In this short course, attendees learned about the wildlife value of keeping their plant stalks standing in the winter and which native plants are best as a winter highlight in their home gardens. Participants practiced skills acquired in the course, on the Homefields property.

Elyse Jurgen is a certified Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professional and Permaculture Designer. She holds a Master’s Degree in Environmental Education and a Civic Ecology certification from Cornell University. She has studied ecological landscape design at Mount Cuba and has studied with Claudia West and Danilo Maffei. She is an artist in residence with the PA Council on the arts and teaches urban schoolyard habitat design in schools. Elyse works with homeowners to incorporate native plants restoration in home landscapes.