It’s December and we’re thinking about hanging wreaths, boughs of evergreens, and the most perfect pyramid shaped Fraser Fir.

While you are decorating for the holidays, think about permanent evergreens in the kitchen garden to give shape and order. You will create winter beauty and a backdrop for spring and summer flowers, herbs, and vegetables.

Now is a good time to evaluate the structure of your kitchen garden: in the middle of winter, when the trellises are bare, the beds are clean, and the perennials have died back. Glance out the window at your garden—well, what was a garden when you had glowing zinnias, huge tomato vines, and abundant zucchini. Does it look like an outdoor room with a clear boundary? Are there elements that make it attractive? Is there winter color?

Adding Evergreens to the Kitchen Garden

Evergreens stay green all year to add structure and color to the garden when nothing else is growing. Villandry, one of the most famous kitchen gardens in the world, uses boxwood in just this way.

A petite boxwood hedge surrounds each geometrical raised bed. The boxwood edging is trimmed and kept less than a foot high and wide so that flowers and vegetables have room to flourish. Boxwood becomes the frame for the bountiful and chaotic colorful leeks, basil, or cabbage. In the winter, the frame becomes the attraction by creating architectural interest. Buxus Green Gem is a variety that grows two feet high and wide, but can be kept trimmed for a smaller hedge.

Evergreens can be used to punctuate spaces in the garden. I just finished a design for a client that wanted a large formal garden. We placed a 3-round English boxwood at each corner of the brick rectangular walkway. Even this small amount of green will provide interest when annuals and perennials have died back in the winter. The evergreens also will look good in the middle of summer, becoming a consistent green anchor in the middle of profuse and overflowing buds and blooms.

Boxwood can be used to edge a walkway or surround the garden like a green wall. Keep the hedge about three feet high for a living fence that provides visual enclosure but doesn’t feel too confining.

As you admire your decorated evergreens inside this winter, consider adding evergreens outside to your kitchen garden. Spring and new planting adventures will be here soon.